A quick note on everyday constraints.... I love puzzles. Crossword, Picture, Word Find, Mahjongg... they're all great. I enjoy finding patterns in things - once you get the pattern, you're home free. I have lately become addicted to a game which has a picture divided into tiny little squares. You have to either rotate or swap the squares in order to make the whole picture visible. I look for words on signs, patterns in the floor of a room or in the clouds in the sky. Norman describes this approach to a novel object, using "information in the world, particularly if the design of the new object has presented us with information that can be interpreted... One important set of signals comes through the natural constraints of objects, physical that limit what can be done." (Norman, 1988) What if my puzzles didn't have that discernible pattern that I so diligently search for? What if the picture I was trying to construct was of some wacky modern art piece that I have never seen, and where the sky is not up and the floor is not down? I don't think I would like those kind of puzzles so much...
Norman, D. A. (1988). The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Doubleday.
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Tanya,
I have PuzzleMaster on my laptop and really enjoy doing puzzles of my own images. It is interesting, too, because when I start the game I have the option of turning the pieces randomly or keeping them all straight up. (I always keep them straight up; I would never get the thing together if I did it any other way!) MahJong is all patterns, but I have a hard time distinguishing some of the tiles one from the other ... they are so similar. Thanks for a great post; it made me think a different way about my games!
tammi :o)
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