[thelist] What's causing a psychological block?

[Frank]

At 11:03 AM 2003-06-28 +0100, you wrote:
>So far, so good. However, when I test to see how many people actually 
>tried out the "Kempelen Box", to see the agents and see what answers the 
>box gives to questions, I find the results shockingly poor.


>Where am I going wrong? What psychological block is stopping people 
>playing around with the box? Or, is the whole concept so boring that 
>nobody bothers to see how it works?


I was one of your visitors. I tried to create an agent, and it did nothing. 
I turned off all my filters, turned on all of my plug-ins, turned on java, 
javascript, basically left my browser wide open. So I left.

While I thought that the idea might hold the potential to be interesting, I 
found a number of sources of confusion. What follows is a free-floating 
series of observations, in no particular order as I go though the site again.

- As I read though the whole thing, I kept wondering WTF a Kempelen box is. 
Maybe I'm dense. Maybe the copy needs some work. Both are possible.

- Many places say "Click on the link that says 'xxx'". A direct link would 
have added better context to my understanding.

- Now I'm checking it out again. "Submit to memory"? How about 
"Save"?  "Start memory build"? How about "Build an agent". (BTW: I'm only 
building an agent to understand just what you're trying to explain. I don't 
get it yet.

- 48 question form. I'm interested, but not so interested that I'll spend 
20 minutes filling out a form to understand what you're trying to explain.

- Of very minor note: There are a number of spelling errors. "Case 
Sensative" rather than "Case Sensitive".

The biggest problem for me was the lack of clarity. I certainly appreciate 
your passion for something, and I get the sense that it's an interesting 
idea. I need to understand the following early on:

1) WTF is it? Experts in a box. OK, so your talking about user defined 
search criteria/algorithms? No database? Very against conventional wisdom. 
I need to better understand the details.

2) What's in it for me as a coder, as a user, and why would I want to spend 
my time learning this new system, enough so that I might implement it.


Note that it still sounds interesting, but following the path of least 
resistance, I need to get a clear and easy big hit of "what's in it for me" 
that can sustain me past the initial learning curve. Fusebox gave me that 
right away "Self-describing, modular code for easier, faster coding and 
long-term easy maintenance". I got this right off the bat.

Final observation. Perhaps what might help is that you need to *sell* the 
idea, rather than *explain* it.

One man's 2 cents.



--
Frank Marion     lists at frankmarion.com      Keep the signal high.