[Sigia-l] IA myths: conceptual model of navigation - was: mix ing applesand oranges and tomatoes

[Mike.Steckel at SEMATECH.Org]

Peter, I think you may be pushing what I said a little far. I agree with what
you (and Krug) say about satisficing (satisficification?). I am not saying they
look at all of the choices, create a mental site map, and select the best one. I
am saying they look at a couple of the available options, am I looking for
Fruit? Vegetables? Picnic supplies?, and pick the best one. They may look at 5
of available 30 options. To say they pick the "First choice available" could
imply they always pick the link in the upper left or the exact choice their eye
hits first. I think there is a modicum of decision making involved. They exclude
a couple. 

But, the few they look at tell them something about what else is on the site.
After they make their first choice, some assumptions are made about what is
behind the other curtains. These assumptions aggregate into a mental model of
expectations. It may not fit the site map at all, and that may not matter as
long as their assumptions are at least correct enough for them to successfully
use the site.

I also love the "muscle memory" analogy. It is a great one.

-----Original Message-----
From: PeterV [mailto:peter at poorbuthappy.com]
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 11:27 AM
To: Mike.Steckel at SEMATECH.Org; ErStewart at nea.org; sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] IA myths: conceptual model of navigation - was:
mix ing applesand oranges and tomatoes


I said:

 > Which to me seem one of the great myths of IA: this whole 
building-a-conceptual-model-of-the-navigation business.

and then Erin said:

>"As a user, I have "muscle memory" about where to click on a page (e.g., which
>portlet or tile) to accomplish certain actions or find certain info, but this
>doesn't translate to a "conceptual model of navigation" at 
>all.  Similarly, the
>convention of left-hand taxonomy doesn't help the user navigate per se - 
>it only
>helps us (sometimes) discover and recall the availability of content and it's
>granularity."

And then Mike said:

>Interesting point I have never considered. I might say that your "muscle 
>memory"
>is based on certain expectations you have developed semi-consciously while 
>using
>a certain site. I don't think users develop a very full picture of what a site
>may contain and where something might be, but instead that they make their
>choices of what's behind a certain label based on how they think a site is
>organized. This comes from evaluating a certain choice as compared to the 
>other
>available choices. The vague model comes from this evaluation of available
>options.

My turn :)
I love the "Muscle memory" metaphor for how users retrace their paths 
through a website. Good one Erin, that's definitely an example of a 
*useful* metaphor. It's gonna be a classic I'm sure.

When Mike says: "[...] evaluating a certain choice as compared to the other 
available choices", I don't agree. I don't believe (right now) users 
evaluate when using website. They satisfice - ie. pick the first choice 
available. Check out naturalistic decision making theory (try Google, can't 
find my links right now) for more on this.

Data point: I'm sure we've all seen users move between different sites 
without realising they're on a separate site. This argues against the 
"conceptual model of navigation" model.
PeterV
http://petervandijck.net