User behavior on an interactive computer system

We have observed programmers at work using existing interactive systems in an IBM research environment. Our observation of the use of language processors indicates that users of TSS/360 seldom need the interactive error-correction features of the language processor. Also, when a user might use such features, he seldom does. By implication, these observations also point to the importance of implementing SIPE-type data collection systems. We have presented our observations of the relationship between system response time (SRT) and user response time (URT). The results indicate that a long SRT is related to a long URT. This suggests that ways be sought to reduce the undesirable effects of a long SRT and to reduce the SRT-URT interaction without adding to the cost or complexity of the system.