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→Basics of Psychology
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=Basics of Psychology= | =Basics of Psychology= | ||
Interaction Design is heavily influenced by psychology. No wonder - we are dealing with creating things that are used because of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation motivations] of the users and are easy to use because it | Interaction Design is heavily influenced by psychology. No wonder - we are dealing with creating things that are used because of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation motivations] of the users and are easy to use because it matches the way they [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science think.] | ||
What you should be aware of is that there are some things that are "expensive" regarding our cognition. One of | What you should be aware of is that there are some things that are "expensive" regarding our cognition. One of these things is learning new things and getting them into our long-term memory e.g. how you do a certain action in a program. An other is keeping things in short term memory. An example for this would be to remember which function you triggered previously or which item you copied into the clipboard. | ||
==Mental Models== | ==Mental Models== | ||
[[File:Honeywell_round_thermostat.jpg|200px|thumb|thermostat]] | [[File:Honeywell_round_thermostat.jpg|200px|thumb|thermostat]] | ||
[[File:Warmwasserheizung.jpg|200px|thumb|This works like you think]] | [[File:Warmwasserheizung.jpg|200px|thumb|This works like you think]] | ||
The way real world things work is represented in our mind as a so-called mental model. The whole world with all its properties can't get in our mind. It would be too much data and what we | The way real world things work is represented in our mind as a so-called mental model. The whole world with all its properties can't get in our mind. It would be too much data and what we perceive is heavily filtered anyway by our senses. | ||
A "good" mental model maintains - despite of the reduction of the real thing - the things that are relevant for the way we deal with the thing the mental model represents. | A "good" mental model maintains - despite of the reduction of the real thing - the things that are relevant for the way we deal with the thing the mental model represents. | ||
Lets take an example: The mental model about what the depicted controls do is the same for the most people. The mental model derives from the way the controls looks like and which effect turning them will have. Truning them more makes the room eventually hotter. Because they are turned we suspect a kind of valve working behind of them: turn more increases some kind of opening that allows more heat to flow through. | Lets take an example: The mental model about what the depicted controls do is the same for the most people. The mental model derives from the way the controls looks like and which effect turning them will have. Truning them more makes the room eventually hotter. Because they are turned we suspect a kind of valve working behind of them: turn more increases some kind of opening that allows more heat to flow through. | ||
Because both controls look almost the same it is | Because both controls look almost the same it is absolutely no wonder that we assume they work the same way. But they differ. The first one is really a valve and you really can regulate how far it is opened. The second one though is a thermostat. It works in a different way: The user sets a temperature. The heat begins to flow. If the pre-set temperature is reached it stops, if the temperature is lower it starts again. | ||
The mental model breaks if you want to use a | The mental model breaks if you want to use a thermostat to seed up the heating process. This often causes burned food as an oven has a thermostat too. So if you are hungry and want to get the pizza fast and you think "I just turn the knob a lot"... well, it does nothing except turning your food into a black-charcoal like whatsoever. | ||
If you are the engineer who build these systems it is totally clear for you how they work. As well it will be often the case that your mental model is differs from the one the users have. This itself is nothing to worry about and it happens all the time. But even if you are very clever you just can spot the | If you are the engineer who build these systems it is totally clear for you how they work. As well it will be often the case that your mental model is differs from the one the users have. This itself is nothing to worry about and it happens all the time. But even if you are very clever you just can spot the problems that it can cause if you test your ideas with your users and see if they act like you intended. | ||
=Basic Principles& Best Practices= | =Basic Principles& Best Practices= | ||