The Pleasure Principle

Unfortunately, computers do not always provide an unmixed increase in pleasure. Recent evidence suggests, contrary to what one might hope or suppose, that the computerization of the modern workplace has actually led to declines in productivity. Negative impacts are likely due, at least in part, to systems' user-unfriendliness and outright user hostility: Rapid change in software, incompatibility of various hardware and software systems, poor software and interface design, weak documentation and help support, and so on. Many computer systems require the devotion of effort to create work-arounds and kludges. All such features make both individual workers and teams of workers feel less effective, and perceived self-efficacy is a critical facto in job satisfaction, motivation, and morale. Human-centered systems must leverage the intrinsic motivation of domain practitioners, especially that intrinsic motivation that is definitive of expertise. The authors discuss several examples, including the Next-Generation Weather Radar system.