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Learning Through Feedback
Figure 2.9
TIP
Selected text in a word-processing application.
Be Selective. New users are often confused when a menu operation they want to use
is not available, that is, it is shown in gray. Often this is because the operation requires
the user to select something and nothing is selected. For example, the computer cannot perform Copy until you have told it what you want copied. See Figure 2.9 for a
sample of selected and unselected text.
LEARNING THROUGH FEEDBACK
A computer is the user’s assistant, ready to do whatever it is told to do. It is natural
that an assistant should report back to the person who made a request and tell him or
her whether the job was done. This is especially true when the assistant is a computer
(and therefore not very clever) because the person needs to know that the task was
done and when to give the next command. A user interface will always give the user
feedback about “what’s happenin’.”
Feedback takes many forms, depending on what operation a user has asked for. If
the operation can be performed instantaneously, that is, so fast that a person would
not have to wait for it to be finished, the user interface will simply show that the operation is complete. When the operation is an editing change, the proof that it is done is
that the user can see the revision. For other tasks, highlighting, shading, graying, or
some other color change, or underlining tell the user that the operation is done.
The most familiar form of feedback is the indication that the computer is continuing to perform a time-consuming operation. As the operation is being carried out, the
cursor is replaced with an icon that shows elapsing time. On Windows systems, the
icon is an hourglass ( ), and on Macintosh systems, it is a wristwatch with a hand
advancing ( ). Applications can also give the user custom feedback. Claris software
uses a circle divided into quarters, two white and two black, that “revolves.” The file
transfer application Fetch turns the cursor into a running dog. When the completion
time can be predicted accurately, some applications show a bar that is “filled” as the
operation progresses. Often these displays tell you when 100% will be reached. Finally,
when an operation is processing a series of inputs, a “completion count” tells the user
how many are done and how many remain.
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