I reflected over a conversation I have ever so often with my oldest kid, since it resembled something I picked up when reading about GUI dialog design.
The conversation normally takes place at the dinner table.
Me: Do you want more dinner?
Villads: No
Me: Are you sure?
Villads: silence
Villads silence has many reasons, it can be that he has started to play LEGOs or watch TV.
If I continue inquiring he will most likely respond: No
Which is of course not what he means, but it is the easy response.
So I need to practice dialogue with him to I can give him a proper chance to respond correctly to my questions.
Same pattern is important for graphical GUIs where I sometimes find myself confused about a certain dialogue, where positive and negative answers are required to complete a certain action. You often click the wrong button because of this.
So I do not blame Villads for giving misleading answers - I blame myself for confusing him.
The trendier thing to do would be not to ask at all and provide an "undo" option.
Re:Obviously...
jonasbn on 2008-08-26T15:11:40
Once in a while I put the plate in the kitchen in case of hunger, but eating habits is not really the issue, it is, but that is a different story. Anyway the dialogue is the problem and I need to be approach Villads differently in order to carry out proper conversations with him, instead of capturing him with weird adult non-sense, the situation simply reminded me of user experiences from GUIs.
Re:Obviously...
btilly on 2008-08-26T18:10:36
A random book recommend, How to talk so kids will listen, and listen so kids will talk. I have to say from personal experience that the advice really works.
like most uis, maybe he could benefit from less distractions (eg not allow legos or tv at the dinner table.)
Re:alternatively
jonasbn on 2008-08-28T04:52:37
That is one good solution. Focus on so many other activities around dinner, like the younger brother, cooking and setting the table - means that we often forget to turn off the TV and completely remove the LEGOs, which are then just simply moved to the end of the table.
Re:alternatively
jcap on 2008-08-28T13:07:47
heh, I can relate.
