
UIs that lie & the users who believe them - chanux
http://northtemple.com/2010/02/01/uis-that-lie-and-the-users
======
godDLL
The gist: not only do people build mental models to interact with the world,
but they also derive such models from the world, and the model becomes a
person's understanding of the world's inner workings, and it's complexity. And
this is where design in general, industrial design in particular, and UI
design in the very particular comes in.

~~~
joezydeco
This seems like a rediscovery of Norman's writings on mental models:

[http://www.interaction-
design.org/encyclopedia/mental_models...](http://www.interaction-
design.org/encyclopedia/mental_models.html)

------
chadgeidel
I can really identify with this. A poor UI will drive user's thought
processes. Kind of like the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity>). When new users come
into the organization, their thoughts are shaped by the program used to do the
job.

Unfortunately at this stage no one seems to really know the business
processes, and the software now dictates the process (even when incorrect).
It's quite a struggle.

~~~
fefzero
I certainly bet it's a large struggle. The costs to redesign (based on the
real business process), implement, and train users on the new system would be
incredibly large. This is another reason to get things correct in the
requirements analysis when designing the original software. Unfortunately a
lot of software out there either didn't have that process or didn't do it well
- much of our software is based on the process that was optimized for a paper-
based system.

Does anyone have any experience with optimizing processes like this or data
about those costs?

------
seldo
This rings very true. UI shapes thought, in the same way that language has
been shown to. I wonder in what subtle ways our understanding of how computers
work has been shaped by the way we structure command line arguments, or the
existence of windows and mouse pointers? Will the iPhone/iPad produce a new
generation of computer users who think about software, in the same way that
web apps have (arguably) done?

