Author: Robin

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Direct manipulation vs. intelligent agents

Ben Shneiderman wrote in 1997:

Direct manipulation depends on… rapid incremental reversible operations whose effect on the object of interest is immediately visible. This strategy can lead to user interfaces that are comprehensible, predictable and controllable. Direct manipulation interfaces are seen as more likely candidates to influence advanced user inter- faces than adaptive, autonomous, intelligent agents. User control and responsibility are highly desirable.

That’s worth reading carefully and thoughtfully.

[Shneiderman, B. Direct manipulation for comprehensible, predictable and controllable user interfaces. Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Intelligent user interfaces, 1997.]

More specifically:

Agent promoters believe that the computer can automatically ascertain the users’ intentions or take action based on a vague statements of goals. This author is skeptical that user intentions are so easily determined or that vague statements are usually effective. However, if users can specify what they want with comprehensible actions selected from a visual display, then they can more often and more rapidly accomplish their goals while preserving their sense of control and accomplishment.

I completely agree with Shneiderman. I wonder if “agent promoters” today have progressed enough to offer solid counterarguments.

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Random album cover fun

I saw Bill’s random album art and wanted to join in the fun. (See instructions below.) The result turned out to be kind of ironic, implying that cake is the root of all evil. It makes for an eye-catchingly contrarian album cover.

Åland Centre is actually a Finnish political party, the cake photo is here, and the full quote is, “Lack of money is the root of all evil.” -George Bernard Shaw

Create your own band and debut album cover randomly

To Do This:

1 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random – The first random Wikipedia article that comes up is the name of your band.

2 – http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 – The last four or five words of the very LAST quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 – http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days – The third picture in the top row, no matter what it is, is your album cover.

4 – Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 – Post it to your preferred online outlet with this text in the “caption” or “comment” and TAG the friends you want to join in.

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By design

“For the sake of design integrity, a professional designer will put up with vast amounts of discomfort, and resent any consumer unwilling to make the same sacrifice.”

-Ralph Caplan

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People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it

Apple just released their first iPad 2 commercial, called “We Believe”:

This is what we believe. Technology alone is not enough. Faster, thinner, lighter…those are all good things. But when technology gets out of the way, everything becomes more delightful…even magical. That’s when you leap forward. That’s when you end up with something like this.

It reminded me of the TED talk by Simon Sinek, “How great leaders inspire action.” Simon’s message, which he repeats constantly, is: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” He cites Apple as a master at this. None of Apple’s marketing dives into product specs. They say, “this is what we believe.” From the beginning, they believed in “thinking different.” Whenever they introduce new iPods, they bring a guest star musician onstage to play music. Steve Jobs introduces them by saying, “This is a reminder of why we make iPods: because we love music.” The new iPad ad is another textbook example.

Some great quotes from Simon’s talk:

What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? … Inspired leaders — and inspired organizations — all act and think from the inside out: why —> how —> what.

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The goal is not to do business with people who need what you have; the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.

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What you do simply proves what you believe.

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MLK gave the “I have a dream” speech, not the “I have a plan” speech.

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We follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead not for them, but for ourselves.

 

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Advantages of automated tutors

I’ve previously written about the coming transition to software-based tutors. Salman Khan, the creator of Khan Academy, apparently gave a recent talk at TED at Bill Gate’s invitation. Khan goes further than my previous blog post in citing some of the real educational advantages of software-based tutors over human tutors. Khan began his website as a way to tutor his cousins from near and far, but he soon realized that the advantages went far beyond cost and scale. Excerpt from a Wired article about the talk:

“[The cousins] were saying something very profound,” Khan said. “They were saying that they preferred the automated version of their cousin to their cousin.”

What this meant, essentially, was that having a video lesson that they could pause and repeat at will, made it easier to learn without tiring their tutor.

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“In a traditional classroom you have homework, lecture, homework then you have a snapshot exam,” he said. “And whether you pass or not, the class moves on to the next lesson.”

Even the ones who get 95 percent of the lesson correct, still have 5 percent they didn’t grasp, and with each subsequent lesson, the percentage they don’t understand increases.

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“The traditional model penalizes the student for experimentation and failure but does not expect mastery,” he said. “We encourage you to experiment. We encourage you to failure. But we do expect mastery.”

All of this is possible because students can cost-effectively learn at their own pace. And of course, Khan has really only scratched the surface of what is possible. For example, it’s easy to imagine branching videos that let students delve deeper into certain topics if they didn’t fully understand the explanations given in previous videos.

I think that eventually, the idea of a mathematics “lecture class” will be considered hopelessly outdated.

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Technology alone is not enough

Steve Jobs, concluding the March 2, 2011 iPad 2 media event:

I’ve said this before, and I thought it was worth repeating. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with liberal arts — married with the humanities — that yields us a result that makes our hearts sing.

And nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices. A lot of folks in this tablet market are rushing in, and they’re looking at this as the next PC. The hardware and the software are done by different companies, and they’re talking about speeds and feeds, just like they did with PCs. Our experience, and every bone in our body, says that that is not the right approach to this; that these are post-PC devices that need to be even easier to use than a PC; that need to be even more intuitive than a PC; and where the software and the hardware and the applications need to intertwine in an even more seamless way than they do on a PC.

And we think we’re on the right track with this. We think we have the right architecture — not just in silicon, but in the organization — to build these kinds of products. And so I think we stand a pretty good chance of being pretty competitive in this market, and I hope that what you’ve seen today gives you a good feel for that.

Words for the wise.