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What is it about a Web site that might make it literally irresistible? ^{link »}

who is interested in the evolutionary and biological basis of the human need for information. ^{link »}

new and richly interpretable information triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good, which in turn causes us to seek out even more of it. ^{link »}

When you find new information, you get an opioid hit, and we are junkies for those. You might call us 'infovores.' " ^{link »}

We are programmed for scarcity ^{link »}

This is the reason why twitter is so addictive despite so much noise ^{link »}

2 key things here
- new and richly interpretable ^{link »}

Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface

Navigating through time # The widget initially assumes a time window of “the near future.” * * This window changes over time, of course. The widget naturally stays in sync, always displaying relevant information. A button to manually “refresh” the display would be almost obscenely mechanical. There are two cases in which this context is incorrect: The user wants to see even later trips. The user wants to plan for some other time entirely. # Relative navigation. To see earlier or later trips, the user can simply drag the graphic around. A cursor change suggests this, as well as a brief message when the widget is first started. * * The mouse scrollwheel and keyboard arrow keys also serve to navigate through time. The “underlying” graphic is infinite—the user can scroll forever. Thus, a GUI scrollbar would be inappropriate. # Absolute navigation. To plan around an arbitrary time, the user clicks a button to reveal the hours of the day, from morning to night, laid out linearly. The user can then click anywhere on the mechanism to jump to that time. # The mechanism’s labeling is intentionally vague, so the user will click approximately in the right area, and then continue to drag left or right until the correct information is displayed on the chart of train schedules. This forces the user to keep her eyes on the information graphic, instead of wasting effort precisely manipulating the navigation mechanism. * * This is the same concept suggested by the Google Maps prediction list above. Instead of precise, tedious absolute navigation, offer quick ballpark navigation, followed by relative navigation in a tight feedback loop. Unlike the time of day, the predicted date (today) is probably close—few people plan subway trips weeks in advance. Thus, the date control is relative. ^{link »}

inspiration for "time marking" ^{link »}

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Portals - WSJ.com

Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface