[Sigia-l] Skill based interfaces (was Coat Hanger Usability)

[Stew Dean]

At 19:56 01/03/2004, Scott Nelson wrote:
>On Monday, March 1, 2004, at 11:35  AM, Lyle_Kantrovich at cargill.com wrote:
>>For example, what is the basic measure of
>>"usability" of a BMW car?
>
>Pet peeve: this industry (the entire tech industry as well) needs to come 
>up with a better example than the automobile.
>
>It seems like people quickly forget the extensive period of instruction 
>that goes into driving a car: this is not an example of a seamless system 
>- if it were truly "usable" we wouldn't need the extensive series of 
>licensing procedures & penalties that exist around the world, nor would 
>the automobile be amongst the deadliest man-made machines in the world.

Only if 'usable' means intuitive - which to me it does not. I do several 
things that I had to learn to do - like touch type and play the guitar. The 
guitar is not intuitive and requires some time to learn. I call these skill 
based interfaces. If someone is going to be doing a task over and over then 
transparency of interface overrules the need for it to be intuitive. For 
example in the right hands a command line interface can carry out tasks 
quicker than a windows interface.

I tend to down play the term usability as often the best interfaces are not 
the most clear and easy to use, instead they might be interesting or 
require some skill that rewards the user and leads to an improved 
experience overall.

Quick example some of you may be familiar with. If anyone has played a 3D 
first person game then the typical 'wasd' set up is easier to use than the 
intuitive interfaces of some 3D space viewers (they tend to use various 
different mouse modes like walk and fly).  I can move through space very 
quickly using the key set up in games like Unreal and Half Life but 
'intuitive' interfaces make things really difficult.

Anyone know of any one who has done any work on 'skill based interfaces'? 
The car being a good example.

Cheers

Stew Dean