Does Your Software Need A Personality Test?

from the how-extroverted-is-your-spam-software? dept

There are all different theories in designing software, but I've never heard of trying to give an application the famous Myers-Briggs personality test to design its user interface. However, that's what an anti-spam software company has done. They looked over the various Myers-Briggs personality profiles to find the personality that most matched "spam stopping" and chose "ESTJ" or the "Guardian Supervisor", and then made user interface choices based on what sort of person that was likely to portray. It's certainly a different approach, and it will be interesting to see how effective (if at all) it is. It sounds like some of the design choices they made (e.g., no help menu) may sound good on paper, but will confuse users (no matter what their personality type) who are just used to applications working in a specific way. Users expect a certain comfort level, even in new applications, so that the learning curve isn't too much of a hurdle for them to deal with.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Saygin(?), 12 Nov 2003 @ 8:14am

    But I'm an INFP...

    Does that mean that as the Exact opposite personality type I will experience dissonance with this spam application? Or should I build upon the differences in personality, and allow the application and myself to grow from our differences?

    Yikes! I've never thought of applications as different personality types. But that would explain why there's so much tension in my hard drive.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.