Assessed the unreliability of modern computers

Scientists from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Roskilde (Denmark) assessed the unreliability of modern computers. They found that users spend 10 to 20 percent of their computer time fixing crashes, crashes, or misbehaving programs. The results of the study were published in the journal ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction.

The study involved 234 respondents, including students, accountants, consultants, or IT industry workers, who spent six to eight hours at a computer while working. They reported situations where the computer did not work properly or a task could not be completed. Among the most common problems were system slowness, freezing, crashes, or difficulty finding files or programs.

Although the crash episodes were shorter than they were more than 10 years ago, the average level of user frustration faced with an unexpected problem was high (7 on a 9-point scale). The level of frustration correlated with the importance of the task and lost time, but did not depend on the experience of working with a computer and practically did not depend on the characteristics of the computer itself.

Survey participants also reported that 84 percent of episodes where users encountered difficulties had occurred before and 87 percent of episodes could be repeated. At the same time, 26 percent of the problems were not solved, and most situations arise when performing completely normal tasks. This result suggests that the problems with modern computers are almost the same as those that occurred 15-20 years ago.

According to the authors, developers should involve users in order to make computer systems as easy to use and understand as possible.