Re: User Experience Honeycomb

³For systems where it's important to make that progression
from novice to expert²

I guess I see learnability (skillfulness/mastery) as a critical component of
all but the most simple systems. It¹s more about the expressiveness of a
system, that the educational nature of it.

What Tog talks about as Autonomy gets to it a little bit.
< quote>
Autonomy
        
    * The computer, the interface, and the task environment all "belong" to
the user, but user-autonomy doesn¹t mean we abandon rules.

Give users some breathing room. Users learn quickly and gain a fast sense of
mastery when they are placed "in charge." Paradoxically, however, people do
not feel free in the absence of all boundaries (Yallum, 1980). A little
child will cry equally when held too tight or left to wander in a large and
empty warehouse. Adults, too, feel most comfortable in an environment that
is neither confining nor infinite, an environment explorable, but not
hazardous.

    * Use status mechanisms to keep users aware and informed.

No autonomy can exist in the absence of control, and control cannot be
exerted in the absence of sufficient information. Status mechanisms are
vital to supplying the information necessary for workers to respond
appropriately to changing conditions. As a simple example, workers, failing
status information, will tend to maintain heightened pressure on themselves
during slow periods, until the moment the work actually runs out. This will
stress and fatigue them unnecessarily, so that when the next rush occurs,
they may be lacking the physical and mental reserves to handle it.

    *  Keep status information up to date and within easy view

Users should not have to seek out status information. Rather, they should be
able to glance at their work environment and be able to gather at least a
first approximation of state and workload. Status information can be quite
subtle: the inbox icon could be switched to show an empty, somewhat full, or
stuffed state. This, however, should not be overdone. The Macintosh, for
years, showed an icon of a trashcan of imminent danger of explosion if a
single document was placed therein. Users quickly formed the habit of
emptying the trashcan as soon as the first document hit. This not only
turned a single-step operation into a two-step operation (drag to the trash,
then empty the trash), it negated the entire power of the trashcan, namely,
undo.

As another positive example, a search field icon can change color and
appearance to indicate that the search is in progress or has been completed
with too many matches, too few matches, or just enough. (Like any element of
the interface, just color is not enough; 10% of males show some indication
of color blindness. Even a higher percentage may have temporary alterations
in perception of blue under varying conditions.)

Read more at: 
http://asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html
</quote>


This is something more than learnability, and I do think it is a step beyond
³basic² usability. Once you can complete a task does the system enable you
to get better at completing that task. Can this contribute to greater
satisfaction, greater participation, more value, a deeper relationship?


Thanks,

karl





On 6/22/04 10:50 AM, "Peter Morville" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Karl,
> 
> I'm not sure that usability/findability and competence/skillfullness are
> parallel.  For systems where it's important to make that progression
> from novice to expert, I would add or swap in a hexagon for
> learnability.  And I'd look closely at the learner-centered models from
> folks like Elliot Soloway:
> 
>       http://hi-ce.org/soft_modelit.html
> 
>       
> http://web.si.umich.edu/courses/people/faculty-detail.cfm?passID=100
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> 
> Peter Morville
> President, Semantic Studios
> www.semanticstudios.com
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Karl Long [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 10:09 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [AIGAExperienceDesign] User Experience Honeycomb
> 
> 
> Yes, excellent job.
> 
> I think Abel raises a valid point regarding findability.
> 
> I¹ve often thought about usability being divided into two areas,
> competence and (for want of a better word) skillfulness. In other words
> once we have a system that helps people achieve competence with a system
> we then need to help them become skillfull. Skillfull might not be the
> right word, maybe its autonomy or learnability but it gets to the
> fundamental point that usability is not a binary, it is a scale that
> goes from competence to mastery.
> 
> It seems that findability is, in this case that higher plane of
> usability? Thoughts?
> 
> Anyway, thanks again for the thought leadership Peter.
> 
> Karl
> 
> 
> --
> blog: http://experiencecurve.com/competition/
> network: http://www.ryze.com/?a=mrkook
> aim|yim: kar11ong
> 
> 



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