Thanks for sparking an interesting discussion, Robert. I agree with
your premise, too.
Among other ideas this discussion generated in me is an analogy with
music and poetry. Predictability in meter or rhythm is desirable and
usable, but so is variation. We want the familiarity and cohesiveness
of variation on a theme, rather than random variation.
I recently ordered something from despair.com, where they've done a
great job of marketing the art of the curmudgeon. At checkout time,
everything works as expected with a perverse twist. You get a message
something like "This is where we suck the money out of your bank
account and exchange it for the useless crap you've ordered." And
you're informed about how to exchange merchandise that isn't what
you expected ("as if we care"). And so on. The functional
predictability makes for good usability, and the unpredictability of
the messages makes it fun -- and consistent with the site's theme.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=29451
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