[inquiry]

Thinking with Mike II


Thinking with Mike II is the second of Mike's free BBO movies. This movie is all about card reading. You are challenged at trick one (!!!!) to determine the location of all the hidden high card points. There is series of eight quizzes with a total correct score of 10 points.

The play never goes further than trick one!!! You participate in the bidding, you get the opening lead and the result of trick one. Then you have to answer the questions. Intermediates and even advanced players might be surprised to see how much information can be extracted from the hand at this point.

There is no voice track, and very few frames. So this movie is very quick to "watch", depending on how long you have to think to answer the eight questions. Everyone should be able to finish this movie in under 10 minutes, perhaps even under 5 minutes.

[FM75]

The very first frame is awkward. On a normal screen you can expect the frame to be too wide for good reading. It would be very good to change the software to protect the authors from this layout problem.


It has been well known since at least the 60's that
it is easier to read when the line width is small.
That is because the eye makes discrete movements
across the page until it reached the end.

Then it has to move all the way back to the left
to the correct line - one below the one just read.

If you want confirmation of this, consider that
newspapers are printed with narrow columns
and that normal books are taller than they are
wide.

[barmar]

Conversely, thin columns like yours look weird to me when they're in wide windows -- all that whitespace around it is distracting. Newspapers are printed with multiple columns to avoid this effect.

In any case, I think the expectation is that few frames of bridge movies will be just text like that. Frames 3 and on are the more common style, with text alongside bridge diagrams.