EVALUATION AND USABILITY FORUM

a built-in program that causes it to learn hunting skills, human play propels us on a pathway toward consolidating new skills and knowledge. This process is exploited in the educational movement known as constructivism, which uses physical and mental engagement and experimentation as the basis for conceptual learning. A great constructivist teacher tries to entice learners into a playful interaction that leads to learning, beginning with and building on their existing experiences and mental constructs.

Years ago, a brilliant clarinet
teacher gave me a great example
of this. Clarinetists live in fear of
“squeaks,” the loud, high-pitched
squawking sounds the instru-
ment makes at the worst possible
moments. Once, when I flinched
after a squeak, my teacher took
away all of the instrument except
the mouthpiece and upper section,
leaving me with no keys. He then
challenged me to learn to play the
remainder as if it were a trumpet,
after showing me that this was
possible. At first, I managed only
to get out a few raucous sounds.
By the end of the week, though, I
could play simple bugle calls on
it. I had learned the trick of “over-
blowing,” which is how a trumpet
or flute can play different notes
with the same fingering. For each
note, there is a sound spectrum
of higher overtones. In the flute,
the octave is the strongest over-
tone, making it easiest to reach.
I learned that the clarinet does
the same thing, except its stron-
gest overtones are at intervals of
a twelfth, making its accidental
leaps particularly startling. I
could apply my new skill to avoid
a high note’s awkward fingering
by overblowing the appropri-
ate lower note. Meanwhile, my
tone improved, squeaking greatly
decreased, and concepts about the
instrument’s acoustics became
much more real to me.

Enticement as an Ingredient
of Usability

The process of engagement often requires users to begin interacting with something before they can envision how it will ultimately benefit them. They may form a detailed idea of how they will exploit new capabilities only after a period of casual discovery, exploration, and experimentation. This means we should think about how the process of engagement begins.

I tend to think about the process
of engagement with a product or
feature in terms of the following
stages:
• Awareness: Acquiring the
notion that something of potential
benefit might exist
• Discovery: Locating a feature
and recognizing its potential rel-
evance to some particular needs
or goals
• Exploration: Attempting to dig
deeper, to confirm the impression
that it could be beneficial in prin-
ciple
• Experimentation: Verifying that
the capabilities of the product are
relevant, by applying them to some
personally meaningful task

July + August 2012