[sdiy] Can your *really* teach "Engineering"?

[Barry Klein]

I wonder if any of you have tried any of the latest B&K power supplies
or LeCroy scopes....  Man, I am so tired of companies taking perfectly
logical easy to use interfaces and screwing them up.  An interface is not
good just because you can do a ton of things using the menu system.  It is
good if you can do the most critical things quickly and easily.  Doesn't
take an engineer to determine that but seems to take one to screw it up.

Barry


-----Original Message-----
From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Mark Rivera
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 10:20 AM
To: Synth DIY
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Can your *really* teach "Engineering"?

> No one should let engineers anywhere near a UI, because engineers never
have
> more fun than when they're solving problems, and the last thing you want
in
> a UI is a design optimised for solving engineering problems.

I think this is a mythology. Every good UI design is the result of
applying engineering principles, whether by an "engineer" or not. The
only thing that lacks in a UI failure is the consideration of all the
components of the system, one of which is a human. A good engineer (or
industrial designer, or UI designer, or graphic designer, etc) will be
able to see the whole system for what it is, and potentially, only the
engineer will have the knowledge to understand the impacts of trade
offs between the various aspects of the system as a whole.

Add to that the idea that like "designer", "engineer" is an empty word
these days. Personally I cringe at being called systems engineer or
software engineer, as the case may be, because I know that I have
neither taken nor passed an FE or PE.
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