NYCPHP Meetup

[tedd]

At 4:45 PM -0400 8/28/09, Chuck Reeves wrote:
>On more solution would be to have a roll over the word/phrase that 
>will present the user with a list of articles matching that title. 
>This way for the Americas problem, the user can then choose which 
>article s/he would like to goto instead of letting the system decide 
>for them.  This will make they feel more empowered and smarter.

Many years ago there was a company who made a devise that played 
chess -- it was table-top piece of hardware. The company found they 
had a large number of returns where the units had been obviously 
damaged by the users.

They studied the problem and rewrote the algorithm to take more time 
to make the computer's move. As a result, they found that the 
incidence of repair dropped. It seems that the computer's move was 
too fast, which frustrated the players to the point of becoming 
violent. Slowing the computer down, gave the users a feeling that 
their move was worthy of timely consideration by the computer and 
thus lessened unfavorable user behavior.

We need to remember that user interfacing is part of what we do. If 
the user doesn't understand the process, then they won't trust 
outcome-- and if they don't trust, then we need to get them in the 
decision process until they do. It's called human engineering.

What complicated problems we find today, will have commonplace 
solutions tomorrow.

Cheers,

tedd

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