Posting Date: July 30, 2003

Nielsen Spoof -- "Users get lost driving CARS, which are typically big, linear hunks of metal that are optimized for parking (they seem to fit well into those outlined areas found on side-streets and parking lots), but are unpleasant to drive and navigate on highways, toll-roads, and dirt paths. CARS are good for parking (teenagers take note), but that's it. Don't use them for driving ... ever." (Comments: Thanks Gabriel White.)

Reader Comments...

Why is no one commenting on Webword these days?

Posted by: I am who I am on July 30, 2003 11:14 AM

It’s quite funny as long as you avoid considering the analogy being made. If anyone were to consider roads and cars as good metaphors for structuring and navigating online information…well, I hope nobody actually does.

Posted by: Arne Gleason on July 30, 2003 11:41 AM

"Why is no one commenting on Webword these days?"

Don't want to encourage posts such as these. Doh!

Posted by: Ron Zeno on July 30, 2003 11:49 PM

You know, as funny as this is, it's actually true. Cars DO suck. They're annoying, slow, polluting, expensive, there are way too many of them everywhere... In over 100 years we haven't made the next jump beyond the creaky old internal-combustion engine for efficient mid-range travel? It's kind of pathetic, when you think about it.

And the usability really IS poor; that's why you need Driver's Ed and all those driver instruction schools. Nothing intuitive about the operation at all; we simply get better at it through experience and repeated exposure, and even then, the system doesn't give us what we need (automatic obstacle avoidance, for example) or react as quickly as we'd like (instant stop, total steering control without skidding). It's amazing that we have as few lethal accidents as we do... and we have a LOT of lethal accidents.

Posted by: Brian Curtis on August 1, 2003 08:08 AM

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