The amateur creator

ABSTRACT

Important design problems are raised in developing software for amateur users, a group distinguished here from novices. The authors argue that these design problems can be approached by understanding how systems for amateurs are derived from those for skilled users, through a combination of transformations we describe as foregrounding, backgrounding, automation, integration and constraining. Useful comparisons are offered with popular product designs. A broader, partly historical, context is then described in which media technologies propagate from use by specialists to use by these amateurs, and the latter change from consumers to creators. The discussion is focused by a description of difficulties with existing software encountered in the course of a creative schools-based project, intended to enable young users both to explore virtual worlds and to design and populate them with their own avatars. The authors argue that HCI design would benefit from a clearer grasp of the special characteristics of designing for amateur users and of transforming existing software for their use.

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Index Terms

• Human-centered computing