User Centered

Edit- updated the URL, sorry if it caused problems...I got tricked again

A screen capture from an online training course of some sort...

First the text on the screen (the item being taught):


Now, the visual representation to go along with the words...


???

Maybe I'm dense, but I just can't relate. Every slide had images like this that looks like someone just threw some clip art randomly on the screen because they *had* to have an image. The icons weren't consistently used or defined in any previous screens, etc etc... my favorite part of the training was trying to think up what the picture *really* meant.

For example- I'd say this picture is trying to tell me that using Windows 3.11 to play media files will take WAY too long which will result in Jeff Goldblum looking out of an airplane window in all directions....but whatever happens, do *not* play Trivial Pursuit.

I'd be curious to know: in the numerous encounters you've had with these devices in your life, what percentage of them have been "unfavorable"?

Maybe it's small number (it probably is), but those few times stand out significantly....especially when you get the small explosion of ketchup (catsup if you prefer) that sputters out as the dispenser struggles to expel the last remnants. You get a small glimmer of hope that if you continue to pump the handle 67 more times, you might just get enough to fill that 1 ounce paper cup.

To make things worse, they always seem to run out right around the time when there's not anyone available to refill it. So now you have to go to the counter, disrupt the flow of what's going on back there to get someone to come out and refill it. Some things just aren't worth the cost savings (assuming there is one)- just bring back the packets already.

It's not just the fact that this is advertisement.

It's not even the fact that the ads look very similar to links.

It's not even that fact that the ads and links are mixed together into this jumbled soup of underlined words.

It's the fact that I'm a (self-termed) "mouse follower." I follow with my mouse what I'm reading on the screen. I'm even known to highlight chunks of text as I read. Partly to remember where I'm at if my attention gets diverted, but mainly out of some subconscious habit I have. The precursor to the highlight is the "mouse follow."

When I see this chunk of text in the screenshot here (which I looked up to get an understanding of what is being discussed by Alok Dube in this post)- it's almost like a mine field to me... I never notice the mouse follow when I'm surfing around, but when I come into contact with intellitext, I can notice it right away because I feel myself trying to avoid "going in" to that conglomeration of links.

I haven't tried this myself yet- but there was a comment on this post on how to filter out intellitext.