Top tasks survey — One weird trick to improve information architecture and user experience
One of the most powerful methods in information architecture and user experience is also one of the least well-known. The top tasks method uses a single survey question that tells you exactly what matters most to your users. I find it so effective that I’m amazed more people haven’t used it.
The commonality of Zipf's Law, or the Pareto Principle; the embedded video goes into some of the possible reasons for why so many frequency distributions follow Zipf's Law.
Doesn't seem to work with Japanese.
In Spanish it only holds with numbers 1&2.
Whalesong patterns follow a universal law of human language, new research finds
All known human languages display a surprising pattern: the most frequent word in a language is twice as frequent as the second most frequent, three times as frequent as the third, and so on. This is known as #ZipfsLaw.
In a new research published in Science, a team of experts in whale song, #linguistics and developmental #psychology analyzed eight years' of song recordings from #HumpbackWhales in #NewCaledonia. Led by Inbal Arnon from the Hebrew University, Ellen Garland from the University of #StAndrews, and Simon Kirby from the University of #Edinburgh, they used techniques inspired by the way human infants learn #language to analyze humpback #whale song.
They discovered that the same #ZipfianPattern universally found across #human languages also occurs in #WhaleSong. This complex signaling system, like human language, is culturally learned by each individual from others.
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-whalesong-patterns-universal-law-human.html
All known human languages display a surprising pattern: the most frequent word in a language is twice as frequent as the second most frequent, three times as frequent as the third, and so on. This is known as Zipf's law.
Neologisms FTW
https://www.wired.com/2012/01/hapax-legomena-and-zipfs-law/
#language #writing #neologisms #words #definitions #history #hapaxlegomena #zipfslaw
While it's rare to encounter a specific hapax, or word that appears only once in a given body of text, it is likely you'll encounter some of them often. Mathematician Samuel Arbesman explains how the appearance of these strange new words follow a long-tail algorithm. So next time you see a rare word, don't be surprised. Know that math is shaping your experience of language.
#ZipfsLaw makes it hard to study #lexical #variation in #language, but some features would be difficult even with very large #corpora due to being homophonous with a more frequent feature. One I've come across lately is "I hate it" where the #demonstrative "that" is more common, e.g. in response to seeing a scary clown image.
#linguistics #languagevariation #syntax #morphology #pronouns
@manlius @neuroscience @networkscience @complexsystems @PessoaBrain @WiringtheBrain @kordinglab @ricard_sole @albertcardona @c4computation
The first program I ever spent a lot of time developing was a multi-level sequence learner inspired by #ZipfsLaw and intended for application to what soon became called #ReactiveKeyboards.
Some reminiscence here —
Theme One Program • Motivation
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/08/16/theme-one-program-motivation-1-2/
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/08/17/theme-one-program-motivation-2-2/
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/08/18/theme-one-program-motivation-3-2/
Duncan Stephen
RDN
ℵ₀ 🏳️⚧️🏴☠️
Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻💻🧬
earthling
O=C=O
Coach Pāṇini ®
Joshua McNeill
Jon Awbrey