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Cover Quote: September 1995

The real problem is simple enough: the systems are not simple enough. They are too complex, have far too many features, give the user far too many options. Almost all users use their computer for only a few operations. Nevertheless, their machines and minds are loaded up with a vast junk pile of options, commands, facilities, doodads, and buttons, most of them superfluous to the user and there just because somebody knew how to program it. Having this mountain of stuff available usually means that doing even the simplest operation can be extraordinarily difficult. It’s like trying to turn on the intercom in a jumbo jet cockpit. If the intercom switch were the only one available, any child over two could do it. But finding it among the hundreds of switches and lights and dials in the cockpit is no easy matter.



- Thomas K. Landauer
The Trouble with Computers, 1995
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