Nick Swan (Blog 5)

The mental model is how the user perceives the object based on his or her experiences. This is something that does not have to be true but is thought by the user to be. A great example of this and one which we talked about in class is the trash can and thermostat examples where the user thinks that the trash can actually deletes the item and that turning the thermostat up higher actually increases how fast the room warms up. This contrasts with the implementation model because the programmer designs the product for the programmers benefit and not the users.