[Steering] partial report from Usability Study

[Cynthia Haynes]

Lennie,
    Many thanks for this report and your comments. I think it articulates
exactly what many users experience as they learn how to use an enCore MOO.
One of the central issues the report identifies is the gap between
text-based MOO functions and a web-based interface. We have long known that
this gap presents initial problems, which is why when we train teachers how
to teach the MOO to students we stress that they must also explain the
evolution of the MOO from text-based to web-based and the differences. Many
functions are possible by typing commands or by clicking links. I think it
is a mistake to only teach students/users to rely on the web-based method of
doing things. One way to obviate this gap is to make sure the email letter
that gets generated upon character creation contains a basic guide to MOO
commands that explains both text-based commands and web-based commands. We
do this at Lingua MOO, for example. It is also important when training
others to use the Xpress interface to explain how the contextual help info
works, ie the yellow lightbulb that can be clicked to see information about
how to work with that object. In many cases it brings up the old text-based
obvious verbs, which is confusing if they have not been taught that there
are two ways to work with many objects, the text-based command line way, and
the web-based link way.
    So, in our view, while the gap is considerable, it it not insurmountable
if training the trainers attends to these considerations so that the
trainers can train the users properly.

Best,

Cynthia and Jan

__Cynthia Haynes, Director of Rhetoric and Writing___________________
University of Texas at Dallas                   cynthiah at utdallas.edu
School of Arts & Humanities         http://www.utdallas.edu/~cynthiah
PO Box 830688-JO 31                   http://lingua.utdallas.edu:7000
Richardson, TX 75083-0688             (O)972-883-6340 (F)972-883-2989