[Sigia-l] Findability

[Derek R]

Eric wrote: 
>| Would someone (maybe Karl Fast
>| who's already asked) please reply 
>| off-list as to what this thread is about... 
>| I'm completely lost

Nobody's saying a user/person cannot ask for help.

What I am clearly saying is that your 'help' is not a *requirement* for
use. Users/persons are capable of (and prefer) choosing their own 'way'
and ordering *off-the-menu,* so to speak.

If the user/person is a newbie (never eaten here before, etc.) or simply
clueless, like yourself, please -- ask for 'help.' Nobody's saying the
'salesperson' can't step in and do their job:

>| Customer: What's today's special?
>| Waiter: Breast of chicken.


The way I see 'findability' and Lou's 'helping the user' is akin to
telling the user/person about 'today's specials' whether they want to
hear it or not.

Maybe this behavior is 'ok' under the premise of walking into a
restaurant and sitting down at a table -- but in 'information space'
like the WWW/Internet there is *no precept* attached to use. 

*Assuming* the user/person always wants to *buy/find* something in
particular is 'preemptory.' You cannot know the user's motives! The
philosophy of throwing everything including *the kitchen-sink* at
someone in the hope that volume will suffice for accuracy -- is to sink
into the burlesque, as I have said before.

It would be better for the 'system/architecture' to ask for
clarification-of-task (Matt 5:37) in order to get the desired response.
This method prefers 'precepts' before 'concepts,' which is an exact
appropriateness of language to meaning (semantics) before promiscuous
classification.   

Information Architects, in arranging information for use (sorting),
would do well to remember this -- that users/persons are going to
*insist* on their autonomy (especially in the presence of demands for
referential or thematic unity -- i.e. categories) so that often, when
given *only* a choice of 'steak' or 'fish' for dinner, for instance,
many people will assert their right to choose 'lasagna:'

Doctor: What was it we had for dinner tonight?
Elaine: Well, we had a choice: steak or fish.
Doctor: Yes, yes, I remember, I had lasagna.

	 	 	 	 - from the movie "Airplane!"