June 11, 2008 at 23:30Usability as an interface between the halves of the brain
Microsoft filed patent application 2008/134132 , which describes the method of "Developing Software Components Based on Brain Lateralization" ("Development of software components based on the lateralization of the brain"), reports Ars Technica.
The application describes the process of ensuring the quality of software development (Perform Quality Assurance). Microsoft used a scheme in which development engineers were likened to elements of the left hemisphere of the brain responsible for analytical thinking and sequential processing of information, and end users of software were compared to elements of the right hemisphere responsible for imagination, fantasy and parallel processing of data. Between them, as conceived by the authors of the patent application, there should be specialists able to “decrypt” and transfer information coming from one “hemisphere” to another, which should improve the quality of feedback and the software being created.
It seems to me that these same “experts” are none other than usability specialists. Or, at a minimum, they make up a significant part of this “brain layer”.
The application describes the process of ensuring the quality of software development (Perform Quality Assurance). Microsoft used a scheme in which development engineers were likened to elements of the left hemisphere of the brain responsible for analytical thinking and sequential processing of information, and end users of software were compared to elements of the right hemisphere responsible for imagination, fantasy and parallel processing of data. Between them, as conceived by the authors of the patent application, there should be specialists able to “decrypt” and transfer information coming from one “hemisphere” to another, which should improve the quality of feedback and the software being created.
It seems to me that these same “experts” are none other than usability specialists. Or, at a minimum, they make up a significant part of this “brain layer”.