User Interface Design and Development Cooper Part II Well-Behaved Products Etiquette, Posture, and Intermediates Jeff Offutt http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~offutt/ SWE 632 User Interface Design and Development Cooper Ed4, Ch 10

Ch 10 : Design for Intermediates Designers are usually experts They view all functions as having equal weight Marketing want UIs designed for beginners They sell to beginners Many have only novice semantic knowledge Most users are in between—intermediates ! Don’t weld on training wheels 3-Dec-18 © Jeff Offutt

Distribution of Users Beginners Experts Intermediates What does the application do? What doesn’t it do? How do I print? Where do I start? Experts Automate? Shortcuts? Can I change? Customize? Keyboard shortcut? Dangerous? Intermediates Forgot how Where is it? Remind me … Can I undo? More features? 3-Dec-18 © Jeff Offutt

Most Users are Intermediates Beginners are incompetent—and nobody likes that They either move up or move on Experts often move on Or use it less and become intermediates Optimize for intermediates 3-Dec-18 © Jeff Offutt

Inflecting the Interface Inflecting means organizing the UI to minimize the most common navigation Most commonly used functions up front Less frequently used functions can be on the back shelf Choose defaults for intermediates Microwaves : Make the “timed cook option” an easy default Very valuable functions can be harder to reach Slide animation features are deeper than font changing Google mail is default, google drive is further in Users will make a strong effort if the rewards justify it 3-Dec-18 © Jeff Offutt

Progressive Disclosure Advanced controls are hidden in an expanding pane PPT – drawing palette – bottom right arrow Google mail, hover over “Starred” to get other folders Criteria for organizing : Frequency of use—how often “typical” users use the functions Degree of dislocation—how much the screen and UI changes when the choice is made Degree of risk exposure—functions that are irreversible or dangerous Remember that advanced users will eventually want shortcuts to some of these functions And their frequency of use may change 3-Dec-18 © Jeff Offutt

Imagine users are very intelligent but very busy What Beginners Need Help beginners become intermediates They want actions, not theory They want examples, not definitions Match their mental models to Reduce errors Hasten learning Extra help must disappear for intermediate users Imagine users are very intelligent but very busy 3-Dec-18 © Jeff Offutt

What Experts Need Remember the experts are often more vocal Beginners listen to experts (even when they should listen to intermediates) Experts want shortcuts to everything Experts are often also frequent users Experts want higher information density Experts will adopt new features quickly 3-Dec-18 © Jeff Offutt

What Intermediates Need Mostly, they need attention! Far too many products are designed for beginners or experts, rather than the majority of users They need : Fast access to common functions Reference materials—online help (or the interweb) Knowledge that advanced functions are available, but not yet necessary They do not need : Long explanations When making tradeoffs, intermediate users should usually have priority 3-Dec-18 © Jeff Offutt