Kym Pagel - Week 6 Blog

I'm looking at an online application, Yahoo new user registration. Since I went to the registration page of many different sites trying to find on that implemented instructive design, I was surprised to see that Yahoo is using some of the tools that Hoekman mentioned in his book.
For example there are default values in a medium gray tone to indicate which values should go into certain fields (First Name, Last Name, Day, and Month).
Also, when a user clicks into the text box to enter that information, two things happen. First, either (1) an explanation for why the data is required by Yahoo, or (2) instructions on what to input, appears on the right. I'm not sure if the first is necessary but its certainly nifty. The second thing is that when the user clicks on fields that have strict requirements, like the password field for example, the requirements are listed below the text box.
There are even little check marks displayed next to correctly inputted data, much like the example in Hoekman's book.
I have to complain though about one thing that isn't entirely correct. Under the security question it states to give an answer of at least four characters, but will actually also accept one, two, or three characters.

Week 06 Blog Assignment

This has been a busy week with a major project due and the first exam. But we need to keep moving forward in our book, Designing the Obvious. I hope you’re enjoying it and that you agree it’s better than reading most textbooks. Please let me know!

For this week, we turn to Chapter 5, “Turn Beginners Into Intermediates, Immediately.” It’s an interesting topic with a number of challenges. A user can be naive about a new application but an expert in something else. Or a user can be naive in general about technology.

For this assignment, select one of the techniques in Chapter 5 and show how it might be applied to your Project #4. OR… if you’re tired with Project #4 (!), find an online application (tell us what it is and provide a link) and explain how one or more of the techniques are used effectively in that site. (Do not choose one of the examples in the chapter.)

Andrew DeVoe - Blog Post #5

The user's mental model is the way the user perceives it to function for their needs. This differs from an implementation model because the implementation model does not incorporate the needs of every individual. It is simply a rough idea of what would be 'ideal' in the design, but it doesn't have everything that's needed. It may include fancy tech features that aren't needed simply because they can be added, but it doesn't match up with the needs of the users.

Enrique Pérez Blog #5

In thinking about how mental models relate to project 4, I agree with Hoekman in that users attach meaning to objects they use that reflect themselves. However, inanimate objects with personalities do not exist. Therefore, a users mental model for interacting with a device that has a personality is themselves or another human being. On the other hand, an implementation model for project 4 would be technical, focusing on abilities rather than personally interacting with the user.

Ryan Cortese - Blog 5

The users mental model is something that user thinks that might happen if they are to use a feature of the product. They think soley based on their needs and what they would intuitively think might happen when they used a product in a certain way.

The implementation model of the programmers is much more widely based. They cover all aspects and uses of the products and simplify them down to individual functions and often times can over think what needs to happen for each one. This creates a stark contrast to what a user simply wants, is something that works.

Blog 5-Steve Flockenhaus

A user's mental model is what a user thinks a particular object can do for them; nothing more, nothing less.  For instance, many people often simply use a broom for simply just a broom. However the personality of a broom is far broader than just sweeping the floor.  A broom can be used as a means of floor hockey or whiffle ball.  A broom can be used to reach a high object or sweep up a mess.  A broom doesn't have to just be a broom.   

A user's mental model can be specific to just one user.  Multiple users will very rarely have the same mental model of what something can be used for, especially in programming.  That being said there is bound to be conflict between the mental model of a user and that of a programmer.  Often times programmers design with the needs of a user in mind, but the needs of one user are not necessarily the needs of even one other user.

Mark Rodriguez- Blog #5

A user's mental model is one that is envisioned by the user in an aesthetically and intuitively pleasing way. They don't have to know exactly what it is they're doing, but if what they're doing does what they think they want to be done then this is the mental model they have portrayed about using the program, refrigerator, keys etc.

On the designer side of things, they aim to design something for it's primary purpose of the product. They design things from a standpoint where they know exactly how everything is manipulated in the background. They know the process that is going on in order to carry out the command that they're looking to finish.

Numero Cinco - Nik Spurgetis

With respect to an object's (in the case of Project 4, this will either be keys or a refrigerator) personality and surrounding interactions, a user's mental model is that it will, to the most feasible extent, act as if it has a personality/emotions. In other words, it will react and communicate positively or negatively in response to various stimuli in such a manner that human users will experience some degree of pathos toward the object with the ultimate goal of changing or maintaining certain behaviors.

In contrast, the implemenation model that a programmer of such an object might have is a detailed picture of integrated components--logistical concerns such as power; mechanics by which stimuli are received (cameras/RFID/etc.), and communication achieved (lights/speech synthesis/etc.)--as well as the underlying programming to manipulate said components to create the illusion of a human personality.

blog 5- Janelle Velkoff

1.) What is the user’s mental model with respect to an object’s personality and surrounding interactions?
The users mental model is how they personally perceive the object to work before they really know anything about it. It's what a user initially thinks an object will do without anyone explaining exactly how it works. Just looking at the object and assuming its function.

2.) How might this mental model contrast with the implementation model of the programmers?
I think the mental model would probably contrast the implementation fairly strongly, since the programmers are thinking of the object and exactly how it works. It seems like the programmer's implementation model would be very detailed and specific as to how the object work and what they are capable. Since the implementation model of the programers would include their knowledge of how the object actually works, I think it would be quite a bit different than how a user thinks it might happen to work. Knowing how something is designed gives you a much different picture in your mind.

Blog 5 - Jeff Lewis

The user's mental model is how the user thinks the product works. The user's mental model of a refrigerator is a box that gets cool when you plug it in and it keeps your food fresh. The know to store food in this box and take it out when they want to eat it. On the other hand, programmers think in more detail with an implementation model. They would think of every detail of how the refrigerator gets cold and stays at that certain temperature.

Blog Assignment 5

When my team started project 4, we realized that a refrigerator is more than just a cold box that holds food. When a user looks at a refrigerator, yes, the top-level mental model is of a cold box with food inside, but there are layers of implications packaged within that model. A fridge is a staple of most established households, and thus a symbol of a certain level of achievement in life. This is important, especially in approaching a project where we intend to imbue a product with more than its usual physical attributes (i.e., a personality, interactive capabilities). Any personality would have to be designed to assist and build upon this mental model. If a refrigerator is also an affirmation of a certain status, its personality should follow the same lead.

For a designer, the concern with a refrigerator would be more on the functional side of the product’s implementation. First and foremost it is to be a cold box that holds food. Everything else is a secondary consideration. Luckily for the designer, a normal refrigerator comes with the status affirmation inherent in the product’s existence. However, for an interactive refrigerator, the designer would have to be careful to not design a personality that would be out of character for a refrigerator.

Blog Assignment 5

In order to be understood as having a particular kind of personality, the keys we are designing for project 4 must fit the user's mental model for this personality type. The mental model is composed of the particular kind of traits that distinguish a personality type: we must first understand these traits in order to transfer them into our keys.

The programmers implementation-model often focuses on covering all of the bases rather than designing with the user in mind. Programmers can often get to carried away with one aspect, or miss the target of fitting the users model all together. Often times the implementation-model can come out cold, rigid, and to abstract to fit the user's mental model.


Tanner Sheridan

James Berghoff-Blog Assignment 5

The users mental model of an object is what they feel the object does for them. It is how they think the object will work when they use it in a certain way. Like the thermostat example, a user feels that cranking up the temperature will make them warmer faster, however the "personality" of the object does not work in that way.

This model contrasts with the implemenation because, the designers do not create the object to the exact needs of the users. They do not know how every user plans on using the object and in what way. Also, if the user is unaware of how exactly the object works, then their theory of how it works for them is different than how the design was made.

Blog Assignment 5

A user’s mental model with respect to an object’s personality and surrounding interactions can be explanations of a user’s thought process about how things work in the real world. The user’s mental model is generally what people experience and what people see or use. Simply, it is just what people feel of certain object. This mental model can contrast with the implementation model of the programmers because the implementation model is what programmers feature while everyone’s mental model can differ. While the implementation model can cause confusing features or features that do not make sense to some people, the mental model won’t have problems like those due to different perspectives of people. There is a little chance of the programmers having the same understanding as that of the users for certain product.

Chris Hall - Blog #5

For an object with a personality that one can interact with, the user’s mental model will be how they think the object works or functions. In other words their mental model will be like a picture of how the object works. As Robert Hoekman says “it doesn’t have to be the truth, and usually isn’t, it just has to settle our heads enough to let us sleep at night”. This means that most users’ mental models of how something works will not be accurate, it just as to make since to them.

In contrast an implementation model is designed, as Hoekman says “usually, to please the geeks that create them”. This means, as Hoekman describes in his book, that they require much more knowledge of how the object works compared to a mental model. Indeed this extra knowledge also has to be accurate in order to accomplish your intended task. That is not to say that implementation models are bad, just that for the majority of the population they are not very useful.

Bethany Hufford - Blog 5

A user's mental model is what they believe to be true, based on experience, that helps them understand what something is and how to use it. For our project we choose to use the keys. A user generally doesn't believe that keys have a personality. However, they do interact with doors and other objects by allowing them to open and lock or unlock. The largest contrast with the programmers model is the aspect of a personality. Keys don't talk or generally give information and users will not have a mental model formed for this, but a programmer designing it will.

Evan Samuels - Blog post #5

For project 4, the device I am designing around is the fridge. When using a fridge, context is very important, but it ought to focus more on the users' mental models instead of on a rigid implementation model. As Hoekman said in the book, the device shouldn't focus on everything, just the most urgent items that are most relevant to the user's experience.

When people put food into their fridges, they usually just put things into the fridge and let them sit until they feel they need to eat them- they do not always eat the food they put in there right away. If an implementation model is used, the fridge would track every item of food and report as many stats on as possible on each item of food (healthiness, total time in fridge, freshness, recommend similar foods, ....).

However, the fridge needs doesn't need to focus on all the items in the fridge , but it needs to focus specifically on what is most important to the user. Because fruit and vegetables are important parts of a human's diet, but go bad easily, the firdge would analyze these more closely so that they don't go bad and the user can eat them and get their nutrition. Another example is if the user doesn't eat enough breakfast, breakfast foods like oranges and milk should be the items that are reported on more than other items. If the fridge has a playful personality, it may report on more sweets and comfort foods and may ignore more healthy foods instead of reporting on all foods.

Evan Samuels - Blog post #4

When reading everyone else's blog 4 posts, they all say that comments from individual users are not important. To an extent, I agree with this because we are learning that designs need to be as simple and easy to use as possible. However, design is as much about usefulness as it is simplicity. Sometimes the most simple design is not the most useful. Granted, like Hoekman said in the book, you must scrutinize each and every feature, stripping everything down to bare bones. This allows you to focus on all of the features that all most important to the task, and then you can start considering what other users find most helpful and useful, while always keeping simplicity in mind. In conclusion, clean your slate and start off with pure simplicity and once you have all of the necessary things out of the way, only then can you consider other helpful features for the rest of the users.

For project 2, the way I would redesign the exercise bike is take away everything and keep the only necessary functions to support the intended task, which is working out for a set period of time at a set resistance. I would take these two functions the main focus and allow the user to change these as needed. All the other workout options, calorie count, and heart rate are unecessary can be combined into one button to clear space. If the user wants to choose a specific workout or check their calories or heart rate (or other options), they can press the respective button that leads them to other options. However, time and resistance are the main focus.

Week 05 Blog Assignment

First, let me say that most of you responded with insight to Week 04’s blog assignment. I appreciate that you took the assignment seriously! Well done!

For this week, we turn to Chapter 4, “Support the User’s Mental Model.”

As you begin to think about project #4, what is the user’s mental model with respect to an object's personality and surrounding interactions? 

How might this mental model contrast with the implementation model of the programmers? (Don’t get too involved with this one.) 

A short answer (a few sentences) for each question should suffice. (Obviously you can read the answers of other people and paraphrase what they wrote, but that doesn't help your understanding very much. TRY to answer these questions before looking at the responses of your peers.

Andrew DeVoe - Blog #4

Firstly, no, the user is not always correct. Nor are they incorrect. Designers look at what the users needs are, and from there they base what features should be added out of necessity. In most cases simple is better, and just because a user requests a certain feature does not mean it would be beneficial to all users that that feature is included. This is how Hoekman views this.

Interface surgery:

Honestly, when our group redesigned the stationary bike, we already had the 'less is more' philosophy in mind. It's about as basic as you could get a machine such as this without making it cease to function. However, if I had to change one thing, it would be to add an 'advanced options' menu so that you aren't limited to just biking to a set amount of resistance for a set amount of time.