I'm reading Apple's Human Interface Guidelines about Mental models and I can't understand what is the difference between Mental and Conceptual models.
I prefer a short answer if possible :)
Answer
"A mental model is the representation that a person has in his mind about the object he is interacting with. A conceptual model is the actual model that is given to the person through the design and interface of the actual product." (Susan M. Weinschenk. 2011. 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People)
So a mental model is the way the person thinks about what it is they are doing. For example, when getting a book out of the library, they form a mental model of the things they have to do to achieve this.
A conceptual model for an online library is the interface the person interacts with as a represented concept of a library.
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