Erik Pukinskis

Visual Languages

"The antiquity and ubiquity of pictures suggests that some form of 'visual literacy'--the ability to 'read' and understand pictures (e.g. Messaris, 1994)--is deeply embedded in the human mind, even the genome." (Cutting, 1998)

I, personally, have a strong disposition towards imagining that visual/structural interfaces are intuitive. But this, I believe, is only true on the individual level. Such interfaces are likely less intuitive or fundamental that I am inclined to think. In much the same vein, I would guess that projects like those in Georgia Tech's Sonification Lab exist because the people running them experience the auditory world more keenly than other worlds.

Truth be told though, I have no evidence for this. But it still leads us to an interesting question--and a worthwhile one, if only to figure out if my guesses above are correct. That is, what input modalities really are natural for people? Is that even a valid question? I imagine an ecological psychologist would say that behavior, perception and cognition are inextricably tied through all input modalities to the environment.


 
This page was last updated December 17, 2003 at 10:28pm.