Please dial a 1 before this number
The hottest topic in computer security these days is usability. People are finally beginning to understand that it does not matter how good a security scheme is if people refuse to use it. Telephone companies have known this for years which is why it is perhaps a good idea to take a look at how user-unfriendly the telephone system has become of late.
When a call comes in on my home number the caller ID shows the number that called XXX-XXX-XXXX. But if I try to call the number back an automatic voice tells me 'you must first dial a one'. How's this for an idea, instead of telling me to dial a one why not just connect me to the right number since you know what it is?
In my area every number has to be dialed using ten digit dialing and as I have VOIP service the same carrier handles the call regardless of how it is dialled. So why exactly do I have to dial a 1 in front of the number?
The problem becomes even worse when trying to cope with international dialing. In the UK the international dialing prefix is 00. In the US it is 011. But when you call the UK from the US you must remember not to dial the first zero of the area code or you will get a stupid voice telling you to redial without dialing the zero. Got that?
There are no doubt good engineering reasons for this behavior but that does not excuse the treatment of the customer. A computer system should know its place, it must act as an obedient servant, not a jobsworth bureaucrat.
And that sounds like a pretty good principle to apply to computer security systems as well. There are simply too many dialog boxes that are thrown in front of the user because that was easier for the engineer to do than to solve the problem they report.
Comments
Call management system as 'bureaucrat', what a great analogy! Brilliant! And it's funny because it's true.
Posted by: Jeff Pettorino | December 6, 2006 2:37 PM