SIGIA-L Mail Archives: RE: Re: SIGIA-L: ZUI hatred
RE: Re: SIGIA-L: ZUI hatred
From: Lyle_Kantrovich_at_cargill.com
Date: Sun Mar 24 2002 - 18:24:23 EST
Here are my take-aways from this discussion:
1. ZUI's likely won't work well for you (as a user) if you aren't
familiar with the dataset. E.g. if you're not the one who took the
photos, then organizing them by film roll doesn't help you. Same thing
if you're a designer looking for a photo with "good reds" in it.
2. If the "atoms" represented all look very similar, then a visual ZUI
will suffer greatly. E.g. think of a navigating a bunch of project
proposals all created with the same Word template -- the only
differences on the cover page might be the customer name, date, and
project name -- visually from a "zoomed out" perspective they would all
look nearly identical. Even IF the ZUI can visually represent every
file type, sometimes visually differentiating between files/atoms can
be very difficult for the user. For example, take 2 Photoshop files -
one that is flattened and one that has all the "layers" intact in the
file -- visually they look identical. The same for an HTML file with
and without javascript code in it.
3. You can't talk about the merits of any type of interface without
first considering who the user/types of users are as well as the task
they are trying to accomplish. You also have to consider the types of
content you're navigating.
Regards,
Lyle Kantrovich
User Experience Architect
Cargill
http://www.cargill.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: cwodtke_at_eleganthack.com [mailto:cwodtke_at_eleganthack.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 1:50 PM
To: sigia-l_at_asis.org
Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: ZUI hatred
What I'm enjoying best about this conversation is I'm discovering what
ZUI's
work for and what they do not.
I grew to hate ZUI's -- I think-- because they were begin misused, not
because they are intrinsically worthless.
once I stayed in an 11 dollar a night hotel on the Idaho border that was
really charming as well as cheap. I can't find it. Would a ZUI help me?
No.
a search might get me there, but then a zoomable interface might allow
me to
see what points of interest there are around it, or how it fit into a
larger
trip plan.
So far it seems ZUI's are good for orienting and displaying certain
kinds of
relationships. They seem to fail when there is a lot of information.
Dan's comment about flying above a maze made me wonder what a ZUI for
flamenco might look like.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Henick" <persist1_at_io.com>
To: <sigia-l_at_asis.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 10:58 AM
Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: ZUI hatred
> On Sun, 24 Mar 2002, Christina Wodtke wrote:
>
> > and you were able to easily use this to find Waukee?
>
> Bah! Would she have brought it up if she wasn't?
>
> If you know where to start looking, and if the datum exists, of
course you
> can find it (unless the datum was described improperly to begin with).
>
> That's half the point behind this "hatred" - if you don't know that
the
> datum exists, and/or don't know where to begin your search, the task
has
> just become a great deal more difficult.
>
> Suppose, for example, that you had to find an obscure village in
Provence
> that is reputed to have a hidden-secret, world-class bakery - and you
only
> vaguely remember its name. Knowing that it's in Provence alone isn't
much
> help.
>
> For systems that can't be described spatially as a matter of course,
the
> task is yet more difficult.
>
> I will butt out now.
>
>
> --
> Ben Henick
> Web Author At-Large Managing Editor
> http://www.io.com/persist1/ http://www.digital-web.com/
> persist1_at_io.com bmh_at_digital-web.com
> --
> "Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?"
> "I think so, Brain, but... (snort) no, no, it's too stupid."
> "We will disguise ourselves as a cow."
> "Oh!" (giggles) "That was it exactly!"
>
>
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