Diane
21-05-2006, 06:54 PM
I'm blatantly imitating Jon here, including a link to a blog he first linked us to, Creating Passionate Users (http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/). (Hope you're cool with that Jon..)
This May 19th entry is about why a blog becomes popular, built around the thought, "Good usability is like "water flowing downhill" , a principle that she then clarifies as being not only at the heart of a good blog but at the heart of anything that works well, including management of people/pets/children... it makes something or some idea available that has wide applicability.
I hadn't thought of it as a management principle. (Works great with kids, too) Think about how many procedures we see in companies that feel like hacks... workarounds for a system that makes it too easy to make mistakes. And you see it from the highest levels of business right down to the duct tape someone put over the switch that you must NEVER EVER TURN OFF.
:D How many patients have been told they must never let their bellies relax or their back will fall apart? There are so many examples of this "hack" (in more than one sense of the word) form of PT it makes me dizzy.
If those designing systems or software or houses or hardware or API's or policies or procedures or learning experiences or... if they we would all keep the image of water flowing downhill at the front of our minds, it might make a big difference. It might remind us just how much more elegant things could be if we made the right things easy and the wrong things hard. Emphasis mine.
How more right could she be? This is exactly what happens in treatment if the nervous system is kept front and centre in one's mind when treating. The right things become easy for the nervous system to correct by itself and the wrong things hard for it to hang onto.
It works with pets, and it works with employees (not that I would ever imply that employees are ever treated like... dogs). It works with kids and customers. It works with nature. And that's the best model of all--to make the right things seem natural. If a user/learner/employee couldn't imagine doing something any way other than the right one, they won't have to waste so much time and mental bandwidth finding and fixing mistakes. If it works with nature, it will work with the nervous system. Therapy should be about making the right things seem natural. From a nervous system POV, the "right thing" is the most energy efficient/effortless/cost effective thing metabolically.
That's not to say that everything should be easy and natural. But the challenges should never be in the use of a thing. The challenges should be in doing whatever it is the thing lets you do. The challenges are what makes the activity engaging and, in many cases, worth it. But the tools you use to meet those challenges should get out of your way!
Playing the game should be challenging. The interface should be brainless. Emphasis mine. I take that to mean, figuring out the uniqueness of the individual patient's problem is challenging. The therapeutic alliance/interface should be effortless. The outcome should be like water flowing downhill, i.e. good usability of the whole system by the patient's own nervous system.
And she made her point.. her blog is useful/has wide metaphoric applicability in ways she couldn't possibly have imagined.
This May 19th entry is about why a blog becomes popular, built around the thought, "Good usability is like "water flowing downhill" , a principle that she then clarifies as being not only at the heart of a good blog but at the heart of anything that works well, including management of people/pets/children... it makes something or some idea available that has wide applicability.
I hadn't thought of it as a management principle. (Works great with kids, too) Think about how many procedures we see in companies that feel like hacks... workarounds for a system that makes it too easy to make mistakes. And you see it from the highest levels of business right down to the duct tape someone put over the switch that you must NEVER EVER TURN OFF.
:D How many patients have been told they must never let their bellies relax or their back will fall apart? There are so many examples of this "hack" (in more than one sense of the word) form of PT it makes me dizzy.
If those designing systems or software or houses or hardware or API's or policies or procedures or learning experiences or... if they we would all keep the image of water flowing downhill at the front of our minds, it might make a big difference. It might remind us just how much more elegant things could be if we made the right things easy and the wrong things hard. Emphasis mine.
How more right could she be? This is exactly what happens in treatment if the nervous system is kept front and centre in one's mind when treating. The right things become easy for the nervous system to correct by itself and the wrong things hard for it to hang onto.
It works with pets, and it works with employees (not that I would ever imply that employees are ever treated like... dogs). It works with kids and customers. It works with nature. And that's the best model of all--to make the right things seem natural. If a user/learner/employee couldn't imagine doing something any way other than the right one, they won't have to waste so much time and mental bandwidth finding and fixing mistakes. If it works with nature, it will work with the nervous system. Therapy should be about making the right things seem natural. From a nervous system POV, the "right thing" is the most energy efficient/effortless/cost effective thing metabolically.
That's not to say that everything should be easy and natural. But the challenges should never be in the use of a thing. The challenges should be in doing whatever it is the thing lets you do. The challenges are what makes the activity engaging and, in many cases, worth it. But the tools you use to meet those challenges should get out of your way!
Playing the game should be challenging. The interface should be brainless. Emphasis mine. I take that to mean, figuring out the uniqueness of the individual patient's problem is challenging. The therapeutic alliance/interface should be effortless. The outcome should be like water flowing downhill, i.e. good usability of the whole system by the patient's own nervous system.
And she made her point.. her blog is useful/has wide metaphoric applicability in ways she couldn't possibly have imagined.