Limiting Factors in Usability

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Limiting Factors in Usability

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

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Who??? Jack Bellis
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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

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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
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My Case
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A Condensed History of Usability
Reprinted for educational purposes, by permission
of Mackaycartoons.net
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In the beginning
before that?
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Elegance?
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The answer to all design questions is, It
depends. Me
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Every technological age is characterized by the
precipitous drop in price of a particular
commodity. Heard on public television speech.
http//zoho.com/
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Google Earth TiddlyWiki.com
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worrydream.com/MagicInk/
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"Design is a process - an intimate collaboration
between engineers, designers, and clients." -
Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Designer.
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Improving Todays Usability
The Goal of Usability... is to eliminate the
need for in-advance training.
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Accuracy
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Verbosity(?)
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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.
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Grouping
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Noise Reduction
The greatest of all talents is that of not using
two words when one will do. Thomas
Jefferson Im sorry this letter is so long. I
didnt have time to make it shorter. Abraham
Lincoln
http//lukew.com/
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Explicitness
My Mockup
Recent Change
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Precision
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General-to-Specific Positioning
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Conventions
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Explain Delays Timing
http//freshbooks.com/
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Explain Not
http//freshbooks.com/
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For Infrequent TasksPut the Info Right in the
Interface
http//freshbooks.com/
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For Repetitive TasksPut Instructions into
Once-Only Messages
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If you cant make a

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

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Do This Give Users a Chance

• Be Explicit Direct, Accurate, Precise,
  Descriptive
• Use Standards and Conventions
• For Infrequent TasksPut the Info Right in the
  Interface
• For Repetitive TasksPut Instructions into
  Once-Only Messages

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Thanks!