Asri-unix.1292
net.works
utzoo!decvax!cca!ROSSID@Wharton-10@sri-unix
Thu Apr 22 19:19:59 1982
Workstations as Furniture & Ramblings
From: ROSSID at Wharton-10 (David Rossien)
Having spent the past several days on several workstations (I don't
have my own Star, but rather a Datapoint, so when I need a Star I
have to use someone else's... each person configures their furniture
differently, so I have had some problems) I have the following comments
about workstations as furniture:

   IF people followed basic ergonomics and furniture design, like
   allowing plenty of room for the mouse (Star specific, but fill in
   whatever you want), plenty of room for papers next to the workstation,
   realized that desk height is not good for typing (something which
   any secretary knows, and secretary's desks are built with that in
   mind), THEN there would be know need for workstations as furniture,
   and in fact I would not be for it, because I might want mine arranged
   differently than would be provided (for lefties, for instance).

   However, people don't seem smart enough to know all that, and therefore
   their attempts at placement of workstations stinks.  Personally
   I figure they deserve it, but when I have to work at a workstation
   they designed (or more often didn't design) I can't stand it!

There are companies, like Steelcase, which make generic workstation desks
which work fine. .. but they are EXPENSIVE (I have one for my Datapoint).
Also, they can't handle certain specific peripheral like RIMs (Datapoint
network access boxes), file servers, etc.

There are people who feel workstations will never get on the executive's
desks till they are available in walnut grain... I am not sure they really
ought to be on the executive's desk in the first place (executive means
the HEAD people, not "managers"), and if we are dealing with a smart
enough executive he/she will take whatever given IF you can PROVE it
will HELP.

My boss is giving a presentation (that I'm writing for him) to
DP type managers and applications planners.  There are some topice
covered in the talk that I think are relevant to this Newletter.
He will say:

o       The interface to mainframes will alter from terminals
       to multifunction workstations.

o       This leads to many users who might at first used only a
       single application (like a database manager) take a broader
       view and start using many applications like word processing,
       graphics, electronic mail, etc.

o       Therefore, applications planners lives become more complex
       since its hard to judge resource requirements of new, naive,
       experimenting users, who are using computers to do their
       jobs, not for production runs.

o       Finally (and for this audience this is so revolutionary
       he isn't sure he's gonna say it yet), the DP functions of
       the computer (like database management, numerical calculations,
       modeling, etc.) will occupy only a teeny fraction (say 10-20%)
       of the usage of the workstation... office functions like
       storage/retrieval, word processing, mail, activity management
       (personal calendars, etc.) will be what users user most.  We
       Have found, forinstance, that the most used programs, by
       an order of magnitude, are that text editors on our DEC,
       not the compilers, etc.

       -Dave


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