Click on the image above and go on a journey across Europe.
Feedback is welcome - here, on IM or email...
(I know the Quiz is easy but can you find it first?)
Passport!
on Tuesday, February 10, 2009Click on the image above and go on a journey across Europe.
Feedback is welcome - here, on IM or email...
(I know the Quiz is easy but can you find it first?)
A change in perspective
on Friday, October 03, 2008It's been pretty interesting lately. I'm only a month and a half into this course but already, a lot of things around me become more interesting from a different perspective. The perspective of an Instructional Designer. There is some new jargon, there is some new classification of old and known things and there is a wonder about different processes and things - how they work, how could they be made to work better and more effectively. Three examples to illustrate.
I always thought that perhaps Americans need to be told too many things. I laughed at Windows XP when it had a tooltip (these are the small yellow boxes that briefly appear when your mouse pointer hovers over something and they tell you what the button does.) appear when hovering over the close button. All Windows user know what the X does and Mac users are not going to be stupid. However, when I looked at two pieces of print guides - one... my international center grad student handbook and second ... an instruction sheet I got for a party that is going to be put up soon, I had a new respect for thoroughness.
Perhaps the tooltip over the close button is still a little redundant but I suspect it comes more out of an ingrained thoroughness or a requirement of completeness which is global in all aspects.
What I mean by this is: There is no reason for a good designer to stop including certain things in small "obvious" places when they do a certain thing for the larger whole.
There is nothing really that my graduate handbook doesn't cover... from registration, to working, to working after the course, health, night clubs, transport... you name it and it has a place, person and number for every bit of information you need. One just needs to bother to read it.
The party sheet has instructions on how to set up your station, what items it will have, how to greet visitors and what to do with them, how to wind up and how to clean up and finally, where and how to return the materials you used. (It goes as far as telling the food crew to give away opened food packets at the end of the day) You just can't go wrong. It is an entire instructional module - thorough, complete and no need to ask questions. Time consuming at first but enduring and easily edited later.
(If you're confused by now... that's OK... this will still be a good post for ME to reflect upon later)
Secondly... I was amused by an automatic check out machine at a store yesterday. If you have no cashier, you're going to need instructions and you get them - written and in voice.
You press "start" to get started. (Duh!) Then a voice tells you to scan your first item and place it in a bag. I did scan. I didn't place it in the bag, I placed it on the side. The voice asked me to place it in the bag! (There are some weight sensors under the bag) When I did place it in the bag, it asked me to scan the next item. I was to click Pay when I was done, select payment method, follow written instructions and be on my way.
The insistence of the machine amused me - you could put anything in the bag, doesn't matter as long as it has weight - but it still made me put it in the bag. Another thing that happened was an understanding and wonder at the machine, the thought that went into it and the nature of its instructional design. I'm reminded in daily life, of applications for what I'm learning and it's not limited just to HR and the like and that's pretty interesting and gratifying.
Finally - HR has certain jargon - you learn about it (well, you do if you're studying HR) and it remains a little sterile (at least it did for me) in its application and you think it applies only to the corporate scenario. One such jargon term/idea/concept is a job aid. A job aid is anything that helps you make sure you do your job properly. These are checklists and/or instructions on a machine, at your work station as you do work.
To me, these things were only limited to factories and production lines and their kin.
However, the washing instructions on your t-shirt? They are also a job aid. They help you take care of your clothes properly. Never thought about it this way but my perspective's been changed and I look at almost everything in a new angle.
It is different. It is new. It is interesting and it is good!
I always thought that perhaps Americans need to be told too many things. I laughed at Windows XP when it had a tooltip (these are the small yellow boxes that briefly appear when your mouse pointer hovers over something and they tell you what the button does.) appear when hovering over the close button. All Windows user know what the X does and Mac users are not going to be stupid. However, when I looked at two pieces of print guides - one... my international center grad student handbook and second ... an instruction sheet I got for a party that is going to be put up soon, I had a new respect for thoroughness.
Perhaps the tooltip over the close button is still a little redundant but I suspect it comes more out of an ingrained thoroughness or a requirement of completeness which is global in all aspects.
What I mean by this is: There is no reason for a good designer to stop including certain things in small "obvious" places when they do a certain thing for the larger whole.
There is nothing really that my graduate handbook doesn't cover... from registration, to working, to working after the course, health, night clubs, transport... you name it and it has a place, person and number for every bit of information you need. One just needs to bother to read it.
The party sheet has instructions on how to set up your station, what items it will have, how to greet visitors and what to do with them, how to wind up and how to clean up and finally, where and how to return the materials you used. (It goes as far as telling the food crew to give away opened food packets at the end of the day) You just can't go wrong. It is an entire instructional module - thorough, complete and no need to ask questions. Time consuming at first but enduring and easily edited later.
(If you're confused by now... that's OK... this will still be a good post for ME to reflect upon later)
Secondly... I was amused by an automatic check out machine at a store yesterday. If you have no cashier, you're going to need instructions and you get them - written and in voice.
You press "start" to get started. (Duh!) Then a voice tells you to scan your first item and place it in a bag. I did scan. I didn't place it in the bag, I placed it on the side. The voice asked me to place it in the bag! (There are some weight sensors under the bag) When I did place it in the bag, it asked me to scan the next item. I was to click Pay when I was done, select payment method, follow written instructions and be on my way.
The insistence of the machine amused me - you could put anything in the bag, doesn't matter as long as it has weight - but it still made me put it in the bag. Another thing that happened was an understanding and wonder at the machine, the thought that went into it and the nature of its instructional design. I'm reminded in daily life, of applications for what I'm learning and it's not limited just to HR and the like and that's pretty interesting and gratifying.
Finally - HR has certain jargon - you learn about it (well, you do if you're studying HR) and it remains a little sterile (at least it did for me) in its application and you think it applies only to the corporate scenario. One such jargon term/idea/concept is a job aid. A job aid is anything that helps you make sure you do your job properly. These are checklists and/or instructions on a machine, at your work station as you do work.
To me, these things were only limited to factories and production lines and their kin.
However, the washing instructions on your t-shirt? They are also a job aid. They help you take care of your clothes properly. Never thought about it this way but my perspective's been changed and I look at almost everything in a new angle.
It is different. It is new. It is interesting and it is good!
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