Post on 18-Dec-2015
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
A Condensed History of Usability
Reprinted for educational purposes, by permission of Mackaycartoons.net
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.
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.
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
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