| Introduction
The development of interactive systems depends
a lot on the reaction of the user to sensory stimulations.
Further, developers must be careful enough to
develop applications that elicit certain set patterns
of sensory reaction from users because if a majority
of users behave in a manner that is not expected
by the developer then the product will fail in
the market.
Analysis
The "mastery ideology" as explained
by Jakob Nielsen speaks, in a way, about forced
education of a different kind. Most people are
often overwhelmed when they visit a web site either
because the navigation is too confusing or because
the web site seems to hijack the initiative from
the user. Many sites fill their interface with
advertising and distracting content that users
often lose track of what they wanted to do in
the first place. This unlike popular business
beliefs, intimidates the user and ensures that
they do not return to the site. Jakob Nielsen’s
mastery ideology emphasizes that users must be
allowed to search or navigate a site as they wish,
not as the site developer wants them to. This
is a very important concept because no user would
like to be directed, particularly in a medium
that is as liberal and free as the Internet. Hence,
site elements must be as unobtrusive as possible
so that users will be able to concentrate more
on their work and business rather than being overly
concerned about the site and its design.
Learning can be influenced by a variety of factors
all of which are essentially influenced by the
internal factors of the learner than being conditioned
by external factors. This means that the capacity
to learn and understand resides within the individual
and will depend on the motivation that one receives
to learn something. Of course de-motivating factors
can make the learner reject a subject but the
decision to reject or accept a subject as worthy
of study is decided by one’s personality
and interest. Hence, it may be held true that
the urge to learn is under the influence of the
self as explained by APA. Interactive systems
must exploit this feature of self-learning by
generating interest and motivating the person
to learn. Interactive systems that can sufficiently
elicit curiosity and instill motivation in learners
can automatically create learners who will explore
more and learn more. A good interactive system
must build on the knowledge that learners have
and must be able to develop parallel thinking
that enables them to think comprehensively.
When we consider Tognazzini's ideas and the 14
principles of APA, we see that the following points
are similar in their approach towards learning.
We see that there is common idea and similarity
of purpose in the following points
Anticipation : Construction of knowledge.
Autonomy : Strategic thinking.
Consistency : Thinking about thinking.
Defaults: Explorable Interfaces
Fitts's Law: Goals of the learning process
Latency reduction: Motivational and emotional
influences on learning.
Learnability: Intrinsic motivation to learn
Readability: Standards and assessment
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