Chapter 10: Orchestration and Flow By reducing disruptive elements in software, designers promote productivity and efficiency. The idea is to build a mental state in which the user’s work can flow. Work Flow Anxiety Boredom

Transparency The attention of people is limited, so it’s important in a software interface to limit what’s noticed to what needs to be noticed. Example: FedEx’s Rate-Finder Web Site

Making Interfaces Perfectly Clear Several general rules of thumb contribute to the design of transparent interfaces. Use the intended user’s mental model to determine how the software accomplishes its tasks. Curtail the conversational aspects of the interface, telling users only what they need to know and querying them only about essential information. Use toolbars and palettes to make commonly used tools handy, but not cluttered. Reduce flow disruption by using modeless feedback, instead of modal forms that must be closed before work can resume.

Orchestration Guidelines may be useful in designing interfaces, but it’s more important to develop the appropriate interface for a specific application than to obey a strict set of rules. For example, when grouping menu items, the option on the left is better than the “over-grouped” center option and the “under-grouped” right option. But are hard and fast rules for upper and lower bounds on menu grouping even possible?

Less Is More... Generally, it’s a good idea to avoid overcomplicating user interfaces, making common operations simple to execute. Example: The BMW I-Drive To provide luxury car drivers with “easy” access to comfort features (audio, climate, navigation, communication, etc.), BMW has developed a tactile knob-driven interactive interface.

Less Is More... Generally, it’s a good idea to avoid overcomplicating user interfaces, making common operations simple to execute.

...Except When More Is More Sometimes the designer must choose between visual simplicity and simple visuality. Example: Browsing eBay Categories The “Buy” page lists the categories with a minimal set of subcategories and links to full lists. The “Categories” page lists the categories with a larger (but still incomplete) set of subcategories and the same links. Which is “better”?

What Are The Odds? Sometimes it might be better to reduce user effort by performing the most likely operation. Example: MS Word When users try to delete cells from a table, they’re asked about shifting cells or deleting whole rows or columns. Why ask this question when it’s “obvious” that whole rows are being deleted?

Graphical Numerics Unless a complicated numerical value has particular value to the user, displaying a graphical representation would usually be better. Example: Microsoft’s Keyboard Properties It wouldn’t be very productive to supply the user with particular numerical values for the cursor blink rate or the delay that transpires before a sustained key press results in additional characters being generated.

Configure Hating Forcing the user to reconfigure software every time it’s used is very tedious and often unnecessary. Example: PowerPoint If the user always prints slides as grayscale handouts, two slides per page, double-sided, stapled, and to the same printer, then why must these settings be restored every time the command is issued?

Being Choosy Software interrogation can be unpleasant - It’s usually preferable to give the user a selection from which to choose. Example: Microsoft Excel When placing a border around spreadsheet cells, the pop-up menu leads to a dialog-boxed Q&A, but there is an iconic pull-down menu that provides simple choices.

Chapter 11: Eliminating Excise Excise is the extra work that users must do in order to perform their actual software tasks. Common Sources Of Unnecessary Excise: Forcing users to reenter personal settings. Forcing users to confirm actions when they can undo. Forcing users to resize or scroll to view contents. Forcing users to start over when resuming interrupted tasks.

Example: Web Favorites Rather than forcing users to remember a long list of favorite URLs, most Web browsers allow them to set up lists of favorites. The bad news: There is some excise involved in having the users set up the list themselves.

Example: Halting Interruptions Users are increasingly being given the opportunity to halt non-essential messages that are generated automatically when certain actions are attempted. The bad news: Restoring the message generation might be difficult to accomplish.

Example: Browser Input Rather than having to browse a directory to locate an appropriate destination, some applications allow users to input directly into the file hierarchy. The bad news: Users are more likely to misplace files and folders.

Navigation Navigation of user interfaces takes many forms. Navigating Between Windows Problems: Obscuring Disruptive Disorienting Problems: Obscuring Disruptive Disorienting Solutions: Keep the main interactions in the primary window Minimize dialog depth Give successive windows unique appearances Solutions: Keep the main interactions in the primary window Minimize dialog depth Give successive windows unique appearances

Navigating Between Panes Within A Window Problems: Clutter Confusing Scrolling Problems: Clutter Confusing Scrolling Solutions: Minimize the number of panes Use tabbed panes Separate panes with splitters Solutions: Minimize the number of panes Use tabbed panes Separate panes with splitters

Navigating Between Panes Within A Window Problems: Clutter Confusing Scrolling Problems: Clutter Confusing Scrolling Solutions: Minimize the number of panes Use tabbed panes Separate panes with splitters Solutions: Minimize the number of panes Use tabbed panes Separate panes with splitters

Navigating Between Tools And Menus Problems: Repetitive Stress Fatigue Annoyance Problems: Repetitive Stress Fatigue Annoyance Solutions: Reserve menus for rare access Group related tools Balance icon sizes’ clutter with their accessibility Solutions: Reserve menus for rare access Group related tools Balance icon sizes’ clutter with their accessibility

Inflection Inflection is the organization of an interface so that the typically used functionality is made most conveniently accessible. The principle of commensurate effort relates to interface inflection. Basically, users are expected to be willing to work harder to obtain something they see as more valuable. Regular eBay Search (Over 500 hits) Advanced eBay Search With Price & Content Limits (Only 3 hits)