ExpertDabbler

User studies are always a fascinating and humbling experience for any designer. It is fun and sometimes shocking to discover a user’s mental model. To put it plainly, a mental model is basically a user’s understanding of how a thing/product/gadget works. It need not necessarily be the way it actually works.

Regular readers know that I have a weakness for listening to music in low volume late in the night in total darkness. Sometimes I play some songs in my Zune, connected to my speakers and I doze off after an hour or so.

So whenever my mom wakes up, she comes to my room, sees me sleeping peacefully and my player dishing out music switches off the power for the speakers.

According to her, when we cut off power, the music player should stop because that’s how the TV works and that’s how tape recorders worked. She validates her idea based on the feedback the system sends out. Obviously the music stops because the speaker derives power from the power outlet. Mission accomplished for my mom.

Only that this is misleading because my battery powered zune keeps running till next morning and my speakers comes back to life as soon as I switch it on next morning

I’ve since then educated my mom on the buttons to press to switch off the player as well. She in turn educated me to switch off the player myself before sleep