Comment by gforce_de
2 days ago
Is this sentence true, or should just sound important?
"Cachet created the word «usability» for that, meaning «start it and be able to use it right away.»"
2 days ago
Is this sentence true, or should just sound important?
"Cachet created the word «usability» for that, meaning «start it and be able to use it right away.»"
Sadly, it isn't strictly true. maybe the article should have said "applied" not "created".
Even the wikipedia page for "Usability" points to a 1982 BYTE article advocating "Usable" for software tools.
The existing word "usability" was being applied in human computer interface texts/papers around the time (1987, 1988) as computer UIs made advances.
The best summary of history I could find was in this article (section 5.1), claiming the first usage was in 1971, or 1979, or perhaps 1981, depending on interpretation.
https://www.elsevier.es/en-revista-journal-applied-research-...
If you want a single example it is untrue, a good example is "IBM makes usability as important as functionality" from 1986. I found a copy online but hate deeplinking to such things.
It's possible that Cachet was unaware of all that academia and independently "created" the term.
Of course the actual word is much, much older in the world of meatspace.
I was using xcopy at the time as a kid and still play with a physical Amiga. Nostalgia.