[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Adam Wiggins <nightfall at user2.inficad.com> wrote:

...

>*shrug*
>Let's say that, on Day 1, there exists a rope.  The user can pick it up
>and drop it, nothing else.
>On Day 2, they can still do both these things, but they can also chop it
>into little bits with a knife, roll it up, and smoke it.  Does the user
>need to know this?  Do they care?  Does this impair their ability to pick
>up, or drop the rope?
>
>I for one would rather have a system where I'm always discovering new things,
>rather than one I can learn every aspect of in my first visit there.

Discovering new "things" sure, but discovering new "imperatives" ?

I believe it is a good idea to think of the command set as something
belonging to the user, while "things" belong to the world.  Certain
things are likely candidates for certain actions, you want those
actions to be readily visible to the user.  If the user has the desire
to cut the rope (maybe the computer complained about the rope being
too long) then it's wrong to have the user "discover" the
cut-functionality.  However, it is ok to have the user "discover" a
knife.

I believe anyone involved in design should read the book:

"The design of everyday things" by Donald A. Norman (also published as
"the psychology of everyday things")

>A mud which is based around the same premises as a good PnP game or, better
>yet, a good book, relies on the kind of expression one can only get from
>language (or, at least without complete VR, and I'm not sure even then).

I believe you are assuming more than you can justify here...

A language consists of a set of symbols and some rules for combining them.
Nothing magic...  

Ola.