Re: Can software have human attributes?
Here's one source, Bruce:
...natural language interfaces have in the past led users to anthropomorphize the computer, or at least to attribute more intelligence than is warranted to it. This leads to unrealistic expectations of the capabilities of the system on the part of the user. Such expectations will make it difficult to learn the restrictions of the system if they attribute to much capability to it, and they will lead to disappointment when the system fails to perform as expected (Dix et. al., 1993, Mayhew, 1992 and particularly Shneiderman, 1992).
from: Natural Language as an Interface Style
Byron Long, byron -at- dgp -dot- utoronto -dot- ca
Dynamic Graphics Project
Department of Computer Science
University of Toronto
Actually, I was thinking of grammatical and communication reasons.
However, I would question the validity of this conclusion, even before reading more about it.
Judging from the copyright, this conclusion is based on research done nine to eleven years ago. I wasn't a tech writer back then, but, judging by how the knowledge of casual users has developed in the six or seven years that I have been in the field, I seriously doubt that this is a serious consideration any more. Computers have become such an accepted part of people's everyday lives that very few are likely to have an exaggerated sense of their capacity.
Moreover, when something does go wrong, inexperienced users are far more likely to blame themselves than the computer - any usability testing will tell you that.
Possibly, these findings would still hold for someone who had never used a computer in their lives, but that's an increasingly small segment of a writer's audience these days.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"For this land that you leave has had too many martyrs,
Too many people who've perished in vain,
Too many ships slipping out of the harbours,
With cargoes that never came homeward again.
-Battlefield Band, "The Green and the Blue"
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