6 - Drew Hrvatin

For this week, we turn to Chapter 5, "Support the User's Mental Models."

As you think about your work on project #3, what is the user's mental model with respect to the feature in YouTube you are redesigning / designing? 

How might this mental model contrast with the implementation model of the programmers? (Don't get too involved with this one.) 

A short answer (a few sentences) for each question should suffice. (Obviously you can read the answers of other people and paraphrase what they wrote, but that doesn't help your understanding very much. TRY to answer these questions before looking at the responses of your peers.)

Also, since I'm posting this late, your answer won't be due until Wednesday evening at 11:59 PM (after the exam).

 

 

Our improvement for YouTube was simply attaching a button to every video link.  This double button has one option for loading the video only (not playing it automatically) or for playing the video automatically.  We found that our user's mental model of the feature was basic common sense.  It wouldn't be common sense if the user didn't know what the terms "Play Now" or "Load Only" meant, which would be a small percentage of users using an online video service.

The term "Load" might be understood differently to the programmer rather than the user.  A programmer might understand that as term as the video buffering and other actual processes involved with loading the video.  A normal user might think that "Load" means that the clicking on that button would take you to the page where the video will be played, or something different.