Well - I guess what it boils down to - at least in terms of user friendliness - is that your interactions with your surroundings does not surprise you. That is: things act the way you expect them to act (as Don Norman tells us in "The Design of Everyday Things"). But why is it, then, that people acting in unexpected ways are not categorized as "not very user friendly"? But rather as excentric?
I sometimes loose my temper with my kids and yell at them. This often (or maybe always?) happens when I've either told them to stop some activity or start it (e.g. getting dressed) a number of times. If my kids knew for a fact that I would consistently "explode" after 3 requests they would know what to expect from me - but as this varies (depending on how stressfull a day I've had or how tired I am) they don't really know, and I'm thus not very user friendly.
Could it be that our interaction with all things mechanical are subject to the same variations. So one day we find the soda machine working fine - but two days later (around 8PM) it's the worst piece of junk?
Just wondering
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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