You are going to hear me talk a lot about user interfaces and human computer interaction in 2008. It’s an area that I’m intensely interested in as I think the way we interact with computers 20 years from now will make our current UI / HCI paradigms look as quaint as DOS and 3270 emulation mode looks today.
One of my friends working in this area is Bruce Wyman, the director of technology at the Denver Art Museum. Bruce periodically writes a blog called DAM Technology and recently put up a post titled The Sapir-WIMP Hypothesis.
""The more easily you can talk about a user interface, the more easily you can understand how to manipulate it." … it’s been a fundamental part to how we’ve approached a lot of our interface works in the galleries here at the museum. I think the amount of time someone is going to devote to whatever experience we create is pretty minimal and that having complex interfaces and interactions quickly chew into that engagement time. So, wherever we can make the interface immediately intuitable or simplify the experience so that are no incorrect actions, the better of we are and the quicker someone can get into an experience."
Sometimes you need a paragraph to describe the UI. But keep it short.