[Sigia-l] Re: Less Spatiality, More Semantics?

[Thomas Vander Wal]

On 3/25/03 11:54 PM, "Victor Lombardi" <victorlombardi at yahoo.com> wrote:

> This was one of the most thought-provoking sessions
> for me as well.

I wish somebody would have video taped it.  Does somebody have good notes on
this one?  I was presenting in another room and could not do both at the
same time.

> I came away thinking that both spatial and semantic
> navigation are important. After all, a simple visual
> grouping of labels implies they are related somehow,
> and the labels themselves have meaning. Dillon's
> emphasis on semantics was a reaction to the "spatial
> metaphor" topic of the talk, but actually he includes
> both in this thinking. I scribbled a model he showed
> from his book "Designing Usable Electronic Text" into
> my notebook...
> <http://www.noisebetweenstations.com/personal/third_party/dillon-shape-model.g
> if>
> And more of his thoughts on the "shape" of information
> can be found here:
> <http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~adillon/pubs.html>

I agree that proximity is important as it helps discern possible
relationships, if the proximity is discernable.  Other spatial metaphor
elements I am not so sure are greatly helpful and could be providing a poor
metaphor to think about information and the user beyond just browsing to
find the information.  The graphic helps, thank you.

I have been classifying the semantic as a cognitive receptor to the
information presentation and structure.  The vocabulary (shadings of
meaning, the community the terms represent (which discipline, and academic,
professional, or common terms) all have impact), writing style (including
storytelling, report, academic, consumer focused (catalog, advertising,
etc.), children, etc.),  and writing structure all can draw users in or
repulse them.  

There is a sensory receptor users also use to process information, which
includes visual and auditory senses.  Proximity is a sensory cue to the user
as it is a visual element, but also has connotations of nearness of ideas.
The visual presentation can draw users in or repulse them.  Users make value
decisions based on the visual presentations as well -- a Flash designer
looking for information on usability may find Jakob's site and think this
person does not have credibility just from the visual presentation and click
back.  This is only a very high level of understanding of sensory
presentation and we know it goes much deeper as there is color, shape,
sound, action, and other variables that connote meaning.

> My other thought was that learning theory tells us
> people learn in different ways: analytically, through
> storytelling, experientially, and yes, visually. Given
> the diversity of people and the diversity of
> applications I don't think there is one perfect
> balance of spatial and semantic navigation.

I completely agree there is no one perfect way.  There are many messages and
many human user types.  The shadings of difference are vast and matching the
message and the users is important.  We as IAs do a decent job focusing on
the human aspects (cognitive and sensory receptors) of information
retrieval, but often do not consider the mechanical (digital information
aggregation tools, which search engines use as do XML-based tools for more
personal aggregation) or physical elements (devices and their properties
such as storage, screen size, and bandwidth), which we really need to
consider if we are going to stay relevant in the future.

We need to think far beyond where navigation falls off as a useful tool for
us.  Navigation is a tiny useful tool in the information browsing fora, but
as we can see we much think and consider elements far beyond navigation.
Navigation also only helps with finding information or drawing the
information in front of the user, but does not permit us to think of how the
user will reuse that information or have the ability to keep that
information near him or her for better access when they need that
information.  Users not only want to find information, but want something
like a rough cloud of information to follow them to be used when and how
they require.

All the best,
Thomas