- From: Anne Pemberton <apembert@crosslink.net>
- Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 17:59:26 -0700
- To: "Paul Bohman" <paulb@cpd2.usu.edu>, <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Paul, I visited the webbrain site again today, and had a rather different experience. Yesterday I went to Home, to Family, to Children, to Education and hit garbage ... today when I went from Home to Family, Children was gone and the best next link was Kids, from which there was a School Zone link. This is one step less than yesterday, and the results were decent. Perhaps yesterday I hit a redundency to an older version that wasn't all the way corrected ... guessing... Yesterday when I looked at the site, I couldn't perceive a reason for the lines ... after reading your note, I looked more carefully, and saw the connection, but still don't know how one is to use them. I did notice that if I had written the categories, I wouldn't have put both Games and Recreation on the top level, and I would have put Education in the top level. Also, I noticed today, that the screen, tho very short, scrolls sideways quite a ways. Yesterday nothing clued me that this was possible, so I missed it... Again, returning to the offerings for education, there was no way for a student to search for information for a specific subject, if the site was to be used by a student. The presentation precluded any search for a topic, such as, say Christopher Columbus... The search engine felt very limiting in use. I don't see that I'd have much use for it. Download time seemed long both days, and I usually don't mind download times ... If he's up to it tonight, I'll get my husband to give it a try when he gets home and see what he makes of it. As I said before, there are many variables in how various "brains" work, and in this diversity there is room for many possibilities ... no one is a "cure-all". Anne At 10:09 AM 10/26/00 -0600, Paul Bohman wrote: >The problems that you are describing are not directly related to the >innovative interface that they use. The fact that the links weren't quite >what you expected is not a reflection on their interface but on their >implementation of the database. I believe that the original question to this >mailing list was asking about the visual mode of presentation which Webrain >used, rather than the quality of the database which it accesses. > >I personally found the interface rather simple to use. I understood it and >thought that the graphical lines connecting related topics was a good way of >diagraming the information. They used a spatial metaphor. I often find it >helpful to conceptualize things spatially. I'm not saying that their >interface is better than more traditional versions (e.g. the Yahoo site >accomplishes the same type of organization, without the spatial metaphor), >but, at least for me, it was just as good. > >How can something like Webrain be made accessible to those who dislike (or >that cannot access) spatial metaphors? One possible solution is a simple >one: create an alternative interface using a more traditional scheme, >Yahoo-style. > >There's nothing wrong with coming up with new and innovative modes of >presentation, as long as there is a fallback mechanism to present things in >a way that is still "accessible." Using spatial metaphors (not just on this >site, but in a general sense) can be very effective. It's not the only way >to present things, but this method has merit, especially for those who tend >to think spatially. > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Anne Pemberton" <apembert@crosslink.net> >To: <karl.hebenstreit@gsa.gov> >Cc: <b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk>; <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org> >Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 9:01 AM >Subject: Re: Visualisation rather than text > > >> Karl, >> >> My problems with webbrain weren't in how it worked to duplicate my >> thinking, but because it didn't. >> >> The lack of an education category in the original presentation led me to >> take a different path to find what I wanted. When I got there, the sites >> presented didn't match the path I'd taken. After clicking on Home, the >> Family, the Kids, I had a choice of choosing Education, but the site >> provided weren't at all about kids' education, but education at the higher >> levels. Very disappointing! >> >> When minimicking how people think, it is important to remember that there >> are two distint thinking approaches - one that starts with the global and >> goes to specifics (which is how the webbrain intends to work), and one >that >> starts with specifics and goes to the general (which is how many search >> sites work with keywords, etc.) Also, you must remember that while there >> are users at either end of the spectrum, there are many in the muddy >middle >> who can use either thinking method and choose when to use each. >> >> Anne >> >> At 06:10 PM 10/25/00 -0400, karl.hebenstreit@gsa.gov wrote: >> disabilities, since this >> >interface is based on an "associative computing interface" which can >model >> >the way a person thinks about a particular task, or even the world from >> >their unique perspective. >> >> Anne L. Pemberton >> http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Pav/Academy1 >> http://www.erols.com/stevepem/Homeschooling >> apembert@crosslink.net >> Enabling Support Foundation >> http://www.enabling.org >> >> > > Anne L. Pemberton http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Pav/Academy1 http://www.erols.com/stevepem/Homeschooling apembert@crosslink.net Enabling Support Foundation http://www.enabling.org
Received on Thursday, 26 October 2000 17:12:53 UTC