Handling All Types of Users

What do you do if your program needs to support all user skill levels? After all, it is a reasonable goal for most programs to support a wide range of users. Happily, while the needs of beginning and advanced users are not the same, they are not exclusive either. You can accommodate a wide range of user skills by making your user interface visible; allowing the user to perform all tasks using the menu bar and dialog boxes; providing optional toolbars, context menus, and keyboard shortcuts; and providing advanced interface features such as direct manipulation and drag-and-drop functionality. Windows Explorer, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Word are examples of programs that support a wide range of user skills.

Here are some additional ideas you should consider:

• Make sure the program, however complex, at least appears simple to beginning users. Consider Windows Explorer as an example. While Windows Explorer has a significant amount of depth, its menu bar structure is fairly simple.
• Make sure that the advanced interface features are never the only means of accomplishing important tasks.
• Make the user interface highly configurable. Configurability always helps satisfy a variety of user levels, since one size rarely fits all.
• Unless your program is only for beginning users, focus the design effort on intermediate and advanced users. Going out of your way to accommodate beginning users will likely frustrate all other users. Remember that beginners don't stay beginners for long.