So often the response to the idea of Behaviorism is something like, “I wouldn’t reduce my students to treating them like dogs” or “Skinner thinks people are just big rats.” My problem isn’t that many people share this opinion (which I don’t think is entirely unfounded), it is that such comments are based largely on ineffective examples of behaviorism.
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One of my many “hats” is the Director of Operations for The Rose Education Foundation. The Foundation’s goal is to help improve the economy and social status of Guatemala through education. When the Foundation was just beginning, there were many ways to in which the members attempted to “help out” a struggling, hopeless people. These were the ways that many international organizations work – giving out meals, providing medical treatment, building houses. After awhile, the Rose Foundation discovered that these efforts were not making a difference in the lives of the Guatemalans.
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I have read a plethora of books on web design, and user interfaces. However, I think I’ve found my favorte book yet. It is called “Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” by Steve Krug. Definitely worth the $20. on Amazon.com.
Krug’s down-to-earth approach forces us to look at how people really use web pages, not how we claim our users use our web pages. Some of his key points are that we don’t take the time to read pages — we scan them for what we think is important to us and that we don’t bother learning how things work–we muddle through until we figure it out. Coming to grips with such hard facts sets the stage for Web design that then produces topnotch sites.