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Cultivate curiosity as part of information design (Was: A trip to IKEA)
Subject:Cultivate curiosity as part of information design (Was: A trip to IKEA) From:Ann Hastings <explorer227 -at- juno -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 22 Apr 2002 18:52:26 -0700
Good observations, Ben!
"Cultivate . . . curiosity as part of information design"
I got to listen to Michael Bremer, author of "The User Manual Manual" and
"UnTechnical Writing" a couple of weeks ago, and that's one point he made
too, obliquely. He said he plants cartoons or jokes or tidbits of
fascinating trivia (somehow related to the subject at hand) throughout
his manuals, to get reluctant users to flip through them just to read the
sidebars. In their voyage, they might notice some headings, and later
when they needed that info, they would remember that the info was in the
manual.
Ann
On Sun, 21 Apr 2002 21:24:55 -0700 Ben Kovitz <bkovitz -at- nethere -dot- com>
writes:
>
> I went to IKEA,
>
> Hmm, tossing in little Easter Eggs soothed the impatience of (at least
> one) American customer, encouraging him to slow down and be open to
> things he wasn't looking for. A whole dimension of information design
> I hadn't even considered. Usually I'm thinking, "How can I get needed
> information to an impatient and narrow-minded user?" I still think
> that's usually a good idea, but here was a context where you could
> cultivate patience and curiosity as part of information design.
> Scattered throughout the store were large posters describing places
> in Sweden: usually outdoor shots with a big sky, a little text with a
> lot of white space, and no sense of hurry. Hmm.
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