> Can you suggest anything we might do to make the blue box less forbidding?
I like the box. It says to me: here's a real neat packet of information you're going to need, though you don't know it yet. No harm if you pass it up on first reading. That's really what I meant by "forbidding" -- not quite the right term. Let's say: "official". But provide a clear way into the Mysteries for when the reader comes back to it. A link: "[What's this all about?]" would do that for me. I don't think the blue colour serves any purpose. It hints slightly it has something to do with the Moin topbar -- viz. nothing to do with the (J) content. It may conflict with other use of colour (though the code-blocks are coloured and that seems not to matter.) > ...it sounds like you know what you're talking about!! I've been a HF engineer. I've published papers in it. But don't let me kid you I can predict the results of experiments. I can't. Nobody can. (Else why would the experiments need doing?) Ian On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 10:18 AM, Sherlock, Ric <r.g.sherl...@massey.ac.nz> wrote: >> From: Ian Clark >> >> On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 4:07 AM, Sherlock, Ric wrote: >> >> Example. >> The scary words Monadic and Dyadic being the first things to hit you on >> a page. >> Remedy: try offering additional links: Monadic [...What's this?] ... >> Dyadic [...What's this?] ... -rather than hyperlinking just the words >> Monadic and Dyadic. It's not clear to a novice you'll go anywhere >> useful if you click a link saying Monadic, of all things! >> Find a novice and ask her: what do you think you'd see if you clicked >> that word? >> Many official websites for the general public use this trick: it works. > > This sounds like a very good suggestion to me. The next trick will be to add > the link without making it look yuk! > >> Another example. >> The forbidding blue box at the top right. >> Actually it whispers "for official use only" -- so the novice will >> filter it out, simply won't see it. >> Find a novice and ask her. Not: did you see that blue box? (answer: >> yes of course) but: what's the Part of Speech of "Ceiling"? >> Remedy: try sticking a link below it: "[...What's this blue box all >> about?]" > > Can you suggest anything we might do to make the blue box less forbidding? > Please feel free to change the current page to illustrate if that is easiest. > >> It goes without saying that these links are best provided on the >> template. They'll be on every page, but they'll only be clicked once. >> The big risk is they won't be clicked at all -- and the novice turns >> round and asks the very question they're there to answer. (Seen it >> happen.) >> >> Correct use of colour. >> (Robertson, P. J., A guide to using color on alphanumeric displays. >> IBM United Kingdom Laboratories, Winchester : 1979) >> Colour is supremely good for two things -- and two only: (a) drawing >> the eye, (b) implicitly asserting a relationship between separated >> objects. It's a survival mechanism: it lets you recognise a tiger even >> if there's a big tree trunk splitting its retinal image in two. But >> use colour sparingly, i.e. to support only one task at a time. >> Otherwise it soon becomes visual noise. >> >> If using colour for task support, avoid it for decoration. Even very >> intelligent people don't know the difference between task support and >> decoration when it comes to colour. Don't believe me? Then ask what >> task is supported by exhaustively colouring every verb, conjunction, >> etc (...suggested but not used yet). > > I must admit I'm a little bit lost here. My intention was that the colours > should help distinguish the part-of-speech that each primitive belongs to. > However I get the feeling that is the wrong answer or that I'm missing a > bigger point. My only agenda is that this should be a useful resource to J > learners, so please feel free to suggest and/or change whatever you think > might help us towards that goal - it sounds like you know what you're talking > about!! > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
