Limiting Factors in Usability

To users,it's still the basics that count!

Who??? Jack Bellis

Or Any User

“My interest in usability arose from the pain and tears of patching the wounds of suffering interface designs with the inadequate bandages of help files and user guides.”—Daniel Cohen

… words/phrases I tend to ignore are, 'make it easy' and 'make it intuitive.' These are not useful descriptions of solutions, but rather descriptions of the feelings that users have using it. It is important to listen to these statements, but they are not directions." —David Malouf

My Case…

A Condensed History of Usability

Reprinted for educational purposes, by permission of Mackaycartoons.net

In the beginning…

… before that?

Elegance…?

The answer to all design questions is, “It depends.” —Me

Every technological age is characterized by the precipitous drop in price of a particular commodity. —Heard on public television speech.

"Design is a process - an intimate collaboration between engineers, designers, and clients." - Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Designer.

Improving Today’s Usability

The Goal of Usability... is to eliminate the need for in-advance training.

Accuracy

Verbosity(?)

Directness

"There is always a tradeoff between the convenience of the programmer and the convenience of the user. " —I've always believed that this was from Peter Norton, but I've never been able to substantiate it.

Grouping

Noise Reduction

The greatest of all talents is that of not using two words when one will do. —Thomas Jefferson

I’m sorry this letter is so long. I didn’t have time to make it shorter. —Abraham Lincoln

Explicitness

Precision

General-to-Specific Positioning

Conventions

Explain Delays & Timing

Explain “Not”

For Infrequent Tasks…Put the Info Right in the Interface

For Repetitive Tasks…Put Instructions into Once-Only Messages

If you can’t make a

Web 2.0… Ajax-enabled… Dynamically-controlled… Animated-data… Context-intelligent system…

Do This… Give Users a Chance

Be Explicit… Direct, Accurate, Precise, Descriptive

Use Standards and Conventions For Infrequent Tasks…

Put the Info Right in the Interface For Repetitive Tasks…

Put Instructions into Once-Only Messages