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That anecdote on user testing is a real screamer (p16). Who would have thunk the most difficult UX issue would be asking users if they're using a color monitor.

jacquesm 9y ago
Back in the days of the Apple IIe color monitors were extremely expensive. The first one I bought (A Sony KX14CP1) cost me almost as much as the computer it was connected to. Before then I used a small monochrome monitor (composite video). Color really wasn't something you could assume people had. late 80's is roughly when color started to be 'normal' (mostly driven by the IBM PC shipping with CGA since launch in '91) and people looked at you strangely if you still had monochrome. And even then, if you wanted high resolution chances were that you'd be looking at a monochrome display.
- imglorp 9y ago
  Plenty of us got by with color, but it was via an RF modulator to a little TV set.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Yes, hence the 'monitor' in italics, color monitors were expensive, color TVs were cheap (heck, you could find them at the garbage). Hacking color TVs to give them RGB inputs was another avenue, as was bypassing the modulator/demodulator step to push composite video straight into the TV at the right spot to get a crisper image.
  - nobleach 9y ago
    When I was a kid, I found out I could just send the composite output to the RCA input on the back of my Betamax... and then RF out to channel 3/4 on my color TV. I didn't even need to save the 13 bucks for the RF modulator from Nibble.
- redler 9y ago
  I had one of those green monochrome Apple monitors, complete with inset CRT that swiveled up or down a few degrees within the monitor case, driven by my 80-column-card-wielding ][e. I remember going to a friend's house to admire the exoticism of the "amberglow" display on his machine. Amber!
  - mch82 9y ago
    That's how I played King's Quest at home (or tried to... it was a little hard at that age). And some game with jousting and darts (may have been part of King's Quest).
    - bitwize 9y ago
      It was called Chivalry, and it was not part of King's Quest. It was like a board game and you had to roll the die or spin the wheel to advance a certain number of spaces. Each space you could land on had a different minigame.
- CamperBob2 9y ago
  And even then, if you wanted high resolution chances were that you'd be looking at a monochrome display. Yeah, it wasn't so much that the color monitors were expensive, but that they were terrible. I always kept my Monitor /// even when co-workers had color displays. The RGB monitors on the IIGS were great, though.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > (mostly driven by the IBM PC shipping with CGA since launch in '91) The PC was launched in 81, and the default display was monochrome text; 91 might have been the PS/2 with MCGA. Or maybe you meant to refer to the PCjr, which was bundled with a color display (better than CGA, IIRC) at launch. That was, IIRC, 1983.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    That was a typo, '91 should have been '81, and even if the default display was monochrome text CGA really was available from launch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter Seems to confirm it was available from the launch date and I distinctly remember a job for a company in Edam that had an early PC which had color graphics as well as one at a bank in Amsterdam that also did color (at very low resolution, but definitely color). By '91 we were well into 486's and high res color (but not using IBM cards, but VGA wonder and the various Tseng cards were doing just fine).
CamperBob2 9y ago
It's an amusing anecdote, but it's impossible to argue that the process they went through resulted in a better product. I don't want to use software that's designed for people who are too oblivious to know if they're using a color display, or designed by programmers who try everything besides asking the simple question, "Are you using a color display? Y/N" Also, as soon as participants start screwing with the process by lying to the program and/or the investigators, there is no longer any great likelihood that ordinary users will benefit. The correct solution is, of course, to design the program to look good on both color and monochrome displays, like almost everyone who ever developed games for the Apple II had to do. It was difficult to pull this off due to the interaction of the display hardware with archaic TV color standards, but it was part of the job.

jacquesm 9y ago

Back in the days of the Apple IIe color monitors were extremely expensive. The first one I bought (A Sony KX14CP1) cost me almost as much as the computer it was connected to. Before then I used a small monochrome monitor (composite video). Color really wasn't something you could assume people had. late 80's is roughly when color started to be 'normal' (mostly driven by the IBM PC shipping with CGA since launch in '91) and people looked at you strangely if you still had monochrome. And even then, if you wanted high resolution chances were that you'd be looking at a monochrome display.

imglorp 9y ago
Plenty of us got by with color, but it was via an RF modulator to a little TV set.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Yes, hence the 'monitor' in italics, color monitors were expensive, color TVs were cheap (heck, you could find them at the garbage). Hacking color TVs to give them RGB inputs was another avenue, as was bypassing the modulator/demodulator step to push composite video straight into the TV at the right spot to get a crisper image.
- nobleach 9y ago
  When I was a kid, I found out I could just send the composite output to the RCA input on the back of my Betamax... and then RF out to channel 3/4 on my color TV. I didn't even need to save the 13 bucks for the RF modulator from Nibble.
redler 9y ago
I had one of those green monochrome Apple monitors, complete with inset CRT that swiveled up or down a few degrees within the monitor case, driven by my 80-column-card-wielding ][e. I remember going to a friend's house to admire the exoticism of the "amberglow" display on his machine. Amber!
- mch82 9y ago
  That's how I played King's Quest at home (or tried to... it was a little hard at that age). And some game with jousting and darts (may have been part of King's Quest).
  - bitwize 9y ago
    It was called Chivalry, and it was not part of King's Quest. It was like a board game and you had to roll the die or spin the wheel to advance a certain number of spaces. Each space you could land on had a different minigame.
CamperBob2 9y ago
And even then, if you wanted high resolution chances were that you'd be looking at a monochrome display. Yeah, it wasn't so much that the color monitors were expensive, but that they were terrible. I always kept my Monitor /// even when co-workers had color displays. The RGB monitors on the IIGS were great, though.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> (mostly driven by the IBM PC shipping with CGA since launch in '91) The PC was launched in 81, and the default display was monochrome text; 91 might have been the PS/2 with MCGA. Or maybe you meant to refer to the PCjr, which was bundled with a color display (better than CGA, IIRC) at launch. That was, IIRC, 1983.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  That was a typo, '91 should have been '81, and even if the default display was monochrome text CGA really was available from launch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter Seems to confirm it was available from the launch date and I distinctly remember a job for a company in Edam that had an early PC which had color graphics as well as one at a bank in Amsterdam that also did color (at very low resolution, but definitely color). By '91 we were well into 486's and high res color (but not using IBM cards, but VGA wonder and the various Tseng cards were doing just fine).

CamperBob2 9y ago

It's an amusing anecdote, but it's impossible to argue that the process they went through resulted in a better product. I don't want to use software that's designed for people who are too oblivious to know if they're using a color display, or designed by programmers who try everything besides asking the simple question, "Are you using a color display? Y/N" Also, as soon as participants start screwing with the process by lying to the program and/or the investigators, there is no longer any great likelihood that ordinary users will benefit. The correct solution is, of course, to design the program to look good on both color and monochrome displays, like almost everyone who ever developed games for the Apple II had to do. It was difficult to pull this off due to the interaction of the display hardware with archaic TV color standards, but it was part of the job.