ed-informatics.org

In past articles, we discussed human-illiterate computers, and we discussed usability, memorability, learnability and Tognazzini’s Paradox: how  changing a single word can make big differences in usability. We also discussed design integrity, simplicity, abstraction, and discount usability testing. Now, we’ll talk about personas. It seems to me that personas are a bit like Critical Incident […]

In the first of this series, I tried to persuade you that your computer was human-illiterate, and we defined and discussed usability, memorability, and learnability. In the second, we discussed Tognazzini’s Paradox: how the hardest part of designing an effective program is often what seems the most trivial – sometimes simply a matter of changing […]

The Whorf-Sapir hypothesis says that our language shapes our thoughts. (Recently, there was a segment on NPR news about how important dinnertime was for kids, mostly because the discussion is a great place to learn new words and concepts.) So here’s a vocabulary word to use and contemplate as you think about ED systems: “brittle.” […]