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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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