One of the most interesting parts of the game we worked through this week was the way it raised, and then subverted, what may be called the usual patterns of interface design. However these patterns are referred to, it is difficult to gainsay that they are common, and that people learn to use them and, in a sense, rely on them as they use technology. This may not have been true a few decades ago when computer interfaces were new to many people, but it is certainly the case now and those of us who are used to these elements expect them to act in specific ways and are surprised when they lead us away from the purported goals of the designer. It is worth noting that it is not only the users of the interface which expect the patterns to be there, other computer programs are made with the same expectation. For example, I ran some of the game, from the beginning, through a screen reader used by many blind and visually impaired people. I was not able, using the adaptive technology, to move far into the game. This was because the reader continued to identify elements in ways, and with labels, which indicated they could be accessed through the keyboard. Trying to access them in that way, however, sometimes did not work. That is to say that the expectations from each element have become, over the past few years, fixed in ways which not only users, but also other designers, have come to understand and rely upon. This, of course, makes it a good deal easier to use those expectations to guide the behaviour of users in particular directions. One of the many things which users who are concerned about this need to do may be to consider each of their expectations and go through interfaces more slowly, not relying on only clues and context but taking the time to examine all the elements carefully to be sure that their expectations are not being used to guide them into particular courses of action without their knowledge.
