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Some Economics of User Interfaces

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Author Info
Hal R. Varian (University of Michigan)

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Abstract

I examine the incentives for software providers to design appropriate user interfaces. There are two sorts of costs involved when one uses software: the fixed cost of learning to use a piece of software and the the variable cost of operating the software. For example menu driven software is easy to learn, but tedious to operate. I show that a monopoly provider of software generally invests the ``right'' amount of resources in making the software easy to learn, but too little in making it easy to operate. In some extreme cases a monopolist may even make the software {\it too\/} easy to learn.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Computational Economics with number 9401003.

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Date of creation: 18 Jan 1994
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Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpco:9401003

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C8 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Sheshinski, Eytan, 1976. "Price, Quality and Quantity Regulation in Monopoly Situations," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 43(17), pages 127-37, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. A. Michael Spence, 1975. "Monopoly, Quality, and Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 6(2), pages 417-429, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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