Seb here: We are delighted to welcome a new guestblogger in the person of online community expert Nancy White! (Nancy’s recent debut in the world of blogging was reported here last month.)

(Hands the mic over to Nancy…)

In an online discussion today, someone was commenting on the lack of functionality of the discussion threads in use. He suggested that the designer could have done it better/differently. I replied that we each experience the interface differently, have different preferences and that the designer probably designed for their preference and perspective.

Then I saw this article by Rashmi Sinha. Roller Coasters vs. Driver’s Seats: Design and the Concept of Situational Control. It planted the seed of the idea about doing more thinking about situational control (and more generally about control itself!). Here are a few quotes that caught my attention:

“…much of what we know about human cognitive behavior tells us that there is a tendency to over-attribute the role that individual agency play in shaping our behavior, while under-attributing the role that the situation plays in our behavior.”

“What are design strategies for dealing with lack of situational control? The typical response is to vie for attentional focus (always a challenge in todays era of sensory overload). There are bad ways of grabbing attention e.g., (like flashing banners and pop-ups). More benign ways might be to make the application or the content engaging. If the New York Times article I am reading holds my attention, then suddenly the lack of situational control ceases to matter. My attention is completely focused on the paper in front of me. The coffee can get cold, the cell phone gets turned off, and everything else recedes into the background. Situational control does not matter, because the design artifact has my attentional focus. Such a state of focused attention and intrinsic enjoyment has been referred to as flow (Hoffman & Novak, 2000). Making the experience immersive by using more realistic graphics is another way of gaining attentional focus. Storytelling can be another way of engaging the user, of gaining their attention.

These questions are important because the design challenge and possible solutions are shaped accordingly. They also impact how designers define their work.”

I wonder what would happen if you analyzed the situational control elements for a group before you configured software for them? Can you design software to respond to those situational and control issues?

P.S. It is a kick in the pants to be able to blog here at M2M. Thanks gang, for inviting me!
Also posted at OnfacBlog