A lot of you who read this blog and comment already know about Stanford's iTunes website, but I think that what they are doing is worth emulating. For all of our discussion of aggregation, fit and finish (look and feel) count. If you can't make the experience easy in the ways that count, the types of interface complication that make us think (as Johndan's blog discusses) probably won't count. Building ethos may be complicated; but I think that most of us would agree that making the experience easier/more intutitive/automated when there is little but postmodern esoterica in store for the beleagured user who can't figure out how to *get* the content is a trust-building exercise.
I am often tempted as a teacher to blame my students for a logical step I forgot to make more clear or obvious, but I resist that. Later on, when I have increased good will (something that "Don't Make Me Think" mysteriously throws it's hands up at and declares unknowable and therefore irrelevant), I can then draw upon that good will. Of course, those of you in this game called teaching know that you usually don't have to instruct students to draw upon good will. These students are usually busy pouring in some of their own (to strain a metaphor).
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