Persuasive communication in vocational development.

Last week I worked at an exhibition called Skills Masters. During three days students compete to become the best cook, electrician, mechanic etc. Each stand represent a trade or business and so I had to work on the OBIT stand, what represent the installation trade. Several MBO and VMBO students fight to be the best heating installer, roof builder, bathroom installer etc of the Netherlands. During this competition the exhibition is visited by schools and their students. These students are between 12 and 15 years old and have to choose their study direction. The Skills Masters exhibition shows all possible studies and every exhibitor tries to inform and persuade the students to choose the presented studies.
Students visit the exhibition with their school and will separated in groups of 10 persons. Every group get a ‘tour guide’ and these guides ensure that the students will visit all stands. At each stand there are employees who will guide the students through the stand and tell them about the studies represented.  It sounds like a very good an useful method to inform the students about the study opportunities they have, but there seems to be a contradiction between reality and theory.

However, to communicate you need a sender and a receiver. Walking on the exhibition you can see that all senders did their work very well, but their success depends on the interaction between sender and receiver, so the receiver is really important to succeed. During my work on the exhibition it was clear to me that most of the receivers are not interested in the information and are not listening to the tour guides. A small amount of information the exhibitor want to communicate to the students will be received and so all the effort has less success.  All these companies and trade representatives tries to inform and persuade the children, they put a lot of effort in the exhibition but what will be the outcome of all this? In my opinion the outcome of the exhibition is minimal, simply because it seems the receiver is not interested in the information.

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)

Computer mediated communication is communication by the computer. Some examples of this type of communication are MSN, E-mail but also Dating-Sites and social network sites. Since internet became normal in every household and so everybody has access to these technologies our communication has changed. The good-old Face to Face communication now has to compete against all these computer types of communication. However, are these new communication technologies a step forward or backwards? Researchers developed different theory’s, some researches think face to face communication is still the best form of communication. Other researchers think that the computer mediated communication is the best form of communication.

In my opinion both types has their advantages and off course disadvantages. Face to Face communication is mostly verbal and non-verbal. Computer mediated communication is mostly text based communication and then it is only verbal communication, but the latest technologies made it possible to communicate non-verbal too (skype/webcam/sending pictures). By Face to Face communication it is possible to share more information in a shorter time, however 
research shows that people share more intimacy in computer mediated communication than in Face to Face communication. Two conflicting theories about computed mediated communication is the rich-get-richer theory and the poor-get-richer theory. People who communicate easy in Face to Face situations are helped by CMC and so, the richer people get richer. Other researches think that people who communicate not very ease in Face to Face situations are helped to communicate by CMC. In my opinion both of the theories are true. The rich will get richer, but also the poor will get richer because they can communicate anonymous, and only when they want to communicate and to people they want to communicate with.

Overall, I think CMC is a very useful type of communication what can help a lot of people to communicate to their friends and to new people. I would say it is a rich type of communication because of all its advantages. However, be careful because in several occasions people can swap their identity.

User Interfaces throughout the years

User interface design  is the design of computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user's experience and interaction. The goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction as simple and efficient as possible, in terms of accomplishing user goals, what is often called user-centered design. Good user interface design facilitates finishing the task at hand without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Graphic design may be utilized to support its usability. The design process must balance technical functionality and visual elements (e.g., mental model) to create a system that is not only operational but also usable and adaptable to changing user needs.
Not only the nature evolves like Darwin said, but also user interfaces evolves throughout the years. Like the pedals in a car. Nowadays we know to find the accelerator, brake and clutch pedal because in every car is it on the same place. However, in the early years of the development of the car the pedals were not common placed in every car. In some cars the accelerator was placed  in the left, sometimes in the middle or in the right. It was not sure!
The Wright brothers, who developed a first flying plane, had to control 28 functions on their plane. Nowadays in the Airbus’ and Boeings you will find hundreds of functions controlled by systems or by the pilot itself. The cockpits are full of technology to let the pilot be able to control all these systems.

Another great example of interfaces in the past is the Citroen DS. This was a shock in the history of the production of the car. This car had an hydraulic system what helps breaking, steering, used the clutch, ensured the car height and caused high suspension comfort. However, this system was hard to handle when you drove at the first time in the car, so Citroën decided to let the car-salesman drive the car with the customer seated next to the salesman. Nowadays we can’t imagine that something like that will happen. Ergonomics became so important that every car designed nowadays looks quite the same inside, everybody knows where to find the buttons and how to handle the car. This all related to the evolution of user interface designs, evolution in the past, but also in the future.