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About Face 2.0(c) The Essentials of Interaction Design Authors: Cooper A., Reimann R. Published year: 2006 Pages: 51-52/263 |
You should be vigilant in finding and rooting out each small item of excise in your interface. These myriad little extra unnecessary steps can add up to a lot of extra work for users. This list should help you spot excise transgressions:
Don't force the user to go to another window to perform a function that affects this window.
Don't force the user to remember where he put things in the hierarchical file system.
Don't force the user to resize windows unnecessarily. When a child window pops up on the screen, the program should size it appropriately for its contents. Don't make it big and empty or so small that it requires constant scrolling.
Don't force the user to move windows. If there is open space on the desktop, put the program there instead of directly over some other already- open program.
Don't force the user to reenter her personal settings. If she has ever set a font, a color , an indentation, or a sound, make sure that she doesn't have to do it again unless she wants a change.
Don't force the user to fill fields to satisfy some arbitrary measure of completeness. If the user wants to omit some details from the transaction entry screen, don't force him to enter them. Assume that he has a good reason for not entering them. The completeness of the database (in most instances) isn't worth badgering the user over.
Don't force the user to ask permission. This is frequently a symptom of not allowing input in the same place as output.
Don't ask the user to confirm his actions (this implies a robust undo facility).
Don't let the user's actions result in an error.
The existence of excise in user interfaces is, along with navigational issues, the primary cause for user dissatisfaction with software-enabled products. It behooves every designer and product manager to be on the lookout for GUI excise in all its forms and to take the time and energy to see that it is excised from their products.
Desktop applications, Web sites, and devices all have one particular attribute in common that, if improperly designed, becomes a critical obstacle to usability: navigation. The user must be able to navigate efficiently through the features and facilities of a program, Web site, or device. He must also be able to stay oriented in the program as he moves from screen to screen.
A user can navigate if he always understands what he has to do next , knows what state the program, site, or device is in, and knows how to find the tools he needs. This chapter discusses the issues surrounding navigation, and how to better help users navigate through interactive products.
As hinted at in Chapter 10, the most important thing to realize about navigation is that, in almost all cases, it represents pure excise, or something close to it. Except in games where the goal is to navigate successfully through a maze of obstacles, navigating through software does not meet user goals, needs, or desires. Unnecessary or difficult navigation thus becomes a major frustration to users. In fact, it is the authors' opinion that poorly designed navigation presents the number-one problem in the design of any software application or system— desktop, Web-based, or otherwise . It is also the place where the programmer's implementation model is made most apparent to the user. The authors have yet to see an application or Web site that could not benefit from additional attention paid to its navigational structures.
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About Face 2.0(c) The Essentials of Interaction Design Authors: Cooper A., Reimann R. Published year: 2006 Pages: 51-52/263 |