Re: [kidsUI] Pause and restart

[Alfredo Kengi Kojima <kojima@inf.ufrgs.br>]

On Tue, 25 Apr 2000, Doug Loss wrote:

It took me a while to reply to this, due to lack
of time, but here we go..

> Terry Hancock wrote:
> >
> > I would like to reemphasize that kids are actually very flexible about
> > what they can learn on the computer. "Cognates" are mainly of use to
> > people already proficient in a language.  When you're learning from
> > scratch it doesn't really matter that much.
> >
> 
> But what we're trying to do is to make the initial contact with the UI as
> "intuitive" as we can, right?  For that reason I thought it might be a good
> idea to have the various active areas represent some physical equivalent
> whenever possible rather than some a priori symbol.  I'm far from an expert in
> such things, though, and would welcome more experienced comment.
>

I agree with Doug. The analogies used in computer systems
are meant to turn completely abstract operations done by
the machine into something more concrete or "touchable" by
people. They aren't meant to be an "emulation" of the real
object.

As for the symbols, I read in a book from Piaget 
that children from 6-11 years have the tendency to "invent"
connections or cause/effect relationships for anything,
even things that do not have any intended relation.
So, I think that's something we could use.
Possibly by inventing a set of very distintictive symbols
and always use them consistently, as a kind of simple language. 
These symbols would not be necessarily used on their own,
but as additional hints for the meaning of another icon.

> >
> > I think what is most important for kids is that the symbols for doing
> > different things are clearly identifiable as symbols, and distinct
> > from each other, the real explanation of what they do will become
> > clear from use -- I mean the disk drive will never act _exactly_
> > like a bookcase, and there may be simple things you want to do that
> > have no "real world" analog, but that doesn't mean you can't do them.
> >
> 
> That's true, of course.  But if consistent analogies between the real world
> and the UI can be used, it might make the process of learning to use the
> system quicker and easier.  Where there isn't a real-world analog, we would
> certainly have to come up with something "from the whole cloth."
> 

I agree with Terry, but as I said before, the point of the analogies
is to make it easier to learn and to give clues from where you
can draw conclusions without the need for constant help (someone
telling you what does what). Of course, it's not always possible to find
good analogies, in that case there would be the need to invent new symbols
that depict such actions or objects.

--
Alfredo

> --
> Doug Loss                 Even if you're on the right track,
> Data Network Coordinator  you'll get run over if you just
> Bloomsburg University     sit there.
> dloss@bloomu.edu                Will Rogers
> 
> 
>