Re: UI design [was Owen Taylor's paper]

On Fri, 2002-09-20 at 00:18, John wrote:
> To a great extent the difference between a good chessplayer and a master is 
> the remembered patterns. Remembers patterns reduces the need to think.

Do you really want to get into information theory concepts....
sigh....bring it on....

In chess...the patterns..the layout...hold useful information...not
unique information but trends...strategies...so remembering those
patterns and the sequence the come in help you decipher strategy...the
"different" patterns encode information...and "different" patterns
actually become important in game play becuase "different" patterns lead
to "different" strategies.  So chess is more about remembering
"different" patterns and how they interrelate....lots of fun information
theory there.....but thats really offtopic.

Not so in UI layout...different UI layouts do not encode unique or even
trends of useful information....and you aren't asking for for people to
act like chess players and remember "different" patterns...you want one
pattern...one static pattern...static pattern do not encode
information...just like absolutely random arrangements do not encode
information.  So if you are not encoding information in the pattern...in
the layout...then random is just as good as consistancy.  To encode
information you need measured inconsistancy.  Layout is not providing
any information here....its simply a container for information....

If a chess master had to only remember one pattern...chess would be
particularly uninteresting to play. Are you asking for computers to be
that particularly uninteresting to use?

-jef