How the design of a WWII plane led to the concept of user friendliness (2019)

Re:How the design of a WWII plane led to the concept of user... by qubex on Monday July 13, 2020 @04:09AM (#23818350)

I imagine that originally the tone-based warnings and alerts were easier to implement. As for the situation regarding cars, it’s probably due to the fact that these beepers etc are already approved, and verbal messages would require an audio system that is cued to whatever display language is chosen.

And you’d need to ensure it‘a compatible with the letter of every law and regulation whether you are marketing your vehicle.

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Re:How the design of a WWII plane led to the concept of user... by WalterBright on Monday July 13, 2020 @04:12AM (#23818378)

> that is cued to whatever display language is chosen.

I don't see any way a tone is better than a voice yelling at me in a language I don't understand.

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Re:How the design of a WWII plane led to the concept of user... by buran77 on Monday July 13, 2020 @05:30AM (#23818850)

Many oil refineries, chemical plants and the likes today use tone based sirens to warn of accidents and evacuations. Even as a visitor you are expected to carefully read the leaflet and be able to recognize the difference between tones that tell you whether you are in immediate danger and what you need to do next.

Perhaps the brain has an easier time distinguishing between a reasonable number of distinct simple tones rather than between complex words you do not understand and can more easily be confused. If you have to deal with 2-3 alarms then tones are pretty intuitive, reliable, and very simple to implement even with century old tech. If you have 50 critical alarms then you probably want them explicitly informative, words in your own language.

Today the need for complexity and the fact that we have advanced, reliable technology for alerts already made voice warnings standard especially in complex systems operated by well trained individuals (pilots on a plane).

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Re:How the design of a WWII plane led to the concept of user... by WalterBright on Monday July 13, 2020 @06:00AM (#23819034)

> very simple to implement even with century old tech

A loudspeaker is ancient technology and trivial.

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Re:How the design of a WWII plane led to the concept of user... by buran77 on Monday July 13, 2020 @08:02AM (#23819817)

For tones, yes. That's exactly what I meant. But armed just with loudspeaker tech you'd have quite some time trying to develop a reliable system with voice alerts, let alone dozens of them. This became possible in more recent times when playing voice recordings (or synthesize it) for dozens of types of alerts became technologically feasible and reliable enough to use in critical scenarios.

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