The distinction between experiential and reflective cognition is an important one, and one that I’ve analyzed subconsciously, without using Norman’s specific verbiage.  The most recent example I can think of is in this very document—using Microsoft Word 2007 after years of mastering the previous versions.  The  most appropriate way I can think right now to describe my experience with Word ’07 is: ridiculously reflective.  Where just one short version ago I could go to Insert àDate/Time, I am now at a loss as to where the date and time have gone (in the literal sense).  And, as you can see, I gave up. 

This example is an interesting one when you consider Norman’s assertions about context, or, displaying information in a certain way, for a certain audience.  I wonder if Microsoft had used this design as the original version, what the response would be. Perhaps the younger generation who hadn’t seen earlier versions would think that Word is simple to navigate and use, easier, in fact, than my generation who took years learning the mysteries of Word via “hunting and pecking” or conversing with the infamous talking paper clip. Microsoft had to know that they would be alienating an entire population who had finally learned the old versions.  As a designer, though, how do you choose your audience? 

In his example of the Museum of Science and Industry, where attention-grabbing displays replaced content and substance, Norman discusses the potential dangers of technology.  There’s a point at which capitalization of the human attention span and our emotional responses will inhibit knowledge.  More often than not it seems technology plays on the senses in order to persuade or advertise more than it does to teach or provide function. Consider the growing popularity of Apple products; their design and even packaging are sleek, their features novel—but what about function?  At work I used a MacBook Pro for over a year after owning only PC’s, and was wowed by its clever tools and aesthetically pleasing interface. However, after months of trying to learn the folder hierarchy, how to copy links to file destinations, how to use Mac’s version of MS Office, how to lock the desktop, and other seemingly simple tasks, I was erring on the side of reflective cognition.  Though I hated to part with my thin, hip, translucent blue-cased MacBook Pro, I simply could not be as productive on a machine that was difficult for me to navigate.  Of course, like anything there are personal preferences and laptops can be as personal as cars these days, but what’s truly concerning is the example raised by Sears and Jacko with the surgeons using a graphical display during endoscopic procedures.  If function isn’t the primary component of design when it comes to this technology, lives would be at stake. While in that case the issue was the physical location of the display rather than the display’s properties itself, it begs the question, how important is design when a human life depends on it?  Technology in health care has become an integral part of everyday medicine, from computers at the nurses’ station to specialized machines that perform surgical procedures. Do we want a flashy, entertaining, colorful system, or one that saves lives?  The example is extreme, mind you, but Norman’s statement that “the design team should start by considering the tasks that the artifact is intended to serve and the people who will use it,” is critical for a product’s success.

In one of Edward R. Tufte’s collection of insightful books on design and representation of data, Visual Explanations, he explores the design strategies often dicussed for media of all kinds.  He reiterates the theme of our readings by saying that “when principles of design replicate principles of thought, the act of arranging information becomes an act of insight.” (Tufte 9)  I’m sure Norman would second that.

 Reading Assignment #2

Throughout reading Ware’s “Visual Thinking for Design,” I had momentary flashbacks of my psychology, biology, and Web Content Development courses from years back. The details and examples he provided, though, were much more in-depth than what I had learned previously. It was extremely helpful to know specifics about how the eye works and how the brain processes our surroundings. The idea that our memory fills in the gaps of our vision is pretty amazing, and that we really only see a fraction of what is really there. While reading, I made a conscious effort to try and draw some conclusions about how our physiological activity/responses can teach us about design, and how current methodologies could be improved.  However, I found it somewhat difficult to draw many substantial conclusions, and I imagine that’s why even Ware was apprehensive about stating any end-all rules to design. 

One design characteristic that interests me is use of color.  We all know when certain colors make text difficult to read, irritate us, or arouse us—but why?  It was fascinating to learn how the brain processes colors, and how animals have different abilities to see color depending on their diet. I thought the chapter about color was really helpful because it had, for me, the most potential for application. During one of my master’s courses, we talked about the best way to display text, either in print or online, and invariably, the answer was black on white. Apparently no other color combination provides the same amount of contrast, so that severely limits the possibilities of color choice.  Looking at Ware’s examples on p. 67-68, where he shows the pitfalls of color usage, specifically blue text on black background, or yellow text on white background, it’s apparent that the surprising number of websites that use a black background and red, blue, or yellow text are unconsciously deterring their audience. For example, http://maddox.xmission.com/, the self-proclaimed “Best Site in the Universe” has used a yellow and white on black theme for years—though its content may be more of an aversion than the color choices. On the other side of the spectrum, a website I came across recently, www.wix.com, follows many of the principles Ware touched on.  The site is very colorful, with pleasurable color combinations like gray on aqua, and yet when blocks of text appear, they are almost entirely black on white.  Since the site itself is promoting free website design for inexperienced users, I imagine having a well-designed site is an integral selling point.

Ware talks briefly about movement and dynamics on web pages, encouraging designers to minimize the loud, flashy, moving pieces on a page. Since humans are “programmed” to notice movements, likely from a primitive hunting and/or defense response, having flashy, moving, blinking, strobing aspects to a page can be detrimental to a website.   Not only are they distracting, but they can be physically irritating.  I’m imagining ads or banners that flash across the screen, but sometimes even just having a video playing or an “intro” in flash on the page can turn off users.  I liked how Ware noted that many web designers have an intuition when it comes to design, but that it has to be shaped through a great deal of experience. I think too often people go off their own ideas, and sometimes misconceptions about what users want, and don’t do the proper due diligence required to assess efficacy. A recent article on web design, “10 Principles of Effective Web Design” discussed the same topic of movement and orientation on a website, saying “Focusing users’ attention to specific areas of the site with a moderate use of visual elements can help your visitors to get from point A to point B without thinking of how it actually is supposed to be done.”  They actually listed the positive aspects of including movement, but in terms of sales and advertising: “video-based advertisements are extremely annoying and distracting, but from the marketing perspective they perfectly do the job of capturing users’ attention.”   

Ware definitely made it clear how important vision/visual response is to design, and I believe I now have a good foundation of knowledge from which to base my own design methodology.

Reading Assignment #3

As soon as I started reading about persuasion in chapter 17, as it relates to technology I immediately thought of the online video game, World of Warcraft (a.k.a. “World of WarCrack”), because of its seemingly unparalleled ability to draw in users and keep them entranced for long periods of time.  I have never played the game but observing those who have has baffled me to no end; how can intelligent, ambitious adults get so wrapped up in a video game?  Though, as the chapter discusses, entertainment oriented technology isn’t typically classified as persuasive per se, but instead indemnifies aspects of what they call “microsuasion.” 

The pull for WoW seems to come from the desire to attain Achievements, or higher powers or materials (weapons, currency), and the feedback received from leveling up.  Though the developers have obviously been successful in creating such a widely-used and renowned game, at what point does the addiction or obsession by its user-base become dangerous?  A Swedish organization called the Youth Care Foundation, led by Sven Rollenhagen, seems to think that video game addiction is “reaching pandemic proportions around the world.” (CNET News).  Experts in Sweden are said to be “taking the lead in developing strategies to cope with the issue.” Clearly there’s a point at which persuasion can be harmful.

The question of ethics at the end of chapter 17 is a good one; should technology be designed to persuade? If so, when and to what extent?  I’m a firm believer in anything that can help people better themselves (quitting smoking, losing weight, etc.), so those programs should be continued. But what about technology designed for “deception and coercion” (p. 368)?  Surveillance is a great example because human behavior changes when people know they are being watched.  Put in the wrong hands, that could be extremely dangerous.  There’s another ethical dilemma having to do with personal information floating around online, and the ability for anyone to view details of others’ court records, criminal history, financial data, and other sensitive tidbits.  How this relates to persuasion is purely reputational; for example, the invent of sites like www.NationalAlertRegistry.com and www.NeighborhoodScan.com makes it easy to draw conclusions about people in their neighborhood, potential neighborhood, or in general.  While it’s helpful for families with children to know where possible sex offenders live nearby, what’s the effect on the housing economy or on social discrimination?  If people can be persuaded by the information online, is that good or bad? 

One persuasive technology that I support is the bike simulators/monitors we have at my gym.  There’s a choice between several different programs wherein the biker can race other computer bikers, take a leisurely ride, or race other human bikers at the gym by joining a wireless team.  Each program gives options of trails (mountain, beach, forest, etc.), which vary by intensity level, and can be stored on the gym’s personalized computer system where progress and experienced is tracked.  The simulator keeps the biker entertained, motivated, and distracted, which can be powerful for those who are bored easily or do not enjoy exercising.  

So, clearly, there is a market for persuasive technology when it comes to motivating people to improve their health, education, finances, etc. and I believe that should continue.

Reading Assignment #4

After reading the chapters discussing stress and complexity, I could appreciate how well the two complimented each other. Chapter six, unfortunately, for me was somewhat difficult to comprehend which seemed compounded by the fact that it lacked some concrete examples and tie to HCI.  I do agree that stress is an important factor when it comes to catering to a human audience, but I would have been able to better visualize the stress responses by having a detailed test or user experience feedback.

On the contrary, chapter twenty-five was rich with examples and definitions—almost to a fault (I found myself skimming ahead when I read one too many definitions of complexity).   I did find it extremely helpful to have the visual diagrams showing how complexity changed performance, frustration, and pleasure, and was especially surprised to see that pleasure actually increased with the “right” amount of complexity, but then fell dramatically as complexity increased.  The performance crash and frustration rise were not surprising to me, though it validated my notions on the subject.

Later in the chapter, when the system development life cycle (SDLC) was outlined as it related to complexity, I immediately noted parallels and relevance to my experience.  For the past five years I have been working in and around the Information Technology field, so I am quite familiar with the sometimes tedious task of developing an application or making improvements on an existing system.  Early on in my career, I was involved in actually designing and documenting our IT department’s SDLC format which gave me some insight on the process. The company was one of few that I’ve worked with that invested in well-planned and developed user acceptance testing. No project could be pushed to production without rigorous, documented testing by non-designers/developers.  I was interested to see in this chapter how complexity can be interwoven into nearly all aspects of the SDLC, from design, development, testing, deployment, and service, as all stages introduce a susceptibility to complexity.  One system in particular that I worked with was a timesheet system, wherein employees were to enter billable hours, submit timesheets, communicate with management, and several other functions. We ran into a few issues in testing that seemed critical to the functionality, but were almost entirely omitted because the developers were not in tune with user needs. The section on development in chapter twenty-five summed it up by stating that developers “become so familiar with a system that almost everything about it becomes obvious and easy regardless of how it might be perceived by an end user.” (p. 501) That is especially true in applications I work with at my current company—but the focus on user experience is not regarded as highly.  I’ve actually seen some work plans that have no mention whatsoever of user acceptance testing. Those applications that go straight into production due to timeline crunches or just anxiousness by upper management to get the functionality out there seem to have the most inherent issues, and for obvious reasons. Yet, it seems only recently HCI has come to the forefront of design.

I liked the analogy of people forgetting there they left their car keys after one day, as opposed to remembering complex computer system tasks any length of time. It’s certainly true that in this fast-paced world, we have much to remember on a daily basis hence the numerous applications such as “Remember the Milk”1 that allow you to track tasks, make to-do lists, schedule activities, and set email reminders for just about anything. Life is complicated enough without introducing overly complex designs in technology.

Reading Assignment #5

Chapter 9 (Sears & Jacko), which outlined input technologies and techniques, was an interesting and critical piece of human computer interaction. What came to mind while reading was the first phase of merchant check out pages online, wherein customers enter their payment data and then hit “submit” or the like.  Those first iterations often failed in terms of feedback to the user because customers were clicking “submit” multiple times, thereby charging their accounts as many times as they clicked. There was no popup message, alert, or disclaimer to prevent that from happening, when the option itself of clicking twice should not have been there. That was one example where the consequence of poor feedback design was quite costly.  Today, many checkout processes do not allow you to hit the button more than once (ideal), where others have a statement at the bottom of the page that says “Please only hit ‘SUBMIT’ once, or your card may be charged again.”  In Dempsy and Sale’s Interactive Instruction and Feedback, one of the key principles to feedback is to “design feedback activities that parallel the features, attributes, and consequences of the learning context when such activities and features are integral to the learning task.”¹ Though they are referring to teaching/instruction via technology, the implications are applicable to any feedback design. You want to create feedback in technology that aligns with the context of the task at hand, whether it’s finalizing your purchase on Amazon.com or simply moving files on a computer.  The checkout process and design is extremely important in my line of work because the Pay Pal product is designed separately from merchant pages, and thus, must, 1) be streamlined with the merchant page, and 2) function as though the customer has not left the original site. The product is much like a chameleon, having to change depending on the feel and function of the hundreds of varied merchant pages in which we are imbedded.

I thought it was kind of an amazing concept at the end of the chapter where they suggested that navigation on computers may be eliminated completely if search engines are designed to be more robust.  That’s actually difficult to imagine, since the folder system on Windows is pretty intuitive (in my opinion).  What would be the symbol or representation of a file hierarchy if there was no navigation?

Chapter 11 was a nice complement to Ware’s Visual Thinking for Design, because it included more detail into visual displays, like the aspects and ergonomics of monitor glare, refresh rate, and resolution.  Though the chapter discussed more of the physical hardware and relative distance effects on users, the application to design was there. I thought of the conversation we had in class about how difficult it is to choose colors and contrast on web pages because of the difference in monitors (shapes, resolution), and how little control designers have over what visual output will actually be on an individual basis.

1) Tufte, Edward R. Visual Explanations. Cheshire, CT, 1997. Print.

2) “10 Principles of Effective Web Design.” Smashing Magazine. 31 January 2008. Web. 22 September 2009. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/

3) Rosenberg, Dave. “Swedish Group Calls Gaming Addiction a ‘Pandemic’ Threat.” 17 September 2009. CNET News. 23 September 2009. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10356098-62.html

4) Pierce, David.  “8 Easy Ways to Manage Tasks with Remember The Milk.” Make Use Of.com. 8 January 2009. Web. 27 September 2009. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-easy-ways-to-manage-tasks-with-remember-the-milk/