Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rules by aa & Jeff Johnson

Author:aa & Jeff Johnson [Johnson, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780080963020
Publisher: Elsevier Science
Published: 2010-04-13T14:00:00+00:00

Type “flower delivery” into Google.

Set text-insertion point in search box.

Type the text.

Correct typo: “floowers” to “flowers”.

Visit some of the resulting links.

Move screen pointer to link.

Click on link.

Look at resulting Web page.

Choose a flower delivery service.

Enter chosen service’s URL into browser.

…

You get the idea. We could keep expanding, down to the level of individual keystrokes and individual mouse movements, but we rarely need that level of detail to be able to understand the task well enough to design software to fit its steps and the goal-execute-evaluate cycle that is applied to each step.

How can software support users in carrying out the goal-execute-evaluate cycle? Any of these ways:

• Goal: Provide clear paths—including initial steps—for the user goals that the software is intended to support.

• Execute: Software concepts (objects and actions) should be based on the task rather than the implementation (see Chapter 11). Don’t force users to figure out how the software’s objects and actions map to those of the task. Provide clear information scent at choice points to guide users to their goals. Don’t make them choose actions that seem to take them away from their goal in order to achieve it.

• Evaluate: Provide feedback and status information to show users their progress toward the goal. Allow users to back out of tasks that didn’t take them toward their goal.

An example of the “Evaluate” guideline—clear feedback about the user’s progress through a series of steps—is provided by ITN’s flight reservation system (see Fig. 8.6). By the way, does the figure seem familiar? If so, it is because you saw it in Chapter 5 (see Fig. 5.15B, page 63), and your brain recognized it.

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