06 October 2008
Calculating interface 'friction'
the juxtaposition of
john gruber's concept of interface friction
with david li's copula formula
has refocused an old intuition
about the science of human factors:
that someday we should have a formula
for rating the 'friction' in an interface
- how many clicks
for each important action - how much mental strain
to refocus the brain
(like shifting contexts) - how much unintuitive complexity
to master - how much opportunity
to be publicly humiliated
web 2.0 has made considerable progress
on the first two of these
but achieving sufficient mastery
to avoid self-embarrassment
is a gigantic, growing problem
.