ABSTRACT
The user interface influences which objects and subjects focused our actions on while applying the artifact: the computer as a collection of buttons, the artifact as an object, other objects such as text documents, and so on. Shifts with focus on the artifact occur in breakdown situations where the focus is already on the artifact as an object. They occur as further breakdowns because the computer doesn’t behave the way it is expected to or when recovering from a more or less total breakdown back to the computer application. According to Dreyfus and Dreyfus, the expert has operationalized the switch between different operations. This chapter uses the human activity approach to compare the user interfaces of two document preparation applications or text editors: MacWrite and Microsoft WORD. The idea of Thesen and Beringer was that ‘friendliness’ reflects the design of the software/hardware, the education, and the background of the user at the time of the dialogue.
