February 18, 1996

Chrysler & Usability Studies

Doesn't anyone who designs cars ever drive one?

When was the last time you wanted to have your headlights on when the keys were turned off? Never? Join the club!

So why design a car that lets you do something you never want to do, then punishes you if you accidentally do it? And to make it worse, why design a car that beeps or rings when you leave the lights on, but doesn't just take the next step and shut them off?

If we wrote software the way Detroit builds cars, your disk would get reformatted every time you forgot to save your file when you exited the program.