Re: What do users understand?

This is intriguing - perhaps we should look to the world of computer gaming, where games are designed to educate the user as they play early levels - often in gaming reviews you will find criticism of games having 'too steep a learning curve' or being 'nicely paced'

Or is this too radical for a Thursday?

Owen Stephens
Assistant Director: eStrategy and Information Resources
Central Library
Imperial College London
South Kensington Campus
London
SW7 2AZ
 
t: +44 (0)20 7594 8829
e: o.stephens_at_imperial.ac.uk

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Tim Spalding
> Sent: 12 March 2009 15:33
> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] What do users understand?
> 
> > Really? Isn't this saying that we should never expect them to be able
> to
> > learn a thing? To insist 'they' always know enough and all faults are
> > ours? I'not sure.
> 
> This is a very interesting question. I'd love to read something
> thoughtful about how an interface "teaches" you something-how you can
> simultaneously be intuitive and easy, and be "moving someone along" to
> something deeper. Interfaces do teach. Mostly they do it
> unintentionally. What if we thought deeply about that teaching?
> 
> So, I'd love to read about it, and talk about it. I just feel that the
> library world is *dreadfully* invested in the idea that bad interfaces
> (widely construed) are "teaching" something. You hear the "teaching"
> defense a lot in libraryland. Much of the time, it's a dodge--an
> effort to excuse a bad interface. Sometimes what's being taught is
> actually harmful. My favorite example of that was a discussion on
> AUTOCAT about the "educative" effects of Dewey-that in grappling with
> that embarrassing fossil you're learning something about the world. As
> I see it,  apart from learning that fiction and Buddhism are
> unimportant, you're learning something deeply limiting--that knowledge
> is a tree.
> 
> So, there's something to the idea of "teaching" interfaces, but I'm
> wary of libraryland running to that idea. It'd be like asking AA to
> investigate the positive health effects of red wine.
> 
> Tim