TDoET 2

Illustration of two basic problems users frequently encounter.

Once their plan for achieving a goal fails they have no idea what to do.   They falsely think the problem lies in their item lack of ability.

How do people do things? It's easy to learn a few basic steps to perform operations with our technology.  What happens when things go wrong?  How do we detect when things aren't working and then how do we know what to do? Role of understanding and emotions, pleasure when things work smoothly and frustration when our plans are foiled.

Two Gulfs : Execution and Evaluation - Execution is figuring out how something operates, Evaluation is figuring out what happened.  The gulf of execution is bridged by signifiers.  The gulf of evaluation is bridged by a good conceptual model and feedback.  Many people experience difficulties and explain them away by blaming themselves, whereas the difficulties usually lie in the design.

Seven stages of action

Three stages of execution (plan, specify, and perform), three stages of evaluation (perceive, interpret, and compare), and the goal.

The seven stage action cycle is simplified, but it provides a useful framework for understanding human action and for guiding design.

Meaning, it is a useful conceptual model about how people take actions.  Not all (or necessarily any!) of these are conscious.  Determining the actual goal is done by doing root cause analysis, which is simply asking "why" until you get to the root goal (how do you know you're there?).  The action cycle can start from the top, goal driven, or from the bottom, event or data driven.  The gulfs are the obvious places to start developing features.  The big players in finding the gulfs are observational skills and root cause analysis.  We need to understand this because things are designed to be used by people, and without this understanding designs will be faulty.  Most human behavior is at a subconscious level, thus the need for keen observational skills and root cause analysis.  Good example of root cause analysis: if someone comes into the hardware store looking for a 1/4" drill bit, you need to ask why they need it.  The first answer will likely be they need to make a 1/4" hole.  Don't stop there, ask why they need the 1/4" hole.  It could be they need to hang a picture, mount a bookshelf, safety strap shelving to the wall, or look inside the wall.  Depending on the answer you may suggest some alternatives to needing to make the hole, non damaging tape for hanging pictures, shelving that doesn't require attaching to the wall, or you may need to dig deeper, and find out why they need to look into the wall.  Safety strapping probably requires that they drill a hole though.