Where I work, we have a coffee machine where you place a little container of coffee in a slot, close the slot, and water is forced thru the cofee in the little container to make your cup of coffee (Green Mountain). The little container then drops into a bin that has to be emptied every 20 or so cups.
Whether by luck or design, the mahine does not tell you the bin is full, until you have inserted your container in the slot and are ready to press START.
THis is great User inerface design. You really want the coffee at this point, so you'll empty the bin to get what you want.
If the "Empty bin" light went on *after* the cup that filled the bin, then you might walk by the machine and think: "I don't really want a coffee bad enough to empty the bin...."
My late teacher Prof. Louis Forsdale (he taught the more widely known Neil Postman who just died...) used to call such little vignettes: "microcommunication observations", and he encouraged his students to practice doing them.
The truth is often approaching
"below our radar"\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
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