Scott emailed me Prezi, a unique presentation software. It's terribly exciting- and it's related to something we've been discussing quite a bit recently.
: Is the wiki a usable interface for most people? Can they learn? Will they learn? How can we facilitate this transition to a more collaborative design process?
: How can we create connections between real-world experiences of design and online ones?
Showing posts with label interface. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interface. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Unique User Interfaces
I've been taking a peek at products which reveal to the user how much of a resource is being used, in a visually appealing, tangible way. A good source for these is MOMA's online exhibit of Design and the Elastic Mind.
This large red cord you see is called Standby, and it's meant to make consumption of energy more visible, as far as I can tell. Perhaps a little more conceptual than we want to go. But perhaps not?
This large red cord you see is called Standby, and it's meant to make consumption of energy more visible, as far as I can tell. Perhaps a little more conceptual than we want to go. But perhaps not?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Gallery Show
A couple things that we could use for the Gallery Show collaborative editing. Discussion on mailing list and here. Thoughts?
Mindmap created on bubbl.us My user name is ScottGeoffrey, make an account and add me as a friend if you want to collaborate on it.
Mindmap created on bubbl.us My user name is ScottGeoffrey, make an account and add me as a friend if you want to collaborate on it.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Interaction design
Originally drawn from a discussion on software user-interface design, but much of it is relevent to designing a house that interacts well with it's residents.
"... Interaction should facilitate or even persuade users to learn what underlies the task they are doing. The same is true in situations where interruptions are commonplace and where in the meanwhile mastery of what is underlying a task or domain is desired, or when operations come with a cost and direct solutions without deviations are the aim. In designing our interfaces we ... must design in such a manner that the way users (should) think is optimally supported."
In other words: we need to design for the optimal usage of the house. Good defaults are very important here (In my opinion, the strength of Apple software is the choice of good defaults (and sometimes not giving users the ability to chose))
"We concluded that relieving a user’s memory and making interactions assisted by externalizing information does not have beneficial effects. It makes users count on the interface and gives them (unrightfully so) the feeling that the task and thinking-work is partly done for them, which seduces users in more shallow cognitive behavior."
In other words: It is important to help the user build a good mental representation of how things are working. Preferably this would be similar to the way things actually work, but it can also be an arbitrary metaphore for what is happening.
"Not every task is important enough to teach users the mechanisms that support it. Many interfaces benefit from a level of abstraction or decoupling from the underlying processes. The spirit of this research is to point out that the effort to dumb down can go too far."
Aka: Teaching people how everything works is impossible. Abstraction has it's place, we'll have to find a balance.
Someone's comment:
"When a person is learning how to use 3D modeling software -- like AutoCAD or Revit or Inventor -- they may actually be learning (at least) two things: (1) How to think and draw in 3D space, and (2) How to make this happen in software. I'm not sure what the pedagogical solution to this challenge is, but I suspect that people who learn drafting before learning the software would more quickly learn the software and have greater facility with it over the long term. Just a guess, though. "
"... Interaction should facilitate or even persuade users to learn what underlies the task they are doing. The same is true in situations where interruptions are commonplace and where in the meanwhile mastery of what is underlying a task or domain is desired, or when operations come with a cost and direct solutions without deviations are the aim. In designing our interfaces we ... must design in such a manner that the way users (should) think is optimally supported."
In other words: we need to design for the optimal usage of the house. Good defaults are very important here (In my opinion, the strength of Apple software is the choice of good defaults (and sometimes not giving users the ability to chose))
"We concluded that relieving a user’s memory and making interactions assisted by externalizing information does not have beneficial effects. It makes users count on the interface and gives them (unrightfully so) the feeling that the task and thinking-work is partly done for them, which seduces users in more shallow cognitive behavior."
In other words: It is important to help the user build a good mental representation of how things are working. Preferably this would be similar to the way things actually work, but it can also be an arbitrary metaphore for what is happening.
"Not every task is important enough to teach users the mechanisms that support it. Many interfaces benefit from a level of abstraction or decoupling from the underlying processes. The spirit of this research is to point out that the effort to dumb down can go too far."
Aka: Teaching people how everything works is impossible. Abstraction has it's place, we'll have to find a balance.
Someone's comment:
"When a person is learning how to use 3D modeling software -- like AutoCAD or Revit or Inventor -- they may actually be learning (at least) two things: (1) How to think and draw in 3D space, and (2) How to make this happen in software. I'm not sure what the pedagogical solution to this challenge is, but I suspect that people who learn drafting before learning the software would more quickly learn the software and have greater facility with it over the long term. Just a guess, though. "
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
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