Re: Magic Number 7--again

[Robert Barlow-Busch <bob -at- SONYCOM -dot- COM>]

Karen, thank-you for that excellent information!

> The idea is that if you have a source of external
> memory you don't need to worry about the limitations
> of short-term memory.

How very true. As Donald Norman says in his book "Things
That Make Us Smart", we increase our cognitive powers (like
memory, thought, and reasoning) by inventing external aids.
These aids, which include documentation, are the things that
make us smart. Geez, he even named the book after this idea!

If a user has no need to remember all the items in a list,
then let the book or the online presentation serve its
purpose. Let it be a source of external memory. And if there
are more than 7 items -- no problem! If it's very important
that a user remember a series of items or steps, then we
must find ways of helping them -- and I'd suggest that,
ideally, this help should come from the design of the
product itself. Of course, we rarely face ideal situations,
which means that we have to find suitable workarounds. The
idea behind the magic number 7 is a good one -- don't give
people more information than they can process -- but it
seems that the meaning of the number 7 itself has been
applied inappropriately. I've found it very interesting to
learn about the origins of this rule.

I guess this means we should chunk information into groups
that make sense in the context of the user's experience.
What a concept! Seven? Eight? Twelve? Hey, whatever works in
the particular context. The question we have to answer is:
how do we know what works?

Robert Barlow-Busch
bob -at- sonycom -dot- com
Sony Platform Software Development Center
Brussels, Belgium


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