This might comes as a shock to some of you but Hollywood knows very little about technology.

It might be able to make great sci-fi movies but it has very little understanding about how technology, and people using technology, should work. Jakob Neilsen, one of the world’s leading usability experts, has decided to highlight the shortcomings in his amusing Top 10 Bloopers.

For instance, how is that actors in movies can instantly work out how to use any kind of computer, even alien ones in less than 60 seconds? Or, time travelers from the past can get their head around modern technology without any frame of reference.

Don’t forget the 3-D interfaces that pop up in movies like Minority Report and others because Neilsen says movies are about the only place they work. All that arm waving is tiring which why he says: “3D is for demos. 2D is for work.”

And isn’t it lovely how all data and systems interoperate without seven calls to the IT department and some special software updates? Take Jack Bauer in 24, for instance, who can manage to have complex building schematics sent to his PDA and they always open without a single incompatibility glitch.

Neilsen admits though that, in the end, it doesn’t really matter.

“A movie's purpose is entertainment, not task performance. So, go ahead and employ user interfaces and interaction techniques that are entertaining and would never work in the real world. Films are litterd with so many other unrealistic plot details: you'd imagine, for example, that the ability to shoot straight might actually be a primary job requirement of Imperial Stormtroopers.”

You can read the Top 10 here.

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