Designing to seduce the user

Traditionally, human factors specialists have had a rather severe attitude toward human performance with computers: their goal was maximum throughput, often measured in transactions per minute. This attitude was justified when computers were mainly work-related; in some cases it still proves wise. For example, a usability improvement that shaves one second off the time it takes a directory-assistance operator to search a database for a telephone number saves several million dollars per year in the US alone. This performance-obsessed approach to usability led many early user interface experts to condemn the popular term "user friendly" with the argument that users didn't need "friendly" computers, they needed efficient designs that let them complete their tasks faster.