Her Code Got Humans on the Moon- And Invented Software itself
This article gave a look into how one of the largest industries now, software engineering, came to be. At the time the article was talking about, smartphones, laptops were not a part of the conversation, the smallest computing device even remotely close to the processing power of our smartphones was a 70-pound “portable” computer aboard the Apollo spacecrafts. I was unaware that a woman had such a footing in the development of the initial stages of software, being that men make up most of the industry now. It was very interesting to learn how software played a part in helping the US win the arms race to the moon. The description of hardwiring “RAM” showed just how far we have come since then in terms of computing.
Emotions & Design: Attractive things work better
The author, Norman’s message in this article is the importance of balance between usability and aesthetic. Although he makes it clear that most of the time, the aesthetic doesn’t have any practical benefits, for example, the introduction of color displays. The displays didn’t make tasks any easier, however, the emotions he felt from a color display said other wise. When it comes to creating projects in IM, I believe we should focus on usability foremost, however, aesthetic is definitely not something we should ignore. Although it may not have much impact on performance or at all, humans are emotional creatures, we not only care about the useful ness of something, but also how good it looks, if it invokes our emotions, it could be deemed as better.