Psychological and Ergonomic Factors in Machine Translation

In the past computer systems were primarily used by the programmers who designed them, and the facilities provided were those appropriate to their needs. Although these systems functioned efficiently, they were only suitable for use by computer professionals. As costs have decreased, computers have become widely used by people with no previous experience of them. Unfortunately many systems are still designed more for the convenience of the programmer than for the user. This problem will become more acute as further cost reductions lead to even more widespread use of computers in professional applications such as machine translation. This makes it particularly important to take account of the psychological and ergonomic requirements of the ordinary non-specialist user.