Alertbox - Usability Bloopers in the Movies

In his Alertbox of 18 December 2006, Doctor Jakob Nielson decided to have a little bit of fun and compiled a list of the top ten usability mistakes in the movies:

The Hero Can Use Any Interface – Almost no computer interfaces these days are ‘walk up and use.’ It takes even advanced users much longer than a minute to get the hang of a new system, especially when it’s in a foreign country or even an alien interface.
Time Travelers Can Use Current Designs – People coming from the past wouldn’t have a clue how to operate a computer system. They might get lucky enough to figure out how to turn it on, but using its applications is an entire other matter.
The 3D UI – Computer systems with three dimensional interfaces have been featured in movies for ages, but their chances of becoming part of an operational system in the near future is slim. Systems just aren’t advanced to accept them as one of their primary input sources yet.
Integration is Easy – Despite how easy it might look on shows like 24, connecting different kinds of computers and then transferring data between them is no easy feat, and certainly not a click away.
Access Denied/Access Granted – A good interface isn’t going to take you to a special screen to let you know that you typed your password correctly.
Big Fonts – In contrast to the large and readable computer fonts you see on the big screen, many of us suffer from trying to read the many sites with unchangeable tiny text.
Star Trek’s Talking Computer – A talking computer is right up there with a 3d interface in its likelihood of being implemented soon. Providing a computer with only your voice often won’t give it enough data to accomplish the task you want it to.
Remote Manipulators – There’s a reason we give things the amount of controls that we do. It’d be impossible to successfully drive a car from a cell phone as we’ve seen in some movies, because the complexity of the car’s controls, most notably the steering wheel, wouldn’t translate to the few buttons on the cell phone’s keypad.
You’ve Got Mail – Getting to that e-mail that you want is never as easy as it is in the movies, you have to wade through the swamp of spam, special offers, and other junk mail to get to it first.
This is Unix, It’s Easy – Besides the fact that Unix is horribly complicated, simply knowing the system wouldn’t be enough to use applications on it.

In the end, usability mistakes don’t amount to much, but they do tend to turn research towards them even though they’re unlikely to be accomplished. Also, they make less experienced computer users develop a sense of inadequacy when they can’t use a system, because someone on TV or the movies could use it with no problem.

As for myself, I’m kinda disappointed I’ll never get that talking computer.