5 ms·
Mental Models
- brlewis 16y agoI have so got to deal with this with OurDoings. People (early adopters especially) have an ingrained model of how photo sharing works, because they're all albums plus something tacked on to the album model to try to make it better. A site that doesn't ask you to organize photos into albums is easier, but messes with that mental model. Does anybody have sucess stories of helping users overcome mental model inertia?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- zeteo 16y ago"Why not just type, say, www.bing.com into the URL field?" Because four keystrokes and a click are often quicker than twelve keystrokes.
- Dylanlacey 16y agoI think it needs to go further. I don't think users tend to form mental models, at all. To them, as I argued in http://d-flat.dylanlacey.com/2010/the-parable-of-the-magic-box http://d-flat.dylanlacey.com/2010/the-parable-of-the-magic-b..., computers are a magic box, not deterministic in any way. To assume that File->Print prints in all applications, based on it working for one, is forming a mental model. Time and time again, I've seen this NOT be the case. I think you need to form a decent balance between not surprising the user, and having an interface that's just different enough to make them form new mental models.