When is it too late to change an "accepted cultural convention in the computer world"? I ran into to albeit lighthearted taboo at work when i made it clear i had to look at the keyboard when i typed. Everyone(for the most part) accepts qwerty. we've learned broken metaphors, and adapted to innefficient and unintuitive input methods, because amongst other things humans are so adaptive. But if people working in this field can't look to change these things, who will?
Matt On 3/20/08, W Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Your right to the extent that many aren't right - or at least aren't right > anymore - and most metaphors we use in interaction/interface design are > partially broken. The other thing is that I wonder if the good academic > work > of HCI was actually happening after people already had come up with for > instance the signifiers (as icons), and the basic first order metaphors, > and > HCI as discipline came along later to sweep up the mess and try to put it > in > context. What spurned my thought was just reading some parts of Eco's > Semiotics and thinking about the cognitive processes behind the use of > labels/metaphors/icons to point to the signified (usually an action - not > noun), and how import/export just didn't make any sense to me - although I > have completely accepted it as the way things are. > > On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 7:56 PM, Uday Gajendar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > which you save it with a different name, and extension. So why use > > > words > > > whose meaning refers to space (import is moving to here, export is > > > moving to > > > there) - to mean translation? > > > > > > Aren't all metaphors inherently "broken"? :-) In the sense that no > > metaphor is 100% verisimilitude, but a language device to achieve a > > necessary, yet sufficient level of understanding to basically grok a > > concept, make it just *meaningful* enough to act on it given a certain > > context and situation. (and overcome difficulties in interpretation, > > as a sense-making device). I can't move real office windows around, i > > normally don't duplicate physical files and folders with a finger > > stroke, and animal mice don't have buttons. But i know through learned > > behavior, observation and cultural convention the computer > > "equivalents" work in specific ways (and evolve over time, like > > "spring loaded" folders and "wheel mice") and mean certain things. > > > > And, who knows what the inventors of import/export were thinking (I > > doubt East India Tea and tariffs)... Probably just wanted a quick one > > word for "bring data in" and "send data out" to use as a short > > command, twisted it to be about directionality, and it stuck for > > better or worse. Now it's simply accepted cultural convention in the > > computer world. Just deal with it :-) > > > > > > > > Uday Gajendar > > Sr. Interaction Designer > > Voice Technology Group > > Cisco | San Jose > > ------------------------------ > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > +1 408 902 2137 > > > > > > > > > -- > ~ will > > "Where you innovate, how you innovate, > and what you innovate are design problems" > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Will Evans | CrowdSprout > tel +1.617.281.1281 | fax +1.617.507.6016 | [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 > ________________________________________________________________ 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
