Protos

@www.asktog.com/basics/

We find a nice list of interaction points.

e.g.,

Metaphors, Use of

Choose metaphors well, metaphors that will enable users to instantly grasp the finest details of the conceptual model. Good metaphors are stories, creating visible pictures in the mind. Bring metaphors alive by appealing to people’s perceptions–sight, sound, touch, and kinesthesia–as well as triggering their memories. Metaphors usually evoke the familiar, but often add a new twist. For example, Windows 95 has an object called a briefcase. Like a real-world briefcase, its purpose is to help make electronic documents more portable. It does so, however, not by acting as a transport mechanism, but as a synchronizer: Documents in the desktop briefcase and the briefcase held on portable media are updated automatically when the portable media is inserted in the machine.

Ok but how do you do that ^^ – I personally find that the WIMP model it self lacks the possibility to make truly intuitive applications. Sure you can learn what the elements mean “[X]” will close a window etc.

But intuitive will it never be – its just a random icon ascribed a meaning. I struggle almost daily with vendors defining intuitive icons, most icons just aren’t…

I think we are getting sidetracked by Ferdinand de Saussure’s model of language only applied to visual aesthetics.

IMHO there is no reason not to believe that the visual language of today is just the first weak steps. It will probably take hundred of years to refine it to something that is intuitive as spoke language.

Anyway I am babbling – Asktog list is nice.