Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
An obvious but easily overlooked element of situation building is the fact
that all of the relevant aspects of the situation must be successfully
rep-
resented
. Watching a small child struggle with a “drawing” program on a
computer is a case in point; her actions are limited by her ability to rec-
ognize the tools and the context. She is simply not able to do the kind of
investigation of the environment and situation that a computer-savvy adult
would be willing to undertake; she doesn't know what rocks (or icons) to
look under. For her, the representation is all there is.
8
That's Not a Computer, Lady
After I began working at Atari, I became interested in player research. A research group
lived inside the marketing department, but they were working on how to sell things rather
than how players responded to them. The software guys did alpha and beta tests, but of-
ten with themselves as players—and that sort of testing was done when the product was
well on its way to being fi nished.
I asked myself, who plays these games? What are they getting out of it? Why do they
do it? So I began to lurk in video arcades on my lunch hour, watching young boys play the
early arcade games. If they seemed amenable, I would approach. “Hi, I work at Atari. Can I
talk to you for a minute?” Now, today I would be arrested for this. “Do you love this game?
Why? What fascinates you about it? How could it be better?”
One day I questioned a fairly young fellow, about 12 years old. He seemed quite
bright. After I asked the usual questions, I was inspired to ask another. “Does playing these
games make you want to be a computer programmer someday?”
The kid shook his head and looked down at
his shoes for a minute. Then he met my gaze and
said, “That's not a computer, lady. That's just a stu-
pid videogame.”
The bad news is, he called it a stupid game.
The good news is, for him, the representation was
all there was.
8. Finger-painting software works well for the little ones. Now look at these directions for an
online drawing program: “Select a color (top left button), select a background color (next but-
ton). Then select the type of line you want to use, the width of the line. . . . NOTE: When select-
ing a color, watch carefully both circles: the main circle aims at choosing a tint and the second
one aims at changing the depth of this tint.”
