Seven deadly excuses for poor design

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Knowing the user

Thanks for a thoughtful response.

You wrote:
Best Practice is always use the minumum number of screens possible to show/collect the information, but many tools suggest/force multiple screens.

Might be just my disposition, but the only correct usage to me is: there are "always" exceptions.

The best example of a multi-answer screen is entries that correspond exactly to the source <ocument. But I suggest that a single question gets a more thoughtful response than a page full of questions, and that can be important.

You also wrote:
Using multiple screens to force the user to focus on each question can be counter-productive when the screens keep coming and the users do not know how much more is necessary before there are any results.

One possible solution is a progress bar, with completion percentage.


You also wrote:

Addendum: Always ask all questions before the computer starts doing a task that takes much time. MSWindows installation asks tons of questions, then copies files (and rebooted a few times), then asks more questions. Why not ask all the questions at the beginning so when it is finished, it is really finished? And why didn't it start copying files while asking questions? It could have copied most of the files while I was answering questions.

The issue is the "You mean there's more?" response. If the pc does something, there's a kind of cleanse the pallet effect, and the user has the idea that the entries have an impact. Won't work forever, but that would make sense, assuming the reason isn't technical.

I don't know why Windows doesn't start processing while receiving the answers. My best guess is that the answers are usually a set. Or maybe the program called up would have to be loaded an excessive number of times.
At any rate, user interaction seems to be one of Microsoft's major concerns, so they've probably tested.


You also asked:
You cannot edit a web page in MSIE, so why is there an "Edit" option on the menu? Ask the Mozilla and Opera developers too. The menu item should be labelled "Copying" and include the "Save" commands.

This decision I like because it's consistent across Microsoft products. The same word means the same thing in different applications. And the user perception is not as creator of the page but as reader of the document, so only someone who know programming would expect to edit code.
I do think, though, that "Find" is odd in Edit. I know Tools is limited to items unconnected with the page, but "Find" is a tool.

As has been pointed out, Windows idiosyncratically includes Shutdown behind a button labeled Start. All old friends have their quirks.

And, by the way, when you find yourself allowing graphics by site, you've left the typical user far behind. But that should be part of the SP2 discussion.

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 09/03/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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