making you fit, or vice versa
11 Jun 2011 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigouOne of my biggest issues with application development is when any driver in the development (whether programmers, designers, or the corporate decision-makers) declare that "users can just get used to this". I end up arguing the opposite, every single time. Like arguing that users do need a halfway button that says "save and continue" on a really long form, or that we can't drop the red asterisk for colorblind users who won't see the red outline on a text-box, or that a series of steps aren't obvious or intuitive. I don't believe you can force users -- or that you even should -- into changing their own perceptions and patterns just because you think it's easier to not include that second button, or because you believe asterisks will "mess up" your pretty styles.
Since an application's purpose is to help someone work more efficiently (whether at a new task or just redoing an old task in a new format, like in-browser), making the users slow down to learn a new pattern-language seems counterproductive. You have to fit the application to the users, and any changes must be slow and subtle. We're all old dogs, really, when it comes to how we interact with patterns.
I see the same argument in fiction, where users (readers) argue for things like "pronounceable names" or dislike settings or conflicts that don't mesh with their expectations. Things like female characters who are androgynous enough that an unfamiliar character might, at first, not be sure of the female character's sex/gender. Or hierarchies that don't work in the same way as those the reader knows. Or even just value systems that aren't in-culture for the reader: different priorities, like setting one's family/parents above one's personal ambitions. Those kinds of stories are the opposite of the application-design style above, because they don't bend to the user's conventions, but expect the reader to bend to mesh with the story.
[paragraph above is badly-phrased, see comments for discussion/elaboration]
Maybe such unfamiliar-named, unfamiliar-setting stories might reach a wider audience if they worked more to meet with reader non/familiarity? Like taking a non-English name and anglicizing it a little differently to make its pronunciation more obvious, more understandable to English-familiar readers? (I am suddenly thinking of Korean names, which seem to be anglicized in any of a variety of ways, and frequently have vowel-combinations that would be one way based on English rules, but are pronounced quite differently.) Another is cultural, where the protagonist notes things that would be taken for granted in the protag's own culture (ie, family over individual or vice versa), but are distinctly different from the reader's culture, and thus are tagged or lampshaded solely for the reader's benefit. (Characters who note the side of the road driven is a huge, if rare, example: who the hell ever stops to think about what side of the road they drive on, if they grew up with that understanding/assumption?)
I recall someone on my dwircle was discussing/reviewing a book set in Japan, I think it was, where the main character noted such cross-culture differences. Those familiar with Japanese culture found it off-putting, it seemed, because these seemed like things a Japanese person would never think to randomly compare. I mean, how often do you go around your native/home culture and say, "I'm getting cucumbers and okra, but you'd never see these in a Russian supermarket"? Those who not quite familiar with Japanese culture seemed to be more forgiving, maybe because they were glad of being given some handle on the differences. It can be hard to assess what's "strange" for a character when the entire setting is strange to you, as the reader.
Bend to the user/reader, or expect the reader/user to bend to the story? What do you think?
Since an application's purpose is to help someone work more efficiently (whether at a new task or just redoing an old task in a new format, like in-browser), making the users slow down to learn a new pattern-language seems counterproductive. You have to fit the application to the users, and any changes must be slow and subtle. We're all old dogs, really, when it comes to how we interact with patterns.
I see the same argument in fiction, where users (readers) argue for things like "pronounceable names" or dislike settings or conflicts that don't mesh with their expectations. Things like female characters who are androgynous enough that an unfamiliar character might, at first, not be sure of the female character's sex/gender. Or hierarchies that don't work in the same way as those the reader knows. Or even just value systems that aren't in-culture for the reader: different priorities, like setting one's family/parents above one's personal ambitions. Those kinds of stories are the opposite of the application-design style above, because they don't bend to the user's conventions, but expect the reader to bend to mesh with the story.
[paragraph above is badly-phrased, see comments for discussion/elaboration]
Maybe such unfamiliar-named, unfamiliar-setting stories might reach a wider audience if they worked more to meet with reader non/familiarity? Like taking a non-English name and anglicizing it a little differently to make its pronunciation more obvious, more understandable to English-familiar readers? (I am suddenly thinking of Korean names, which seem to be anglicized in any of a variety of ways, and frequently have vowel-combinations that would be one way based on English rules, but are pronounced quite differently.) Another is cultural, where the protagonist notes things that would be taken for granted in the protag's own culture (ie, family over individual or vice versa), but are distinctly different from the reader's culture, and thus are tagged or lampshaded solely for the reader's benefit. (Characters who note the side of the road driven is a huge, if rare, example: who the hell ever stops to think about what side of the road they drive on, if they grew up with that understanding/assumption?)
I recall someone on my dwircle was discussing/reviewing a book set in Japan, I think it was, where the main character noted such cross-culture differences. Those familiar with Japanese culture found it off-putting, it seemed, because these seemed like things a Japanese person would never think to randomly compare. I mean, how often do you go around your native/home culture and say, "I'm getting cucumbers and okra, but you'd never see these in a Russian supermarket"? Those who not quite familiar with Japanese culture seemed to be more forgiving, maybe because they were glad of being given some handle on the differences. It can be hard to assess what's "strange" for a character when the entire setting is strange to you, as the reader.
Bend to the user/reader, or expect the reader/user to bend to the story? What do you think?
no subject
Date: 12 Jun 2011 01:22 am (UTC)And I just think your whole analogy doesn't hold up. Yeah, writers are going to think about their audience and their audience's expectations and weight to what extent they want to play into or against those expectations. Programmers should also be thinking about what their hypothetical users need/want and *should only play into those expectations, not against them*. Because a program is a tool, and a story is a story.
dislike settings or conflicts that don't mesh with their expectations. Things like female characters who are androgynous enough that an unfamiliar character might, at first, not be sure of the female character's sex/gender. Or hierarchies that don't work in the same way as those the reader knows.
I guess some stories don't challenge readers and aren't meant to, but those usually aren't the stories I'm interested in reading and they sure as hell aren't the kind of stories I'm interested in writing.
Also, I am a female who is always misgendered - usually assumed to be a woman and occasionally assumed to be a man, and it's not atypical for me to inspire a double-take (I notice this especially when I use the women's bathroom, which on the whole is less awkward than what might happen in most men's bathrooms). So basically, you're describing my own lived experience and that of everyone I encounter, but implying that it's as Other as "hierarchies that don't work in the same way as those the reader knows". I find your use of that example off-putting.
no subject
Date: 12 Jun 2011 01:47 am (UTC)I'm not sure I explained that well, so here's an alternate way of putting it. If, in a story, the character finds item (or way, or food, or belief, or practice, or appearance, or etc) A to be "within the realm of This" -- where "this" is the opposite of "Othered" -- then to me, the This becomes my This for the duration of reading. I am willing to set aside (and sometimes, to be smacked with) my own personal boundaries of This/Other, and rest for awhile in someone else's shoes where their This/Other is not mine.
It's just... really really hard to take a critique where the bulk of the story-critiques consist of people shoving their personal This/Other onto my story, where the This/Other is not theirs. But for the character, it's a consistent This/Other. The fact that it doesn't mesh with the reader's This/Other is -- to me -- one of the good parts of fiction. It's just really hard to remember I believe that, when I'm getting critiques treating this belief as though I'm presenting a bad style of fiction.
no subject
Date: 12 Jun 2011 02:00 am (UTC)It's just... really really hard to take a critique where the bulk of the story-critiques consist of people shoving their personal This/Other onto my story, where the This/Other is not theirs. But for the character, it's a consistent This/Other.
Oh, I can see why: almost certainly a display of privilege, and also missing the point of what you as a writer were trying to do, which is to create cohesive characters with their own internal logic and sets of assumptions about how the world works.
no subject
Date: 12 Jun 2011 02:06 am (UTC)I think I'm just really out of practice with posting, at all. I haven't been communicating much with anyone in the past month or so, for various reasons. I hadn't expected it to be a struggle, to get back into the habit, but apparently it is. Hopefully the duration of foot-in-mouth disease will be limited, and the habit will come back with enough practice. (Or, at least, as much of a mediocre habit as I ever had, that is.)
no subject
Date: 12 Jun 2011 02:16 am (UTC)