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13 December 2001 meaning and action
Meaning is in the mind. A word means something to a person. The same word may
mean a different thing to a different person (or if presented in a different
context).
Tasks and actions are understood in terms of cause and effect. An effect is
intended by an action, that is, there is a goal which the action is intended
to achieve. Tasks are actions under a different description. Tasks and
actions also have meaning only in the mind, although their repercussions will
be in the physical world, as the instantiation of the (mental) intention.
Computers are usually a means to an end. Users mostly do not want to use
computers, it is merely that todays technology is a suitable instrument
for effecting a goal. Users want the goal and think in terms of the goal.
A common way of using computers is to have them present a metaphor for a
task, action, activity, object or whatever to a user, to assist the user in
achieving a goal - the metaphor allows the user to distinguish tasks, objects
etc from one another within the overall scheme that is presented by the
computer by promoting particular metaphoric features which attach to the
computer presentation and also mean something to the user.
Typical media for computer metaphors are sounds and images, although touch
and smell are also used and in some cases feedback assists user interaction
(as with cursor and mouse movement, and feedback joysticks).
3D objects and space add to the richness of the metaphor, and can stand for actions,
tasks and meanings in the mind of a user (regardless of how e.g. an action
or its goal is to be achieved).
Hence these 3D objects represent ideas in the mind of a user as a natural
extension of the well etablished notion of the metaphor. An interface
composed of such objects represents a set of ideas in the user mind,
regardless of how meaning, task or action takes hold in the physical world.
Indeed meaning, action and task may take hold in the world in different ways
on different days (as in the principle of polymorphism, or according to
available physical means, or user context, or whim). The one thing which
is constant and reliable in the metaphor is what it means to a
specific user - what is in the user mind.
Indeed not only is it beyond the knowledge of many users how in general such
interfaces act on [and in] the world, but also these meanings, tasks and
actions are explained by merely redescribing the user intention at some
other level of description (or abstraction or sub-task) which
redescribes some part of the physical world in terms of the task
or action or meaning which the user has in mind. I.e. the metaphor
runs all the way down, even for savvy users.
The role of media content (sounds, images, interactions etc) is to stimulate
meaning in the user mind. To be useful to the user, meaning is in terms of user goals.
The user is the author of his or her goals and precise meaning is unique
to an ocassion (a matter of psychology).
The role of media content is thereby to stimulate thought/ideas in the user;
to remind the user of ideas and their relative organisation or relevance,
and to help the user achieve this conceptual organisation. To inform by
representing ideas and to provide a way of focussing user attention on
one or other user-meaningful task, action, activity, object, process etc.
13 December 2001
www.rooms3d.com © Copyright EiDoxis Limited 2001
Addendum 17 March 2002
Re: "metaphor runs all the way down, even for savvy users" the most savvy
users are programmers. Experienced programmers are familiar with the technique
known as top-down stepwise refinement, which does just this - it breaks down
a high level user-terminology metaphor into constituent sub-metaphors.
Top-down stepwise refinement delivers abstractions of the user view appropriate
to some particular level of program operation.
17 March 2002
www.rooms3d.com © Copyright EiDoxis Limited 2001
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