Get Versus Bring: The Two Mental Models of the Web

Everything we think we know about the world is a model. Every word and every language is a model. All maps and statistics, books and databases, equations and computer programs are models. So are the ways I picture the world in my head–my mental models. None of these is or will ever be the real world.

–Thinking In Systems by Donella H. Meadows

Mental models are one of the fundamental elements of interaction design. If there is a usability problem with an interface, it is often the result of a breakdown between a user’s mental model of the system (ie, how she thinks it works) versus the way it actually works.

For every conceivable interface there is then at least one, if not a variety, of mental models that go with it. However, when it comes to designing for the web, I believe there are two models that supercede all others.

Simply put, those two models are the ideas of going and getting something yourself versus having something brought to you. For the sake of economy, I will refer to these simply as “Get” versus “Bring”. Let’s start with two real world examples and then see how they map to the web.

An example of Get is the supermarket. Imagine: You are in the supermarket with your grocery list, going down the aisles, pulling items off the shelf as you spot them. What could be simpler? But wait. There you are in the cracker aisle getting those healthy rice cakes that taste like cardboard, and, oh, look at that, double-stuff Oreos are on sale. Hmm. You’ve been eating so well, maybe you deserve those Oreos…Unless you have an iron will and a bad case of myopia, this process will repeat itself throughout your visit to the supermarket. And that’s the point: depending on how you choose to look at it, supermarkets are either designed for serendipity or distraction. Now where is the milk aisle?…Oh look at that, Haagen Dazs is on sale. Mueslix…or Coco Puffs. This is Get. The act of getting involves countless other decision points along the path.

Naturally, Bring, or having something brought to you, is the opposite of get. If Get is the supermarket, then Bring is a restaurant. You sit down, and you are given a menu. The waiter asks what you would like, takes your order and then goes into the kitchen and gives the chef the order. Drinks, appetizer, entree and the bill are all brought directly to you. You don’t see the food being prepared or the waiters loading up trays with dishes. You relax and enjoy your meal. However, even bring carries with it a small level of anxiety and distraction—specifially: “What are they having over at that table? Oh, that looks good. I should have ordered that.” Still, Bring is designed to minimize any sense of work or effort on your part. There is a single decision point (the menu) and then you are left at peace with your breadsticks and butter. Less serendipity (unless you happen to be dining at buffet), but also less distraction.

How do these map to the web? Let’s start with Get. It’s the traditional idea of hypertext as defined by HTML. One of the best examples of this is Wikipedia. To illustrate the point, here is the Wikipedia article on a “supermarket”:

And these are the related articles it links to in just the first two paragraphs:

As the designers of the world wide web predicted, this makes for a very rich experience where relationships are constantly exposed. However, like the supermarket, it also leads to problems of attention. Many writers have commented on this phenomenon of information anxiety. I still like Bruce Sterling’s dual notions of cognitive load and opportunity costs best:

“…I need to think about things, talk about things, pay attention to things, be entertained by things…I pay a price for that in personal brainpower. That price is my own cognitive load.”

“Along with thinking less comes doing less:”opportunity cost.” To make room in my life for this gizmo jamboree, I have to sacrifice something that I’m already doing. There are only so many hours in the day, so there will be some thing I can’t and don’t do much any more.”

–Bruce Sterling, Shaping Things

The Bring mental model is a way to help address the problems of cognitive load and opportunity cost. It negates much of the information anxiety that the Get model unknowingly introduces. Some of the first examples of Bring were related to non-native HTML experiences, most notably Adobe’s Flash Plug-in. Here is a simple example of bring from BASIK’s own portfolio. In this case it is a site for a new residential building in downtown Manhattan, 211 Elizabeth:

As you navigate through the site, notice that instead of going and getting the information, it seems to come to you. The idea of hyperlinked “pages” is done away with. Instead of the supermarket, it’s a lot like being in the restaurant, menu in hand. What would you like? The site seems to say. Just sit back and relax, I’ll get it for you.

However, Bring is not limited to Flash. Another example is Bing’s use of this in order to reveal a summary of the page:

These are just two examples. There are many more. As the web continues to evolve, I expect we will see many sites and online applications move away from the traditional Get model and experiment with Bring type interfaces. They will be used to help users make choices and act as a dampening agent against cognitive load and opportunity costs.

If you are thinking about creating an interface that is more Bring-like, then you should consider:

• A website/application is not necessarily a collection of “pages”
• The transition between pieces of content is a spatial metaphor that affects context
• Changing elements in a layout means changing context in the mind of the user
• Consider architecting the site from the bottom up by defining the key types of content instead of top-down from the home page
• Think about the flow of the content, its source and its potential destinations (will it be shared, etc) and how it can be presented to the user, rather than how the user moves through the content.

But that said, as a designer, if you just stop for a moment and ask yourself “Am I making the user go and get something or am I bringing something to her?” then you should know what kind of interface you are creating.