The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity

By Thomas K. Landauer

Book Overview

Despite enormous investments in computers since the 1970s, productivity in the very service industries at which they were aimed virtually stagnated everywhere in the world. If computers are not making businesses, organizations, or countries more productive, then why are we spending so much time and money on them? Cutting through a raft of technical data, Thomas Landauer explains and illustrates why computers are in trouble and why massive outlays for computing since 1973 have not resulted in comparable productivity payoffs. Citing some of his own successful research programs, as well as many others, Landauer offers solutions to the problems he describes.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262121867
• ISBN13: 9780262121866
• Release Date: April 1995
• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

a book to give away

I read this book for the first time 5 years ago. I worked at a telecom company and everything he wrote on the paradox of IT investments not returning any money is 100 % true. So I bought 20 copies of the book and gave them to upper management. Needless to say it didn't really help.

Still true today

Despite the claims of other reviewers, the evidence that the situation described in Landauer's book has improved since the surge in the internet and its sub-technologies (e.g., the Web) is absent. I'd refer the interested reader to a recent article in the New Yorker entitled "The Productivity Mirage" (J. Cassidy) to see some interesting numbers that bear on this question.It's not that IT investment doesn't result in productivity gains for some individuals, but that there's little evidence that it does much for most organizations as a whole. This is a point critics often miss, because most critics are computer-savvy and subjectively feel like they're more productive as a result of their computer use. Most of the problems outlined by Landauer still plague current information systems. This book is a must-read for anyone serious about user interface or IT productivity.

Debunks the myth that computers always improve things.

Landauer has good credentials to be talking about what's wrong with computers. He talks about the two main phases in computer history: 1)The 50s and 60s where bookkeepers were replaced in great numbers and 2) The 70s and 80s when word processors and spreadsheets came of age. He says that the productivity improvements in the first phase are obvious, but the results from the 2nd are dubious in terms of economic gain. He does point to a few big recent successes such as the communications industry. This book came out just before the Web became big, however. Landauer describes software testing methods in detail and believes better testing could make the difference in current software user productivity. He includes lots of memorable statements, at least to programmer types. He mentions that nowadays many people do things with computers simply because they can, not because it makes sense. He also points out how people pump money into PCs getting them to do things badly, which are easy and cheap to do by other means, just because they are so amazed a computer can do them.

A must read for any developer or IS person

In a relatively short book, Mr. Landauer has brought to focus much of the ill-conceived notions of the computer industry as well as it's failings. For anyone who reads "trade rags" and wonders if it is at all realistic, one MUST read this book.It's filled with real-world examples, and true scientific research that brings home the points made in the book.To avoid the same pitfalls in your projects you should see what everyone else had done wrong

A most important book about computers and productivity

Why are computers so hard to use, and what is this costing us? Answering this question is the focus of Thomas Landauer's in-depth study of computers and productivity. If you are interesed in the economics of computing, software usability or the effect of computing on our nation's economic performance, this is a must-read book. It is not light reading, but it is well documented and worth the effort. (And the price is right!) Landauer, formerly head of Cognitive Research at Bellcore, is now a professor at the University of Colorado. I have posted a more detailed review of this book at: www.cognetics.com/cafe Lokk under "discussion papers". Charles B. Kreitzberg