In the second chapter of his book, Donald Norman discusses the psychology behind the use of everyday things. He outlines the thought process that most people go through to accomplish a task. He also talks about misconceptions that people can have and the importance of providing a good concept model that clearly shows the actions to be taken. He also says that the object should "provide a physical representation that can be directly perceived and that is directly interpretable in terms of the intentions and expectations of the person."
My Thoughts
My experience with a "gulf of evaluation" was in a "virtual surgery" exhibit. The exhibit has a device called the "Falcon" that provides haptic feedback, so it feels as if the visitor is physically conducting a heart surgery. The device vibrates harshly as you saw through a bone and provides resistance as you cut into the heart. Users hold a knob and manipulate the machine in 3D space. The exhibits were experiencing a very high failure rate because people were being rough with the Falcon device. There was a rubber casing the Falcons were fitted with to protect them. Once we removed this rubber casing, people could see the device and realized that it was a delicate machine and should be handled that way. When the rubber casing was on, they treated it like a joy stick and yanked and pulled quite hard, breaking the machine. By providing a proper view of the device, people's "gaps" were narrowed and most polite people better understood how to use the exhibit, resulting in less breakage.
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