Breaking the Mental Model - When is the Pain Justified?
By Sharon Haber on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007In a recent trip to the Bay Area, I had the pleasure of visiting a friend, who happens to also be a game designer and technophile. At some point I tried to use his computer to check my email and found, to my surprise, the most bizarre-looking keyboard I had ever seen.
Not only were the letters all out of order, but the space button was the size of a normal shift button, and placed only on one side! Being somewhat curious, and more than somewhat addicted to email, I decided to give it shot. After a few painstaking misspelled sentences, I began to feel perturbed. I realized my frustration was tied to the fact that I know how to use a keyboard, but this keyboard was simply not doing its intended job.
Later in this same trip, I had the mixed-pleasure of driving a Toyota Prius. Without any guidance, I plopped into the driver’s seat with the key, only to find there was no ignition, simply a power button . To make things even more interesting, the gear shifter was actually electronic and pushing the lever up puts the car in reverse, while pushing it down puts it in drive. Though I was excited by the new technology, I never really became accustomed to driving this car, even after several outings.
Certain mental models - like typing and driving, are so ingrained into our psyche that they become second nature. Forcing users to break these habits can actual cause physical discomfort. When does the benefit of a new technology outweigh the cost of frustration to the user?
The answer lies in the user’s human condition. The ergonomic keyboard is actually a source of relief for carpal-tunnel sufferers. The Toyota Prius, with its 60 mpg potential, is a huge relief to drivers suffering from the high gas costs (currently $3.30 in California). New technologies which break such ingrained conventions as typing, driving, or even clicking are more likely to be adopted if they are not forced upon the user, but consciously chosen by the user. As interface designers, it’s easy to get excited by new technologies such as AJAX, but if we want users to adopt, we have to find a way to make users see the benefit. How can Ajax relieve user pain?
Interesting points! I would think the big benefit of AJAX is efficiency–getting to do more faster on the web–when it works well!
I had to learn to drive a 3-wheel Cushman utility cart for my part-time job in college. I was accustomed to an automatic car and suddenly had to drive a teetering vehicle with a gear shift on my left. A tough adjustment! But thanks to that break in my mental model, I later learned to drive a manual car with ease.
Cool blog post! I don’t think Ajax necessarily breaks a mental model. At its best, Ajax surprises users by providing instant feedback to user interactions, the lack of which has been a source of much frustration to users in the past. Not having to constantly reload and go back and forth between pages is an enhancement. Ajax helps UI designers bring interaction rules we take for granted with all other devices to the web: instant, and often seamless responses to user action.