Rewiring Brains

I heard a story about this great ballet dancer from the early 20th century. As a child, she wouldn't sit still and performed very poorly in school. Distraught and not knowing what to do, her mother took her to see a doctor. The doctor tried various remedies at the time, including just strapping her down in a chair, none of which worked. The mother took her to see another doctor and he recommended putting her in dance classes as a way to "get it out of her system". Well it turns out that dancing was just the medicine. Dancing was just what this young girl needed. She didn't know how to communicate before she began dance. And she turned out to be this incredible dancer.

I just read this story in NYTimes about technology rewiring the brains of young people and how it is creating a population of easily distracted kids. Nothing we haven't heard before.

The main subject of the story was a high school student who is known around his school as one of the brightest, yet his grades beg to differ. He's received Ds and Fs in most of his classes except for his film classes. Sure enough, this kid loves nothing more than to make and discuss videos with his friends. He uses Facebook and YouTube religiously. I'd assume that he wants to be a filmmaker or some kind of multimedia producer.

Now the story uses this kid as an example of someone obsessed and distracted by technology, which is hindering his learning. It also posits that the brains of children are being rewired by technology and that they will literally think differently when using technology. I've actually read literature about this regarding cell phone use and the research is fascinating and convincing.

But I don't honestly see a problem with this kid. I mean, his story sounds a lot like the ballet dancer. His brain is probably being rewired, but is that a bad thing? He's obviously got a lot of passion about filmmaking and passion usually makes people not care about anything else. But it also makes people really good at the things that they are passionate about. If I were an educator, I would cultivate that passion, instead of strapping him down and forcing him to read Cat's Cradle (although that is a fabulous book, which he should probably read).

Moreover, why are the brain patterns of adults better? With all the problems in the world, you'd think someone would want to rewire the human brain. I say, make films Vashal Singh!

Andy Rooney's Tweets

I'm not sure if Andy Rooney keeps the @Andy_Rooney handle on Twitter. It sounds like him but in a stripped-down almost satirical way. Basically, if it came to light that it was actually a young person who was making fun of him, it wouldn't come as a shock.

Here are some of my favorites that I've read:

"Why do ice cream manufacturers insist on such fancy flavors? Strawberry? Pistachio? What's wrong with chocolate and vanilla?"
I agree. Nothing illustrates the decadence of modern society like strawberry ice cream.

"People are using entirely too much foul language. You're free to say whatever you want, but "turd" just makes you sound uneducated and low"
Those whippersnappers!

"They're amazing, walls. They hold up the roof, but they're also handy for hanging pictures. I like that."
Poetry.


"There are too many brands of popcorn. Orville Redenbacher, Jolly Time, Jiffy Pop, Pop Weaver, Pop Secret, and Newman's Own are just a few."
DEAR GOD INFORMATION OVERLOAD WITH THE POPCORN


"I'm not a "dog person," I'm just a person who prefers dogs to cats. They say the Persians worshipped cats. I don't care for them, either."
Wait, you don't care for Persians...or cats?


"My favorite photograph of Mike Wallace: c:\users\arooney\my_documents\mikesnewtrousers.jpg"
Great. Now all I have to do is break into your house, log onto your computer, and look at the photo. You really know how to harness the power of the Internet.
 
Well in his defense, Twitter doesn't exactly lend itself to intelligent commentary.

Marcie in Autumn

My first music video in about three years. Shot on my Canon Rebel EOS T2i. Song is "Walking the Dog" by fun. I made this without their permission but hopefully they realize I made it out of sheer love for this song.

Wall to Wall

The best and probably most overlooked feature on Facebook is the "Wall-to-Wall" link on the news feed. It takes you to all the wall postings you and one other person have ever had. It's really akin to a photo album but for me, it's actually more enjoyable. You can see exactly when comments were made and go back and, in a way, experience them again. I think they are somehow more vivid than photos because many times these wall postings are conversations. They might be short (between two and five threads long) but they're always funny or enjoyable with your closest friends.

In some cases, you can see how your relationships have evolved. You can explicitly see how you conversed with someone you've just met and after you've dated them for years. If you're like me, you definitely held your true personality back, just a little, in the beginning. And then three or six months in, you were able to let it all hang out. All the little idiosyncracies that make people beautiful or interesting. You can literal see it unfold. Some of my wall-to-walls are quite long, especially with close friends, and it's just amazing to back and read them.

If you haven't done this, and you have an hour to spare, do it with your closest three friends.

Wayfinding

This is a photo of an elevator in a parking garage in Bloomington, IN. Is this necessary? was the first thing that came to mind. Donald Norman talks a lot about "reminders" in The Design of Everyday Things. I have a post-it note on my computer at work to remind me to clock-in everyday. We leave ourselves reminders all the time. But I'd never seen a reminder for a reminder. If the word remember hadn't  been there, I would have seen the giant number 1 and thought Okay, I'm on the first floor. But would I have used that information in the same way when it came time to find my car? Probably not. Simply having the number 1 on the door tells me where I am in that moment. Which has value but not as much as when it comes time to leave and I forgot where I parked. There's a different context with the word remember. This elevator is now a wayfinding artifact, not a general informative artifact.

An offshoot of information architecture is a practice called wayfinding, or the systematic organization and labeling for the navigation of discrete physical structures. It's mostly used in the urban planning and architecture disciplines and they largely go unnoticed (until you find yourself lost).

For the parking garage at the mall in Towson, Maryland, images of imaginary creatures were used to help patrons remember where they parked. Instead of using alphanumeric designations (ex. 2B) which might be easily forgotten, there are creatures like squid-bunnies and lion-turtles to demarcate each parking section. Unfortunately, the novelty of that system doesn't contextualize the information. Knowing that I'm in the lion-turtle section doesn't tell me why I should know that. And because I don't know why, I completely forget it the second I enter the mall.

The photo is a great example of how contextual information is and how important it is to define that context for the user's sake.

The Paradox of Choice

click to enlarge

Here's an interesting idea that could, in theory, be applied to several disciplines. The Paradox of Choice is the idea that too much choice actually leads to indecision, anxiety, and well, not choosing anything. The term comes from the 2004 book of the same name by Barry Schwartz. The original context of the book was consumer products and shopping but I came across it in my information architecture readings.

Designing information spaces involves navigation and usability. The idea of Paradox of Choice comes into play when deciding what options to give users when they search for content. For large, complex sites, this is a huge undertaking. I remember my frustrations doing this while working at a city/regional magazine in Annapolis. I decided the website needed to be reworked, specifically the navigation. But because we supplied content from two monthly magazines, it was extremely difficult to provide enough options for users to find what they need but few enough so they don't get confused. It's a subtle give-and-take.

I've added an image of a visualization of this interesting paradox.

Terrible Credit Card Machine Design

Quick, do the exact opposite of what
you think you should do. 

If you've ever used a credit card at a store, you probably have run into this. After you slide your card, you are usually asked to choose debit or credit. I always use credit because my bank charges me fees for using debit. So after you choose credit, a curious thing happens (99 times out of a 100)—the credit card machine asks you to hit CANCEL to continue. What? Why? That makes no sense. Designers are supposed to anticipate the mental models of the users of their products. When I want to continue with a process, my first thought isn't to cancel the process. I want to continue. Yet 99% of credit card machines in stores require me to hit cancel.

The funny thing is, everyone knows this (or is used to it) but everyone still asks if they need to hit CANCEL. I've even been to a lot of stores where there is a piece of paper taped to the machine that says YES, PRESS CANCEL FOR CREDIT. If the users of your product have to tape a note to it to direct its operation, something is wrong.