E_Evidence_2

Melissa Townsend-Crow

LIBR 202-410

December 4, 2012

Project #3

Part I

Anyone who has assembled a piece of IKEA furniture can appreciate Donald A. Norman's discussion of affordance, constraint, mapping, natural mapping, conceptual & mental models, and the paradox of technology in design. Although once assembled, the pieces from IKEA are beautiful and well-designed in their use, the assembly itself is anything but and the accompanying instructions mere illustrations and chronologically quite unclear which makes them, by Dr. Norman's definition, poorly designed (1988).

A good design has affordances, which should tell the user how to use a thing simply by mapping. A button is pushed, handle pulled, a knob turned. Norman discusses affordance in a 1999 article entitled "Affordance, Conventions, and Design."  Affordance is a simple concept. He says, "The word affordance was coined by the perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson [1, 2] to refer to the actionable properties between the world and an actor (a person or animal). To Gibson, affordances are relationships" (39).  "Actionable properties" to me translates to what a thing can or is designed to do. For example, as stated above, a button ins intended to be pushed, a knob to be turned. A designer should include such a thing in his/her conceptual model in a such a way that natural mapping leads to a mental model in which a user does not need written directions to figure the thing out. IKEA directions require directions to understand them. Constraints are like guardrails which prohibit certain actions but are part of the conceptual design used to enable efficient use of affordances. Norman also created the term, " Paradox of Technology," which discusses the dichotomy between a designer's desire to create functionality through complex design, but the design itself is too complex to be functional. In other words, technology which should, ideally simplify the function of a thing, applied injudiciously, often for technology's sake, only further complicates a device.

Mapping shows a linear track from the affordance to its movement to the action created by manipulating the affordance. Natural mapping is the conclusion drawn by the user based upon the appearance of the affordance and its applied constraints. Poor mapping shows no relationship between affordance and its use or function. Constraints actually assist in good mapping by preventing the deliberate or accidental misuse of affordances. A good conceptual model will naturally lead to an accurate mental model. The conceptual model translates to the designer's concept of what the device is intended or designed to do, so if it is a good conceptual model, it will lead to an effective mental model, which refers to the user's interpretation of the design. Essentially, what I believe Norman is saying is that the operation of a well designed device is self-explanatory by its design. When applying these concepts to RefWorks, it is helpful to look at one function of the reference management program at a time.

i IKEA Assembly instruction for a bed frame

Part II

There is a relationship between Google Scholar and RefWorks. A first step for some researchers is to "Import into RefWorks" a viable source of information found on Google Scholar. The affordances of "buttons" labeled "Get Text" allows natural mapping for a user to access the information. The fact that the button only accesses the sources of the citation is a constraint limiting to user to a single task by clicking on them. Within the RefWorks program, the user is capable of storing the citations, organizing them into folders, uploading the actual documents, all online. In addition, the user can create a reference list in multiple formats. Natural mapping leads the user to presume that the bibliography created by this option of the program is accurate, however my experience is that it is an inaccurate assumption. RefWorks allows the user to link to e-journals to which the user's academic institution subscribes, but it may also allow a user to find other links to the same information and also provides links to related articles and journals.

The program also allows the user to import references from other programs and text files. In addition to the option within the program that creates bibliographies, there is a feature called "Write-N-Cite" which allows users to insert reference codes from their RefWorks accounts into Word documents, and then formatted to create in-text citations and reference lists. This feature requires an additional download of software, however. In addition there as another feature called "RefShare" which allows users to share their citation lists online by creating a URL for a read-only version of the database or folder, which can then be posted to a website. RefShare folders can also be used to create RSS feeds that are updated with the addition of  new citations. I am not certain how such a feature would be useful, except perhaps for online storage of information guarding against possible computer crashes which could result in the loss of the data.

As convenient as these features might sound, they may illustrate Norman's description of  "Paradox of Technology." Too many links or features can contribute to this paradox. Norman gives an anecdote of office telephone systems that are too complex to be efficient. They are of poor design because, according to Norman, they do not relate their new functions to the similarly named old functions (specifically, the hold function) with which people who use the system are already familiar. In addition, Norman cited a "lack of visibility of the operation of the system." Lastly, Norman cites that there is no visible outcome of the operation – so no satisfaction for the system's user.

Similarly, RefWorks has a lot of features that are not immediately understandable to the user. My own experience was with a difficulty in importing or uploading entire text files into RefWorks and needed explicit instructions, which I did not find in the program itself (Thank you again Dr. Rebmann) to use this feature. I also had some difficulty downloading and installing the "Write and Cite" utility despite the instructions because the instructions did include the fact that I would have to download more software to augment my Microsoft Word program to make the Write and Cite feature fully functional.

The create bibliography tool is also not efficient. I used it and found that I had to go back and correct the entries to make them, complaint with the APA 6th edition manual. Still, despite the Paradox, I found RefWorks to be one of the most effective citation tools. I am using it for papers in other classes. I believe that it is a well designed program overall because, according to Norman, there two fundamental principles that make a good design:  a good conceptual model, and visibility. RefWorks meets these standards. The concept of having a multi-functional reference management utility is invaluable to scholars and most of the functions are quite useful, particularly the overall function of having one location to put all references. Even the ability to upload full text documents, once one figures out how, is a valuable storage tool. The links and "buttons" are well-labeled and specific, adding to the second principle, that of visibility. Natural mapping leads the user to understand how the affordances are to be used in a way that makes this program very useful.

References

"Hemnes bed frame assembly instructions" (PDF) (2010) IKEA online catalog. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/assembly_instructions/hemnes-head-footboards__AA-492970-1_pub.PDF. Retrieved 12/02/12.

Jennings, A. F. (2003). RefWorks and easybib. com: A comparison of the basic features of two electronic citation formatting products. The Charleston Advisor, 5(1), 18-18.

Norman, D. A. (1988). The design of things.  New York, NY:  Currency/Doubleday.

Norman, D. A.  (1999, May & June).  Affordance, conventions, and designs.  Interactions, 34-42.  Retrieved from https://sjsu.desire2learn.com/d2l/lms/content/viewer/view.d2l?tId=1169426&ou=117217

"RefShare Now Available" (PDF). 2005-03-11. http://www.refworks.com/content/products/refshare/Refshare_Press_release.pdf. Retrieved 12/05/12