[Sigia-l] Re: Findability

[Ken Bryson]

>
> Findability trys to amke it easy to find data/information/whatever by
> presenting it in a certain way - a way that presents most
> information in
> the best way at the expense of maybe obscuring other information from
> being found. This is the Mac way of doing things.
>
> At the other end of the spectrum is presenting all the data in a
> structured manner. It may not be easy to find something but you'll
> eventually be able to find everything. This is the Unix way.
>


I would say this is an apt description of findability, though ironically at
odds with PeterMe's findability article on B&A:

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/the_age_of_findability.php

In Peter's test case for findability (he can't find the washrooms in the
airport because of poor signage...), the designers of the terminal did
practice the kind of findability described above. They presented users with
plenty of signage to get them to their gates and on their planes, perhaps
because they assumed from their task analysis that that is the primary
reason you came to the airport.

They precisely "presented most (important) information in the best way at
the expense of maybe obscuring other information from being found" such as
the washrooms.

If findability is based on presenting the most important information (or
most relevant, or most often sought, etc.) then there will always be an
assumption on the part of the designer, and potentially important
information will always be lost. (Peter correct me if I'm misreading this
whole findability thing).

Derek R's problem with this is the subjective nature of choosing what's
important, but that's a problem that has always existed and always will when
you attempt to structure a set of data into information for a particular
purpose.



-kb