Andrew said: "Back to where I started, the effect of a bad interface on, for example, a set of online learning materials, is to be a distraction from the content and a slow-burn frustration for users. This doesn't necessarily have any impact at point of sale."
Well said. Especially true for educational software, where tens of thousands of units may be sold before anyone uncovers the flaws. Or cares, even if they do uncover them. Witness the ubiquitous WebCT, which I despise ... well, OK, let's say I really dislike it. It was widely adopted not because it was a great tool for the job, but because it was the best *available* tool and the education community was clamoring for such a tool to make distance learning more feasible -- which WebCT did, in its own clunky way, to the frustration of many students undertaking coursework on the Web. I look forward to the Next Big Thing in that market! It's probably arrived by now. Your point's well-taken about content driving the educational software market, too, Andrew. I think it should, but in this case the content delivery system can be almost completely disregarded -- and the real costs of that disregard (frustration, and ultimately failure) can be passed along to the end user. It isn't a real-world market because the buyers are insulated from the consequences of their flawed decisions. Happens a lot in government, too; that's how we get $900 hammers and $600 toilet seats for the U.S. Air Force. So in partial answer to this thread's overarching question, can we say that crappy interfaces are far less likely to sell when the end user is in control of spending, and can vote with his/her pocketbook? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24918 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
