>> • my sister Conshita • younger sister of Conshita > That spelling, in English, has... problems. Not just the Scunthorpe problem, where badly-written programs block email and links over internal strings that human readers don't notice. Here it's obvious. Any reason they didn't use the Spanish spelling, "Conchita"? Especially since "sh" isn't used in any major European language BUT English, as far as I can think of offhand.<<
A comparative search, however, reveals that "Conchita" is far more common than "Conshita." I'll change it.
>> • The system is really user-friendly and intuitive, but it caters to different intuitions. > Not that intuitive, if the interface change isn't obvious: <<
One that I already mentioned in the poem: it caters to different intuitions, which means if you're in the wrong mode, it will not be intuitive. For most systems, you're just screwed; for this one, you need to switch modes, or use other controls to reconfigure it.
Some things mentioned in articles about intuitive programming:
A program can be intuitive either because you can look at it and quickly figure out what to do (like a simple, intuitive app) or because it's easy to learn (like a more complex, intuitive system). In this case, once Vagary points out that a certain control -- which is right there in the menu bar -- will flip between image-dominant and text-dominant modes, it's obvious and easy to use. This is somewhat limited by Vagary's patchy teaching skills. He knows the system, but doesn't necessarily think to say, "This has a text mode and a visual mode. Here is the toggle for those. I hit that and it changes modes. Now you try." I think he's better at learning by observation, and he doesn't realize not everyone does it that way.
One useful measure of intuitive programming is the average amount of time it takes a user to figure out how to use. An app that only does one thing will be very fast to figure out, if it is intuitive. This isn't that, because it needs to do a ton of things. So people need to spend more time exploring it. But a complex intuitive program will have little hints that pop up as needed and/or a good tutorial. Since the Tips page was only partially enabled, it looks like people just opened the website as soon as they got the basics working, which means it's not as fully helpful as it would be if they had the whole thing enabled. And they may not have tech support yet. However, it's good enough that someone like Calliope could make headway -- enough to decide she liked the offering and that it was taking time because it's new to her. That's very different than "WTF is this?"
Bets on how long it takes for someone at Stillwater Health Center to realize they have a sysadmin in town and hunt Vagary down to beg him for help? ;)
Another useful measure is what proportion of the users find the interface intuitive and easy to use. For any pool of users and a computer, there will be some who get it fast, some in the middle, and some who go slow or can't get it at all. The controls on this one mean that some people can switch from "easy" to "hard" mode, depending if it's set to image-heavy or text-heavy interface. Notice that lots of people were working on their phones, not swearing at them or throwing them. A few people needed a hand. But once Vagary showed Quincy the toggle, it got a lot easier for him. Plenty of users are getting along with this program; it's the ones who don't that are more likely to be floating around talking to someone. That skews perception in the poem, and I can't really think of a way around that, because the ones who already understand the system don't need help. *ponder* Maybe I should've had someone caroling about how awesome it is.
Now consider two of the ways something can be made intuitive: relying on common knowledge (red is a warning color) or on user experience (a menu is usually at the top of a page, sometimes the side, less often the bottom, and not in the middle). Vagary knew to look for the image/text toggle because he knows this system. It's not a common option, so most people didn't know to look for it; but once shown it, could easily use it. A lot of the other stuff builds very well on typical computer concepts, though: warnings in red, confirmations in green, menu at the top, etc. That contributes to usability. It also interacts with user knowledge: if someone knows how to frob, the program is super easy to use. That means making large-scale explorations of what the menu holds and which commands are available. (Me, I know some of what to do, but not a lot of layers and my results are patchy.) If they aren't familiar enough with computers to do that, it'll take longer -- but the system still has logic that makes sense to most people. Once they read instructions or get a teacher, it's easy to use and remember, because of that foundation.
Not all of this is really visible, but you should be able to tell:
* The system is active but not complete.
* It's easy to enhance by turning things on or switching displays.
* It's simple to command, requiring few motions rather than a lot of hacking around.
* A significant number of people are already using it.
* It's complex enough that not everyone can figure it out immediately, even though some can, because it's a powerful system that does lots of things. You can make a big system intuitive and logical, but not simple.
* The ones who are stuck can get unstuck with a few hints.
* Even a teacher who knows the system but is only so-so at people skills can get people unstuck.
Give it a little while for folks to explore and find out what it can do, and most of them should get fluent soon -- as opposed to some systems where a company loads them and workers are still struggling with it weeks or months later because even reading the manual doesn't help much.
I'm not great on computers, but some folks are worse -- at least I know where to look. I'd start by checking what the menu had, and look for a FAQ or instruction tab, which it has. That would tell me what I needed to know. I might not notice the image/text toggle immediately because I'm not used to looking for it, but would probably stumble over it soon enough, and flip back and forth to see which I preferred. But because I'm not a computer person, I'd want someone to check my work to make sure I did it right. There's probably an option for that, if they found someone to do the job, like they did for the pricing interview.
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dancing_serpent
Thoughts
Date: 2017-06-22 01:42 am (UTC)Yay!
>> • my sister Conshita
• younger sister of Conshita
> That spelling, in English, has... problems. Not just the Scunthorpe problem, where badly-written programs block email and links over internal strings that human readers don't notice. Here it's obvious. Any reason they didn't use the Spanish spelling, "Conchita"? Especially since "sh" isn't used in any major European language BUT English, as far as I can think of offhand.<<
I just searched for Hispanic girl names and found that one.
http://www.sheknows.com/baby-names/name/conshita
A comparative search, however, reveals that "Conchita" is far more common than "Conshita." I'll change it.
>> • The system is really user-friendly and intuitive, but it caters to different intuitions.
> Not that intuitive, if the interface change isn't obvious: <<
One that I already mentioned in the poem: it caters to different intuitions, which means if you're in the wrong mode, it will not be intuitive. For most systems, you're just screwed; for this one, you need to switch modes, or use other controls to reconfigure it.
Some things mentioned in articles about intuitive programming:
A program can be intuitive either because you can look at it and quickly figure out what to do (like a simple, intuitive app) or because it's easy to learn (like a more complex, intuitive system). In this case, once Vagary points out that a certain control -- which is right there in the menu bar -- will flip between image-dominant and text-dominant modes, it's obvious and easy to use. This is somewhat limited by Vagary's patchy teaching skills. He knows the system, but doesn't necessarily think to say, "This has a text mode and a visual mode. Here is the toggle for those. I hit that and it changes modes. Now you try." I think he's better at learning by observation, and he doesn't realize not everyone does it that way.
One useful measure of intuitive programming is the average amount of time it takes a user to figure out how to use. An app that only does one thing will be very fast to figure out, if it is intuitive. This isn't that, because it needs to do a ton of things. So people need to spend more time exploring it. But a complex intuitive program will have little hints that pop up as needed and/or a good tutorial. Since the Tips page was only partially enabled, it looks like people just opened the website as soon as they got the basics working, which means it's not as fully helpful as it would be if they had the whole thing enabled. And they may not have tech support yet. However, it's good enough that someone like Calliope could make headway -- enough to decide she liked the offering and that it was taking time because it's new to her. That's very different than "WTF is this?"
Bets on how long it takes for someone at Stillwater Health Center to realize they have a sysadmin in town and hunt Vagary down to beg him for help? ;)
Another useful measure is what proportion of the users find the interface intuitive and easy to use. For any pool of users and a computer, there will be some who get it fast, some in the middle, and some who go slow or can't get it at all. The controls on this one mean that some people can switch from "easy" to "hard" mode, depending if it's set to image-heavy or text-heavy interface. Notice that lots of people were working on their phones, not swearing at them or throwing them. A few people needed a hand. But once Vagary showed Quincy the toggle, it got a lot easier for him. Plenty of users are getting along with this program; it's the ones who don't that are more likely to be floating around talking to someone. That skews perception in the poem, and I can't really think of a way around that, because the ones who already understand the system don't need help. *ponder* Maybe I should've had someone caroling about how awesome it is.
Now consider two of the ways something can be made intuitive: relying on common knowledge (red is a warning color) or on user experience (a menu is usually at the top of a page, sometimes the side, less often the bottom, and not in the middle). Vagary knew to look for the image/text toggle because he knows this system. It's not a common option, so most people didn't know to look for it; but once shown it, could easily use it. A lot of the other stuff builds very well on typical computer concepts, though: warnings in red, confirmations in green, menu at the top, etc. That contributes to usability. It also interacts with user knowledge: if someone knows how to frob, the program is super easy to use. That means making large-scale explorations of what the menu holds and which commands are available. (Me, I know some of what to do, but not a lot of layers and my results are patchy.) If they aren't familiar enough with computers to do that, it'll take longer -- but the system still has logic that makes sense to most people. Once they read instructions or get a teacher, it's easy to use and remember, because of that foundation.
Not all of this is really visible, but you should be able to tell:
* The system is active but not complete.
* It's easy to enhance by turning things on or switching displays.
* It's simple to command, requiring few motions rather than a lot of hacking around.
* A significant number of people are already using it.
* It's complex enough that not everyone can figure it out immediately, even though some can, because it's a powerful system that does lots of things. You can make a big system intuitive and logical, but not simple.
* The ones who are stuck can get unstuck with a few hints.
* Even a teacher who knows the system but is only so-so at people skills can get people unstuck.
Give it a little while for folks to explore and find out what it can do, and most of them should get fluent soon -- as opposed to some systems where a company loads them and workers are still struggling with it weeks or months later because even reading the manual doesn't help much.
I'm not great on computers, but some folks are worse -- at least I know where to look. I'd start by checking what the menu had, and look for a FAQ or instruction tab, which it has. That would tell me what I needed to know. I might not notice the image/text toggle immediately because I'm not used to looking for it, but would probably stumble over it soon enough, and flip back and forth to see which I preferred. But because I'm not a computer person, I'd want someone to check my work to make sure I did it right. There's probably an option for that, if they found someone to do the job, like they did for the pricing interview.
Does that help any?