This was the upshot of my work with the Applications Level User Interface Committee of the Videotex Industry Association. Our aim was to "make it work". Our primary challenges included: • technical platforms in flux • integration with and between applications • common needs, but competing standards • unexplored arena of UI, definition of "usability" • meta-information and tagging VIEW MORE ON JCVTCS.COM http://www.jcvtcs.com/-papers-tcs/usability-committee.html BACKGROUND: What Was Videotex? http://www.jcvtcs.com/-experience/wayback-what-is-videotex.html Browsing History http://www.jcvtcs.com/-experience/wayback-browser-history.html Visual Delight http://www.jcvtcs.com/-experience/wayback-naplps-graphics.html TCS is Born http://www.jcvtcs.com/-experience/wayback-tcs-inc.html Before the Web http://www.jcvtcs.com/-experience/index-videotex.html This is the Portfolio of my work as a usability designer in the emerging interactive arena from 1981-87.

1. Usability Standards
November 11, 1984
This was the upshot of my work with the Applications
Level User Interface Committee of the Videotex
Industry Association. Our aim was to "make it work".
Our primary challenges included:
technical platforms in flux
integration with and between applications
common needs, but competing standards
unexplored arena of UI, definition of "usability"
meta-information and tagging
http://www.jcvtcs.com/-papers-tcs/usability-
committee.html
Note: Produced on a dot matrix printer. Classic.
Before We Called It the Web
The early 80's saw the "first wave" of investment in consumer-oriented interactive online digital services,
known at the time as "Videotex".
Videotex was Graphical, Consumer-oriented, and Easy-to-use.
Videotex was the Web
It was still very early days: The PC had barely been invented, the mouse was non-existant, standards
were haphazard, graphics were crude and communications bandwidth was laughable. Still, we got it to
happen.
Ultimately though, Videotex was an idea whose time hadn't quite come just yet. But it was a
visionary model of things to come.