Human factors in telecommunications research

Back in the days when 'telecommunication' meant that you could still get an operator to connect you to another person on the telephone network, some aspects of life were easy and straight-forward. You didn't have to be an electronic wizard to use the available technology correctly and efficiently. In those days, when computers filled entire rooms and were tended to by bald little, white-clad men, mumbling incomprehensible formulae to themselves, the average citizen did not need to bother about computers, the silicon microchip had not yet made its digital debut into the electronic world.