Derek Schutz Blog #5

A mental model is what we the user believes is true about the way something works, rather than how it actually works in the technology world. Hoekman helps describes what a mental model is by explaining how in real life we throw things away in trash cans, and how on computers we have a picture of a trash can that would drag files into to get rid of them. In most peoples heads, all we are doing is simply throwing files in the trash can to get rid of them, but that is not how it actually works. We are actually just moving those files into another folder labeled as something else that we decide is not important. A mental model is what we believe to be true about how somethings works, regardless of whether that is right or wrong. Our mental model just helps us to understand how to use a computer, rather than learning what is really going on behind the scenes. This mental model contrasts with the implementation model of the programmers in that the programmers model would be much more specific and much more detailed dealing with what is actually happening inside the computer or with the object. The programmers would have to know exactly how something works.