Friday, March 04, 2011

Vivek Haldar : The Cognitive Style of Unix

Vivek Haldar : The Cognitive Style of Unix: "He frames the issue in terms of internalization vs externalization. Some software tries to be “easy-to-use” by externalizing rules and knowledge into the interface, so that the user does not have to think and can merely follow the cues. An example is inactivating parts of the interface that are not relevant or allowed in a particular context. Software that does not externalize such rules and knowledge relies instead on the user internalizing those, and mindfully coming up with plans to solve the problem at hand."