ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the way computers in the workplace affect human-machine and human-human communication. Most people have experienced the blank screen of a computer, a screen that gives no indication of what the user should do. Donald Norman, who has studied human interaction with machines in general, says that the computer is especially vulnerable to poor design because its abstract nature amplifies all the usual problems found in the design of technology. Leaving aside issues of quality and of human alienation, such rationalization usually did produce more products in manufacturing industries – more cars, more cans, more computer chips -at lower prices. Many executives use the computer as a wordprocessor and communication vehicle; few use it to access information and support their decision making. At the other end of the scale are jobs that require literacy and understanding of the relationship between the computer and the product.
