MSGID: 1:317/3 649e5a84   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    We are wasting up to 20 percent of our time on computer problems    
    Even though our computers are now better than 15 years ago, they still   
   malfunction between 11 and 20 per cent of the time    
      
     Date:   
         June 29, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science   
     Summary:   
         Even though our computers are now better than 15 years ago, they   
         still malfunction between 11 and 20 per cent of the time, a new   
         study concludes. The researchers behind the study therefore find   
         that there are major gains to be achieved for society by rethinking   
         the systems and involving users more in their development.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
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   Even though our computers are now better than 15 years ago, they still   
   malfunction between 11 and 20 per cent of the time, a new study from   
   the University of Copenhagen and Roskilde University concludes. The   
   researchers behind the study therefore find that there are major gains   
   to be achieved for society by rethinking the systems and involving users   
   more in their development.   
      
   An endlessly rotating beach ball, a program that crashes without   
   saving data or systems that require illogical procedures or simply do   
   not work. Unfortunately, struggling with computers is still a familiar   
   situation for most of us. Tearing your hair out over computers that do not   
   work remains very common among users, according to new Danish research.   
      
   In fact, so much that, on average, we waste between 11 and 20 per cent   
   of our time in front of our computers on systems that do not work or   
   that are so difficult to understand that we cannot perform the task we   
   want to. And this is far from being good enough, says Professor Kasper   
   Hornbaek, one of the researchers behind the study.   
      
   "It's incredible that the figure is so high. However, most people   
   experience frustration when using computers and can tell a horror story   
   about an important PowerPoint presentation that was not saved or a system   
   that crashed at a critical moment. Everyone knows that it is difficult   
   to create IT systems that match people's needs, but the figure should be   
   much lower, and one thing that it shows is that ordinary people aren't   
   involved enough when the systems are developed," he says.   
      
   Professor Morten Hertzum, the other researcher behind the study,   
   emphasises that most frustrations are experienced in connection with   
   the performance of completely ordinary tasks.   
      
   "The frustrations are not due to people using their computers for   
   something highly advanced, but because they experience problems in their   
   performance of everyday tasks. This makes it easier to involve users in   
   identifying problems.   
      
   But it also means that problems that are not identified and solved will   
   probably frustrate a large number of users," says Morten Hertzum.   
      
   The problems are only too recognisable To examine this issue, the   
   researchers have been assisted by 234 participants who spend between   
   six and eight hours in front of a computer in their day-to- day work.   
      
   In one hour, the researchers told them to report the situations in which   
   the computer would not work properly, or where the participants were   
   frustrated about not being able to perform the task they wanted.   
      
   The problems most often experienced by the participants included that:   
   "the system was slow," "the system froze temporarily," "the system   
   crashed," "it is difficult to find things." The participants had   
   backgrounds such as student, accountant, consultant, but several of them   
   actually worked in the IT industry.   
      
   "A number of the participants in the survey were IT professionals,   
   while most of the other participants were highly competent IT and   
   computer users.   
      
   Nevertheless, they encountered these problems, and it turns out that   
   this involves some fundamental functions," says Kasper Hornbaek.   
      
   The participants in the survey also responded that 84 per cent of the   
   episodes had occurred before and that 87 per cent of the episodes could   
   happen again.   
      
   And, according to Kasper Hornbaek, we are having the same fundamental   
   problems today that we had 15-20 years ago.   
      
   "The two biggest categories of problems are still about insufficient   
   performance and lack of user-friendliness," he says.   
      
   Morten Hertzum adds: "Our technology can do more today, and it has also   
   become better, but, at the same time, we expect more from it. Even   
   though downloads are faster now, they are often still experienced as   
   frustratingly slow. " 88 per cent use a computer at work According   
   to Statistics Denmark, 88 per cent of Danes used computers, laptops,   
   smartphones, tablets or other mobile devices at work in 2018. In this   
   context, the new study indicates that a half to a whole day of a normal   
   working week may be wasted on computer problems.   
      
   "There is a lot of productivity lost in workplaces throughout Denmark   
   because people are unable to perform their ordinary work because the   
   computer is not running as it should. It also causes a lot of frustrations   
   for the individual user," says Kasper Hornbaek.   
      
   This means that there are major benefits to be gained for society if we   
   experienced fewer problems in front of our computers. According to Kasper   
   Hornbaek, the gains can, for example, be achieved if more resources are   
   invested in rethinking how faults are presented to us on the computer.   
      
   "Part of the solution may be to shield us from knowing that the computer   
   is working to solve a problem. In reality, there is no reason why we need   
   to look at an incomprehensible box with commands or a frozen computer. The   
   computer could easily solve the problems without displaying this, while   
   it provided a back-up version of the system for us, so that we could   
   continue to work with our tasks undisturbed," says Kasper Hornbaek.   
      
   At the same time, IT developers should involve the users even more when   
   designing the systems to make them as easy to use -- and understand --   
   as possible. For, according to the researcher, there are no poor IT users,   
   only poor systems.   
      
   "When we're all surrounded by IT systems that we're cursing, it's very   
   healthy to ascertain that it's probably not the users that are the   
   problem, but those who make the systems. The study clearly shows that   
   there is still much room for improvement, and we therefore hope that it   
   can create more focus on making more user-friendly systems in the future,"   
   concludes Kasper Hornbaek.   
      
   Facts:   
       * 234 participants, aged 10-69, participated in the survey.   
      
       * The majority of the participants spent between 6-8 hours a day   
       in front   
         of a computer.   
      
       * The participants reported an average of one computer problem or   
         frustration per hour.   
      
       * The participants in the survey also responded that 84 per cent   
       of the   
         episodes had occurred before and that 87 per cent of the episodes   
         could happen again.   
      
       * A large part of the problems concerned slow systems, systems that   
       did not   
         respond or crashed.   
      
       * The researchers have created a new version of a previous study   
       conducted   
         15 years ago, which showed that the participants wasted as much   
         as 40-50 per cent of their time on frustrations about the computer.   
      
       * The study has been conducted by Morten Hertzum from Roskilde   
       University   
         and Kasper Hornbaek from the University of Copenhagen.   
      
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Computers_&_Math   
                   # Computer_Science # Distributed_Computing #   
                   Artificial_Intelligence # Communications #   
                   Information_Technology # Computers_and_Internet #   
                   Neural_Interfaces # Computer_Programming   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Algebraic_geometry o Supercomputer o Quantum_computer   
             o Mathematics o Economic_growth o Macroeconomics o   
             Information_and_communication_technologies o Computer_animation   
      
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   Story Source: Materials provided by   
   University_of_Copenhagen_-_Faculty_of_Science. Note: Content may be   
   edited for style and length.   
      
      
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   Journal Reference:   
      1. Morten Hertzum, Kasper Hornbaek. Frustration: Still a Common User   
         Experience. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2023;   
         30 (3): 1 DOI: 10.1145/3582432   
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   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230629125723.htm   
      
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