Clare-Marie Karat is a PhD psychologist who evaluates the way people interact with their computers and designs what the industry calls human interfaces at IBM's (IBM) Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, N.Y. The problem, as she sees it, is simple: The engineers who design software sometimes know too little about the needs and frustrations of business users and consumers. ''The technologists get far into the design of a system without really understanding who the target users are, the work that they do, and the context in which they do that work,'' Karat says. By the time feedback comes in, it's ''way too late.''

To remedy this situation, Karat is challenging the industry to endorse a 10-point User's Bill of Rights:

1. The user is always right. If there is a problem with the use of the system, the system is the problem, not the user.

2. The user has the right to easily install software and hardware systems.

3. The user has the right to a system that performs exactly as promised.

4. The user has the right to easy-to-use instructions for understanding and utilizing a system to achieve desired goals.

5. The user has the right to be in control of the system and to be able to get the system to respond to a request for attention.

6. The user has the right to a system that provides clear, understandable, and accurate information regarding the task it is performing and the progress toward completion.

7. The user has the right to be clearly informed about all system requirements for successfully using software or hardware.

8. The user has the right to know the limits of the system's capabilities.

9. The user has the right to communicate with the technology provider and receive a thoughtful and helpful response when raising concerns.

10. The user should be the master of software and hardware technology, not vice-versa. Products should be natural and intuitive to use.

All of Karat's proposals are important, but the first point is the key to all and amounts to a sweeping change in attitude among the folks who produce hardware and software. It's easy to quibble over the specifics of one or another of Karat's proposed items. I'd add a point requiring all error messages to be comprehensible and explained in detail.

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