hopper, 1993 [1.3.3, abstract, overview, toc, switchboard, references]

1.3.3.2 Usability in the Past

Beyond functionality to support their chosen educational goals, another issue for educators is how easy software is to use or usability. Terms for the degree of ease associated with learning and using programming languages include simplicity or accessibility. Kemeny and Kurtz were some of the first educators to address these issues. They wanted to give their students the opportunity to use a computer to learn mathematics, but there were no easy to learn programming languages, so they created BASIC. Papert emphasizes that languages should be easy to begin using (low threshold) and easy to learn in increments (gentle slope learning curve). A balance of these issues and characteristics like extensibility make Logo powerful enough for advanced programming and serious modeling applications, while still being appropriate for children (Harvey, 1984).
 
As applications such as word processors matured in the commercial world, the term user friendly came to describe how easy programs are to use after they are created. This concept is manifest in different ways, according to the type of software used.
 
What is meant when the interface to a program is called "user-friendly?" We believe that the buzzword "user-friendly" has become so lacking in content and specificity as to be virtually meaningless. (Anderson & Shapiro, 1989)

 
The authors elaborate on various dimensions of "easy to..." and point to the tradeoffs that are often made between finer distinctions of "easy to learn" and "easy to use". They observe:
 
We emphasize the multiple dimensions by which software interfaces should be judged, and the richness of the contexts in determining relative priorities among those dimensions, because we often observe lack of attention to these factors in the design, procurement, and the use of software packages. For example, we believe ease of learning often predominates when ease of use and support should; since these are often antagonistic qualities, ease of use then suffers. Buyers of software, in becoming new users of it, concentrate on the learning task ahead of them rather than on the longer period of use that will follow. The syntactic richness, succinctness, and power that will provide eventual ease of use form higher obstacles to learning than the superficially friendly program that promises to be easy to learn. (Anderson & Shapiro, 1989, p. 53)

 
The term user-friendly and the accompanying dilemmas has been adopted by authors of CAI and ICAI to describe easy to use authoring tools for creating instructional software. They also use the term to refer to the appearance and functionality of the screens in the delivery software that students interact with during instruction (Criswell, 1989). Authoring systems in the past have been designed to be easy to use but are fairly limited in terms of power and flexibility, while programming languages have been difficult to use but are generally much more powerful and flexible. Today, there are options in between authoring languages and systems which greatly simplify the task of preparing instructional programs, but contain programming options for complex tasks 9Lehman, 1988). Now emerging from the genre of hypertext are a set of programming language tools and procedures that are relatively easy to use and fairly powerful.
 
Developers of large hypertexts have found a multitude usability issues lurk around the corner for those who aspire to deliver materials on the computer to serve in the traditional role of the curriculum. For educators who have seriously addressed McClintock's argument about the need to provide relatively large amounts of content to learners, a whole new set of concerns have emerged. Increasingly sophisticated creation, storage, and structured access mechanisms are required as the scope and size of data is increased. How easy it is to get enough content into the digital medium is one consideration. The translation and conversion of text to hypertext is a problem that has begun to be addressed through Optical Character Recognition hardware and software.
 
Sufficient content to support traditional curriculum is the starting gate, but technical expertise is becoming a corollary requirement in the race for successful implementations of computers in the role of the curriculum. There are many challenges to deal with after the content is in the computer, because of issues associated with the scaled up amounts of data. There are a multitude of usability issues related to the processes of dealing with the movement and editing of large amounts of information once it is in a digital form. This point is highlighted by Van Dam:
 
We are still in the toy problem stage. There has not been a decent-sized hypertext built yet. And we won't know what it is like until we deal with the kinds of documentation problems that people in the real world deal with. (Van Dam, 1987, p. 894)

 
It becomes necessary to consider the software's ability to support easy importing, exporting and merging of individual pieces of data, or entire databases. A few educators have also encountered the need to convert hypertext to more traditional linear text forms. Producers of software are just beginning to explore strategies for conveniently exporting large hypertext databases in book formats with links indicated by bold face and a page number.
 
One of the most well publicized issues concerning the usability of large hypertext databases is navigation. Educational designers debate about how much control over navigation should be available to the learner. A general concern is that most learners will not be able to handle the "cognitive load" of complex databases, and thus "get lost in hyperspace", or wander aimlessly through endless mazes of text, while gaining very little from the experience (Conklin, 1987). Some principles from the fields of computer interface design and human-computer interaction have influenced the educational computing literature, when called upon by educators trying to find ways to build understandable hypertext (Wilson & Jonassen, 1989). Designers have emphasized determining appropriate "metaphors" to help the learner discern what actions are available and how to access what they want, while avoiding the problems of disorientation and "cognitive overhead" (Conklin, 1987).
 
One component of usability that is not frequently emphasized is the character of software that contribute to its modifiability. A user oriented rationale for providing tailorability and extensibility in hypertext systems has been offered by Trish Irish and Randall Trigg who helped develop the NoteCards system:
 
We have been continually surprised by the ingenuity with which people adapt technology to their personal applications and styles given the slightest help from the system (say, through generality, flexibility, or tailorability). This argues for systems that respect the user, giving him or her control over the environment yet also providing libraries of application-specific tools to get started. Recognizing people's innate adaptive abilities argues for providing support for the convention adoption process, i.e. discussion about the medium (usually problems with it), coming to agreement on a convention, and occasionally building automated support for the convention once it becomes a burdensome routine. (Irish & Trigg, 1989, p. 104)

 
This rationale for modifiability in hypertext may also apply to other forms of software functions as well.
 
Many usability issues associated with authoring hypertext also apply to authoring interactive multimedia. In addition, more sophisticated mechanisms for multimedia data creation and manipulation are required. Editors for all data types are emerging, although they are not all available in a single package. Educators who engage in interactive multimedia authoring need to be more concerned about hardware. In order to digitize multimedia an assortment of sophisticated input devices are required such as scanners, sound input devices like microphones and MIDI, and video digitizing boards. Video monitors become more important usability factors and educators need to chose not only between the presence or absence of color, but also the resolution, or clarity, of the image. Authors need to consider the limitations of different amounts of central processing unit (CPU) speed and memory. They also need to cope with storage mechanisms that are inadequate to accommodate digitized media beyond still pictures and small segments of sound. Even the largest hard disks are still inadequate to store and deliver high bandwidth media like full motion video. The storage media that allow the highest volume of storage are the least changeable and slowest to retrieve.
© Mary E. Hopper | MEHopper@TheWorld.com [posted 12/04/93 | revised 04/12/13]