Michael,

Wow, you sound like an engineer.

Not quite.


Unfortunately, in this FAA-driven environment,
the customer doesn't matter.

You got that right.

You CAN make a device that does complex things easy and
intuitive to use. It's just a lot of work.

Yes, within limits. What I was trying to get at was that indeed many people
complain about very complex things being, well, complex. I tried to point
out that such is life - and that's what makes it so exciting. I feel there's
a trend to "dumb down" things in an increasingly complex world. And I'm not
a fan of that. I'm not trying to make excuses for bad interface design, not
at all. But in my experience, there are limits to what you can do in that
arena. Also, things simply change. To expect everything to remain the same
in life without any new stuff coming in is, well, not very smart.


Is
any of those people you teach really of the opinion that a CDI or an ADF
are more "intutitive" than a moving map? Yeah, right...

Yes. They are. But not to an engineer.

Excuse me, but that's just not true. Anyone who has gone through instrument
training will tell you that an ADF is anything but intuitive. It's just
something a pilot may be more used to, that's all.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)