Week 2: 7 Days of HCI / Fall 2024
Here I was attending my Information Architecture Class at 7:43 pm on a Tuesday evening listening to my professor say — “Human beings understand visuals better than words. Languages are complex.” And it got me thinking — but we communicate in words? Yet our eyes are reluctant on reading, but they appreciate form.
I believe I’ve managed to secure classes where I can learn about storytelling in different forms. In forms such as data visualizations, fictional or imagined stories and the sequence of information on my screen.
Technology is an iterative social tool.
Fictional stories teach us about human behavior. Our senses incite emotions, and our emotions direct the stories we tell ourselves everyday to function in the human society. Technology is a tool we use to communicate with other and to satisfy our social needs.
Strategic and purposeful use of technology has helped us build experiences that are understandable to most human beings, apart from the several (and less anxious) population that hasn’t discovered internet yet. Now on the internet, there exist intended experiences for purposes that incite feelings that range from delightful to dark. Every feeling is planned and strategized to create an intended experience and to achieve a purpose.
“We are conditioned to understand narrative better because our lives are an amalgamation of stories.”
To create intended user experiences, stories play a holistic metaphorical role both as a method and a tool. Imagine someone tells you a story —
“I lost my crimson card AND I need to swim today BUT I will need to scan my ID at SRSC, THEREFORE I need to apply for a new card.”
I used the ABT method to weave a short story so I could tell you about the premise, the problem and the solution. But stories serve as an overall tool to communicate problems and can be used as a method to increase engagement and empathy. It may become a little complex when interactivity comes in the party.
Timed, sequenced and optimized information supports interactivity.
When human attention has been captured and is in engagement with a device, it’s better practice to present information that matches most Mental Models. As human beings, the stories we tell ourselves may repeat at times. We are wary of dangerous situations by constantly scanning for familiar situations in order to reduce the element of surprise. Moments of surprise require a learning curve and aren’t accepted easily, and are starting to be met with frustration and anxiety.
“Why can’t I find what I came to look for? What is wrong with this website?”
The likely answer to question above is poor information architecture. And the key to improve IA is to create a balance between words, images, sound and surfaces to incite certain feelings in an intended experience. Languages are complex yes, but they help us talk. Words are overwhelming yes, but with images they become more context-driven and approachable.
Metrics are a form of stories too.
As daunting as numbers are, they are entities of their own just like words or images. Data visualizations helps us understand numbers better. It’s essentially form and numbers clubbed together to tell you a story about a situation.
As a design researcher, my job is to study, analyze and understand human beings to create experiences for other human beings. Human-Computer Interaction teaches me a variety of ways to understand the relationship between computers and humans. And this week, it was through stories.
So, what stories did you choose to tell yourself today?