[Sigia-l] simulations and scenarios

[Peter Merholz]

I don't have personal experience with this, but it reminded me of something
I read.

I've subscribed to Ramana Rao's newsletter ("Information Flow", about
information design, information architecture, hci, visualization, etc.
etc.), and in his December 2002 issue:
http://www.ramanarao.com/informationflow/archive/2002-12.html

Section 6 has a section called:
Beauty and Utility, Anticipation, and Connected Intelligence

which links to an essay called
Anticipatory Computing
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/m_nadin_1.html

which takes an approach that is akin to what is being discussed here. The
basic premise that human behavior is fundamentally predicated on how we
anticipate responses to our actions.

--peter

----- Original Message -----
From: "christina wodtke" <cwodtke at eleganthack.com>
To: "sigia l" <sigia-l at asis.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 8:31 AM
Subject: [Sigia-l] simulations and scenarios


> Currently I'm reading the excellent book (with a kinda lame title) Sources
> of Power: How People Make Decisions
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262611465 and it's really gotten
me
> thinking about how we design.
>
> Sources of Power talks about mental simulation-- in which a person is
faced
> with a problem and quickly runs a set of potential solutions and their
> effects through his or her head. When a solution that looks likely to work
> is uncovered, the person then acts... Satificing, though, not satisfying.
> Not looking for the best design necessarily. Just looking for the one that
> works.
>
> It seems to me that we as designers do the same thing when creating
> interaction design and sometimes IA.  When under very tight deadlines, we
> probably all do simulations. When we have more time, we can create formal
> scenarios and perhaps more simulations beyond satisificing.
>
> But does anyone ever not do simulations? Does anyone *not* sit back, close
> your eyes for a second and picture the user wandering through a design?
>
> I'm curious to see if others solve problems in the same way, and if you
> perceive it to be helpful. I'm wondering if this is something that can be
> taught as an aspect of the design process, or if it is somehow intrinsic
to
> a individual designer's nature.
>
> c
>
>
>
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