September 13 - Weekly reading reflections

 “More and more, we’re being asked to live with technology that is technically reliable, because it was created to fit our knowledge of the physical world, but that is so complex or so counterintuitive that it’s actually unusable by most human beings” (Vicente, 2003, p. 17).

Vicente’s broad view of technology, including both physical and ‘nonphysical stuff’ – those “softer” elements such as schedules, teams, staffing, etc. makes sense.  I think that by including these elements Vicente creates a stronger argument for considering the ‘human factor’.  It made me consider the fact that technology is more than simply hardware and software and necessarily needs to include a context – including the user and their particular environmental, physical, and social constraints.  I found the Vicente book to be very engaging and easy to read – the many ‘real world’ examples that he provides serve to make his points crystal-clear.

Nielsen’s Introduction to Usability fits in nicely with Vicente’s writing and addresses the steps that so many of Vicente’s examples seem to have neglected.  An iterative design process also makes sense and in many ways reflects what learners do when trying to master a new concept or task – we keep coming back to the concept or task and try again and again, making revisions along the way, and aiming for that perfect fit of ideas or processes.  It makes me think of learning to sail and learning to tack –  a little faster, a little slower, an adjustment for the wind, and eventually you’ve got it.  It doesn’t take very many 360˚ turns to know that your technique needs to change!