Krug Chapter 5 A: Omit Needless Words and Defaults and Memory Jeff Offutt https://www.cs.gmu.edu/~offutt/ SWE 205 Software Usability and Design

Omit Needless Words E. B. Strunk, The Elements of Style Vigorous writing is concise A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences Many words on web pages will never be read Get rid of half the words Then get rid of half of what’s left! 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Editing Is Hard “There are no great writers, just great editors” Chris Offutt, author Sometimes I ask him to check something I write He cuts at least 25%, and the paper says MORE, not less Why is editing our writing so hard? When we first wrote a word, we thought it had a purpose in the sentence Cutting somebody else’s excess verbiage is easier than cutting our own words This slide is verbose! 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Editing Takes Discipline “There are no great writers, just great editors” Chris Offutt, author Sometimes I ask him to check something I write He cuts at least 25%, and the paper says MORE, not less Why is editing our writing so hard? When we first wrote a word, we thought it had a purpose in the sentence Cutting somebody else’s excess verbiage is easier than cutting our own words he s my ing 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Editing Helps Clarity “There are no great writers, just great editors” Chris Offutt, author Sometimes he checks my writing He cuts 25% and the paper says MORE Why is editing so hard? When we wrote a word, we thought it had a purpose Cutting somebody else’s excess verbiage is easier Much better! 30% shorter 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Instructions Must Die If we need instructions, the interface has already failed The one definite thing about instructions is that nobody will read them! https://patriotweb.gmu.edu/ https://patriotweb.gmu.edu/pls/prod/zwgkrtou.P_DispTermsOfUsageAgree (must log in first) If instructions are needed, reduce them to the bare minimum Don’t Make Me Think ! 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Overhead and Excise Tasks Overhead relates to solving problems: Revenue Tasks : Sub-tasks that work to solve the problem directly designing requirements Excise Tasks : Sub-tasks that must be done but do not directly help us solve the problem compiling debugging Excise tasks often satisfy the needs of the tools, not the users 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Excise Tasks Excise tasks are trivial, unless we have a lot of them Eliminate them if possible Automate them as much as possible Excise for users with comp-semantic knowledge is often perceived as revenue for users without 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Memory – Auto-customization Remember what the user did the last time Avoid unnecessary questions Imagine a roommate that asked you every time if it was okay to share the milk! Dialog boxes ask questions, buttons offer choices 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Auto-customization Examples MS Word : I always put my files in C:\offutt But MS Word always thinks I’m going to open a file in C:\My Documents\ … (very difficult to find the customization!) PPT : I often print “Handouts”, “2”, “Pure black and white” If I print several PPT files in a row, I have to click all three boxes every time! ATM : I usually withdraw $150 Why does the ATM always use $100 and $200 as defaults? 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Summary Omit needless words Edit ruthlessly Reduce excise tasks UIs should have memory 11-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt