I have long admired how iMapping uses small differences to make a big change in the User Experience of this interesting think tool.
For example, its “targeted zooming”: If you happen to remember where a desired detail is located on their big overview map, you can directly click it. This does not seem like a big deal because we are used to zooming through several zoom levels and we don’t mind this, really, because we don’t think about the additional steps any more. But each step increases the danger of being distracted by the patronizing user interface — and adds friction to the mind’s operation.
(On the way back, then, I might prefer the step-by-step navigation which is also offered, via Esc, to avoid the ‘sea-sick’ effect known from Prezi.)
Now they have introduced a new export format that has a similar (small & beneficial) effect (and this is indirectly also available to my condensr users who export to iMapping): “Setevi” = Semantic Text View. It allows to selectively expand or collapse the individual items, according to the user’s wishes (personal, not just personalized by the system). One might think: so what — didn’t Dave Winer’s Fargo.io do just that long ago? But the small difference is that Setevi conserves as much space as possible. And so, even a page with many expanded levels won’t get too long — which, in turn, makes it easier to discover similarities and hidden conceptual connections.
(Furthermore, the affordance of personal adjustment within a page, reminds me of the idea of Hyperscope that was derived from Doug Engelbart’s later work.)
Unfortunately, such small differences don’t seem to get much attention from empirical academic studies. Probably, the risk is too high that they won’t yield a neat success within the time-span of a thesis or funded project?
