THE DECADE OF THE USER
Not too many years ago, computers were quietly confined to the basements of large office buildings, and few people were concerned with them. Today computers have escaped from the basement and sit on desks in almost every office. Indeed, the common ground for all students in introductory data processing classes today is that they will be system users. All components of an information system are presented, including the traditional topics of hardware, programs and data as well as two other vital topics recommended in model curricula prepared by data processing professionals. The roles of the people who interact with the system (both nontechnical users and system specialists) and the procedures needed by these system users.
In recent years, computers have appeared in all types of working situations and in almost all types of recreation. Magazines for people who own personal computers advertise products that do a wide variety of things, such as calculating income tax, calling the police if a burglar breaks in, keeping records for a personal wine cellar, re fighting the battle of Waterloo, conducting literary research, or even pretending to repel invaders from space. The amount of computing power that cost one million dollars and filled an entire room in 1950 can now be purchased for less than ten dollars — and it will fit on your thumbnail!
As the hardware improved, computer specialists turned their attention to producing systems that could be used by people with little or no technical background. Although computers were a great improvement over older mechanised data processing equipment, in the 1950’s they were expensive and difficult to use. Since then, almost unbelievable advances have taken place in the computer science field. Unfortunately, many people have the outdated idea that computers are complicated and difficult to use. Of course, computers can be used on many levels, as can many other machines. But for every engineer, metallurgist, or mechanic, there are thousands of drivers; and for every computer scientist or analyst, there are thousands of users.
Users are the people who use the computer as a tool. They are not concerned with designing the computer or writing programs for it — they only need to know a few procedures and to be familiar with the devices that are used to give information to the computer. If you work for a living, you will almost certainly use a computer to help you in your daily tasks, whether you are an engineer, a musician, a homemaker, a lawyer, a factory worker, or an artist. Even if you become a computer specialist and build or program computers you will also use them as tools in your work, and in your daily life.
The most human of all activities, creative thinking, can also make use of computers, as tools. Artists, for instance, can use computers to help them with one of their most difficult tasks — — design. If artists have a computer with a colour actually “draw” a picture on the surface of the television tube, using a device which looks like a ballpoint pen but is actually an electronic input device called a light pen. When they have a pleasing design, they can save a copy of it in the computer memory. When the design is complete, the artists can still work with different colour combinations. Musicians, too, can use computers as tools in composition.
Writers routinely use word processing computers instead of typewriters. In all of the examples above, as well as in the thousands of other uses of computers ranging from space exploration to playing video games, the computer is a tool for its user. Although computers are powerful tools that can relieve us of a great deal of time-consuming, boring work, it is the human who must direct the computer, the human who must supply the creativity and the human who must judge the value of the completed work — — whether it is a painting, a sonata, a poem or a piece of information. Humans are the users.
