Re: Info sucks?
On Thu, Sep 17, 1998 at 01:27:01AM -0500, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> Hi,
> >>"Tim" == Tim Bell <bhat@cs.mu.OZ.AU> writes:
>
> Tim> Quoting john@dhh.gt.org (john@dhh.gt.org):
> >> Anyone who calls *any* UI intuitive needs to have his head seriously
> >> examined.
>
> Tim> Stepping out of the computer world for a moment, *some* doorknobs have
> Tim> intuitive UIs. (And far too many do not.)
>
> Tell that to the peole of the village my grandparents come
> from. There are no doors. There are mud+straw walls and roofs, and a
> curtain hung over the opening. What doors there are, (like the post
> office) have handles. Nary a door knob in sight.
>
> Now tell these people that you have to *twist* the suckers --
> not hit them, not push, or pull -- and heaven help you trying to
> explain why, and how, to lock and unlock them too.
>
> Too much cultural bias, my friend.
Okay, this is a valid point. Again I'll refer to the gospel of
Norman. Western people have the concept of the door and doorknob, which
is different than the aborigonie that has never seen glass or doors or
whatever. This is a known fact. Our culture has lots of unspoken
conventions that allow us to get by in society. People from outside this
culture do not have these conventions, and therefore cannot necessarily
get by when they first enter our society.
However, there are ways to make this issue less of an issue, and
that is through concepts like affordances. Some door knobs, such as ones
your simply push have very obvious ways of operating. They "afford"
pushing. This makes the transition easier.
-Seth
--
"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion"
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