The article on Cognitive Artifacts by David A. Norman deals with the theories and
principles of artifacts as they relate to the user during execution and completion of
tasks. These principles and theories that Norman speaks about may be applied to any
graphical user interface, however I have chosen to relate the article to the interface
known as Windows 95.
Within Windows 95, Microsoft has included a little tool called the wizard that guides us
through the steps involved in setting up certain applications. This wizard is a very
helpful tool to the non experienced computer user, in the way that it acts like a to-do
list. The wizard takes a complex task and breaks it into discrete pieces by asking
questions and responding to those questions based on the answers. Using Norman's
theories on system view and the personal view of artifacts, we see that the system views
the wizard as an enhancement. For example, we wanted to set up the Internet explorer,
you click on the icon answer the wizard's questions and the computer performs the work.
Making sure everything is setup properly without the errors that could occur in
configuring the task yourself. The wizard performs all the functions on its little to-do
list without having the user worrying about whether he/she remembered to include all the
commands. On the side of personal views the user may see the wizard as a new task to
learn but in general it is simpler than having to configure the application yourself and
making an error, that could cause disaster to your system. The wizard also prevents the
user from having to deal with all the internal representation of the application like
typing in command lines in the system editor.
Within Windows 95 most of the representation is internal therefore we need a way to
transform it to surface representation so it is accessible to the user. According to
Norman's article there are "three essential ingredients in representational systems.
These being the world which is to be represented, the set of symbols representing the
world, and an interpreter." This is done in Windows by icons on the desktop and on the
start menu. The world we are trying to represent to the user is the application, which
can be represented by a symbol which is the icon. These icons on the desktop and on the
start menu are the surface representations the user sees when he goes to access the
application not all the files used to create it or used in conjunction with the
applications operation. With the icons a user can retrieve applications and their files
by a click of a button. The icons lead the user directly into the application without
showing all the commands the computer goes through to open the application. The icons
make the user more efficient in accomplishing tasks because it cuts done on the time of
trying to find an item when the user can relate what he/she wants to do by the symbol on
the icon.
Another example of an artifact within Windows 95 that exhibits Norman's theories is the
recycle bin. This requires the user to have a direct engagement with the windows
explorer and knowing the right item to delete. As a user decides that he no longer
desires a certain program and chooses to delete the item, he is executing a command that
will change the perception of the system. By selecting the item to delete the user has
started an activity flow which involves the gulf of evaluation and the gulf of execution.
Either of these gulfs could be perceived differently by the user then by the system so
Windows 95 prompts the user with a dialog box asking if the user is sure he/she wants to
remove this item from the system and it prompts again when emptying the recycle bin.
What the user intends to do and what the system plans to do might not be the same so by
prompting the user for action we are double checking that this is what the user has in
mind. However when windows prompts us with the confirmation message, we are breaking the
scheduled activity flow. The main problem with halting the activity flow is that it
breaks the user's attention, however when deleting an item you could have selected the
wrong item by mistake and without the break in activity flow the outcome could be
dangerous. Norman calls these breaks "forcing functions which prevent critical or
dangerous actions from happening without conscious attention."
The artifacts discussed above using Windows 95 graphical user interface are very similar
to the theories and principles that Norman suggests in his article. Norman has stressed
that cognitive artifact should follow three aspects which I feel Windows has dealt with.
Windows 95 in itself has been made so that it is adaptable to the user whether he/she be
an experienced user or not, by creating artifacts like icons and menu bars that are all
related to one another. This makes it easier for the user to adapt to its environment
and continue computing happily.
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