Cognitive Artifacts & Windows 95 The article on Cognitive Artifacts by David A. Norman deals with the theories and principles of artifacts as they relate to the user during execution and completion of tasks. These principles and theories that Norman speaks about may be applied to any graphical user interface, however I have chosen to relate the article to the interface known as Windows 95. Within Windows 95, Microsoft has included a little tool called the wizard that guides us through the steps involved in setting up certain applications. This wizard is a very helpful tool to the non experienced computer user, in the way that it acts like a to-do list.
The wizard takes a complex task and breaks it into discrete pieces by asking questions and responding to those questions based on the answers. Using Norman’s theories on system view and the personal view of artifacts, we see that the system views the wizard as an enhancement. For example, we wanted to set up the Internet explorer, you click on the icon answer the wizard’s questions and the computer performs the work. Making sure everything is setup properly without the errors that could occur in configuring the task yourself.
The wizard performs all the functions on its little to-do list without having the user worrying about whether he / she remembered to include all the commands. Onthe side of personal views the user may see the wizard as a new task to learn but in general it is simpler than having to configure the application yourself and making an error, that could cause disaster to your system. The wizard also prevents the user from having to deal with all the internal representation of the application like typing in command lines in the system editor. Within Windows 95 most of the representation is internal therefore we need a way to transform it to surface representation so it is accessible to the user. According to Norman’s article there are ‘three essential ingredients in representational systems. These being the world which is to be represented, the set of symbols representing the world, and an interpreter.’ This is done in Windows by icons on the desktop and on the start menu.
The Term Paper on Multi User Operating Systems
1. Introduction The aim of this report is discuss or describe the following: -. Main features of a Multi User Operating System. Different types of Multi User Operating System. Physical components of a Multi User Operating System. Software components of a Multi User Operating System I have done extensive research on the Internet, from Class Notes from the Lecturer and in Articles/Books to get the ...
The world we are trying to represent to the user is the application, which can be represented by a symbol which is the icon. These icons on the desktop and on the start menu are the surface representations the user sees when he goes to access the application not all the files used to create it or used in conjunction with the applications operation. With the icons a user can retrieve applications and their files by click of a button. The icons lead the user directly into the application without showing all the commands the computer goes through to open the application. The icons make the user more efficient in accomplishing tasks because it cuts done on the time of trying to find an item when the user can relate what he / she wants to do by the symbol on the icon. Another example of an artifact within Windows 95 that exhibits Norman’s theories is the recycle bin.
This requires the user to have a direct engagement with the windows explorer and knowing the right item to delete. As a user decides that he no longer desires a certain program and chooses to delete the item, he is executing a command that will change the perception of the system. By selecting the item to delete the user has started an activity flow which involves the gulf of evaluation and the gulf of execution. Either of these gulfs could be perceived differently by the user then by the system so Windows 95 prompts the user with a dialog box asking if the user is sure he / she wants to remove this item from the system and it prompts again when emptying the recycle bin. What the user intends to do and what the system plans to do might not be the same so by prompting the user for action we are double checking that this is what the user has in mind. However when windows prompts us with the confirmation message, we are breaking the scheduled activity flow.
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... Windows Start menu and double-click the System icon. st-curriculum.oracle.com/obe/jdev/obe11jdev/bulldog/deploysoaapp/deployment.htm 5/73 7/14/13 Deploying a JDeveloper SOA Application ... Open the FOD Application.) 2. The Ant build artifacts are located in ... uflmn 3. seedDemoUsers (creates several users, including the user j t i , who ... Place another order by adding items until the Shopping Cart Summary ...
The main problem with halting the activity flow is that it breaks the user’s attention, however when deleting an item you could have selected the wrong item by mistake and without the break in activity flow the outcome could be dangerous. Norman calls these breaks ‘forcing functions which prevent critical or dangerous actions from happening without conscious attention.’ The artifacts discussed above using Windows 95 graphical user interface are very similar to the theories and principles that Norman suggests in his article. Norman has stressed that cognitive artifact should follow three aspects which I feel Windows has dealt with. Windows 95 in itself has been made so that it is adaptable to the user whether he / she be an experienced user or not, by creating artifacts like icons and menu bars that are all related to one another. This makes it easier for the user to adapt to its environment and continue computing happily.
