Re: [Usability] Civilised user interfaces

[Nadyne Mielke <nmielke acm org>]

At 08:20 AM 8/26/2004, Calum Benson wrote:

> Without having read the paper, I'd also be somewhat wary, given that a
> game was used for the study.  When you're playing a game against (or
> even just with the aid of) a computer, human-like interactions are
> inevitably going to be more acceptable, because gameplaying is generally
> a social activity, and the computer is usually trying to simulate the
> role of one or more other people.  I'd expect rather different results
> had they tested with accountants using spreadsheets, for example.

And what of something more mission-critical?  A DBA working at a bank with 
millions of transactions per second probably isn't going to be pleased if 
his database crashes and apologises to him for the crash.  I wonder if some 
users would see it as the developer of the software wasting time instead of 
making their product actually work properly.

I wonder what sorts of software such behaviour would be seen as acceptable, 
and if the user makes a difference.  If a DBA is playing a game and 
something goes wrong, will their reaction to a built-in apology be any 
different than a high school kid?  Will an experienced user be more willing 
to accept an apology from something if it's not viewed as 'important' 
(whatever that might be)?

/nm