1. Note 18: UX 3 Copyright © Robert W. Hasker, 2005-2015
Based on About Face 3: Cooper, Reimann, Cronin

2. Eliminating Excise About Face 3: Ch. 11
Excise: actions not contributing to goal
Financial excise: taxes, insurance
Bicycle locks, repairing flats, oiling the chain
Software excise: configuration, manuals
Goal: eliminate excise so user more effective

3. Sources of excise GUI excise Training wheels
Must move/resize window before can do work
Command-line interface excise: learning commands
GUI helps beginner, intermediate; cmd for expert
Solution: provide both GUI and command-line interface
can help in testing!
Training wheels
allow dismissing support for beginners
Android power saver notifier – why?
Power saver notifier: displays message about turning off wireless/Bluetooth/etc at 30% - great idea, just do it; don’t need non-dismissible banner on my nofications page!

4. More excise Computer excise Visual excise
Frequent & expensive updates for security features that affect few users.
Visual excise
Work user does to decode visual information
Old software: special icons for beginners
printer icons, fax machines
help beginner, eat screen space for everyone else

5. Visual Clutter

6. Visual Clutter
Full Page at
33% zoom

7. Visual Clutter http://www.firemountaingems.com

8. Visual Clutter Scrolling down several screens:
Scrolling down
several screens:

9. Visual Clutter What makes this cluttered?
Many fonts, lots of extra lines around the boxes, now visual flow, many different attention grabbers
Looks like each dept. got their own bit and wanted to maximize attention
Note checkout cart – my cart is empty!
What makes this cluttered?

10. More subtle example

11. More excise Stopping the proceedings with idiocy Bugs: break flow
“Impossible” query that hangs system
But also: senseless confirmations

12. More excise Stopping the proceedings with idiocy Bugs: break flow
“Impossible” query that hangs system
But also: senseless confirmations
- Why can’t system fix this?
- Which saves my rules?
- What does Cancel do?

13. More excise Stopping the proceedings with idiocy Errors and notifiers
Bugs: break flow
“Impossible” query that hangs system
But also: senseless confirmations
- Why can’t system fix this?
- Which saves my rules?
- What does Cancel do?
Errors and notifiers
All are excise!
Don’t tell user something
they can’t fix

14. More excise Confirmations Passwords – do we need so many?
Must minimize “are you sure?” messages
But don’t make the user ask permission!
i.e.: go through gate-keeper action to get to data change
Example: requiring choosing a menu item to enable modifications to data in table
Passwords – do we need so many?
Undo: addresses various UI problems

15. Undo
Ch. 16
The tool for avoiding "do you really want to do that?" questions
note: users are not thinking in terms of mistakes to be undone
better viewpoint: user tries something, wants to undo it to try something else
a simple trial isn't an error, it's an experiment!
goal of undo: permit exploration

16. Types of Undo incremental: apply operation to some piece of data
procedural: apply operation with no specific data; eg, right-aligning whole document
blind undo: undo operations with no indication of what will be undone
explanatory undo: letting user know what will be undone
difficult, but certainly useful!
single vs. multiple undo
can user undo just one operation or many?
single undo should be seen as the minimum
multiple undo usually based on stack (LIFO) - is this the best model?
ok when need to undo one change to get back whole paragraphs
a pain if have to undo several big operations to get back small but important piece of data
multiple undo almost requires a redo operation

17. Command Pattern Recall discussion on Command Pattern & Undo
Basic behind Command Pattern: store commands as objects
base class defines
abstract execute()
subclasses:
implement execute()
Uses
All menus, buttons, etc. can invoke same action
Stack commands for undo/redo
Share common bits of operations

18. Command pattern applied
Applied to phonebook.java:
Remove, add: core commands
Two lists of commands; clear undone on new cmd

19. More phonebook details
Implements GUI/policy/data layers
History part of policy layer, encapsulates undo/redo
Handler doesn’t need to track this!
Phonebook: current contents; Map provides lookup
Add: points to entry so can redo the add
Remove: uses entry in undo

20. More phonebook details
Issues to decide
What data to store?
Have a few “intelligent” commands, or lots of small ones?
Provide way to group commands into a unit?
Need way to save commands without exposing internal details?

21. More phonebook details
Other ramifications:
Macro = sequence of commands
User might define own commands & assoc w/ menus
Can log commands to handle system crashes, accountability, etc.

22. Common Excise Traps
Forcing user to go to another window to perform operation affecting this window:
“Asking permission“: extra steps to change data
Cause: separating output from input because it makes sense to the programmer
Fix: allow user to change the data, provide undo for fixes
Better: "allow input wherever you have output“
Why can't a document name be changed on the menu bar?

23. Common Excise Traps, cont.
Forcing user to remember where things placed in hierarchical file system
placing projects in folders in "Program Files“
difficult to back up
Forcing user to resize windows unnecessarily
especially an issue in popups
size for contents w/ no wasted space, no scrolling
Forcing user to move windows
use unused desktop space
but how to know what's unused?
Forcing user to reenter personal settings
starting point: window placement
also: fonts, sounds, other options
how to support in multi-computer environment?

24. Common Excise Traps, cont.
Forcing user to enter data just to increase completeness
allow users to leave blank fields where can provide results
Simple example: surveys
Why not force respondents to answer all questions?
Why do I have to enter my cat’s name to compare foods?

25. Common Excise Traps, cont.
Forcing user to enter data just to increase completeness
allow users to leave blank fields where can provide results
Simple example: surveys
Why not force respondents to answer all questions?
Why do I have to enter my cat’s name to compare foods?
Make all required data entry a business decision!

26. Common Excise Traps, cont.
Forcing user to confirm actions
Provide undo
Confirmation is necessary when
operation has no inverse: removing table from database
dangerous actions are about to take place (industry, military, etc.): Launch ICBM?
Allowing user's actions to result in an error
eg: being able to check out when ordering cart is empty
Disable actions that make no sense
Unnecessary restrictions
Excel: only allows one file to be open with same name at a time, even if they had different paths
Why even restrict opening same file multiple times?
Even when confirmation necessary, minimize: don't warn user to check if gun loaded before cleaning; provide interlocks to make sure gun is unloaded before telling user to clean it

27. Navigation Switching windows, finding menu items, browsing for files
All navigation is excise
Remember goal: keep user "in the flow"
Games may be the biggest exception to this…
Cause: restrictions of I/O devices
Navigation is also excise in web sites!
Me: could navigation be the number one user interface problem?
Many applications doing better about flow, orchestration
lots of imaginative tools and feedback in "dusty corners"
Multiple frames, toolbars, menus: users have to search to find needed tools

28. Types of Navigation Navigation between windows: very disorienting
Multiple windows: hard to keep track of where things are
Increase chances of searching for needed information
Must pay careful attention to what information is where
Navigation between panes:
Better, but many panes = confusion
Splitters: lots of adjustments
But useful: can get all useful information on screen at once

29. Types of Navigation Tabbed panes
Useful if tab labels are meaningful and displayed well
But consider MS Word 2003:
Clicked all tabs to find settings
Lots of engineering decisions
on how to classify items

30. Navigation via Tools & Menus
Obviously: frequent operations on toolbar
How many use toolbar cut & paste?
Must: minimize mouse movements
Use right mouse button for context-sensitive controls
Hierarchy on toolbars is dangerous
Photoshop elements & hidden paint bucket
Allow toolbars to be reconfigured
Standard: add, remove, reorder items
All operations must be in menus!

31. Navigation through Information
Issue: how to navigate through lots of information?
Scrolling: useful tool, but think before using
Separate pages: good if appropriate for user model
do a cluster analysis - keep most related things together
Linking: visual context cues paramount
In browser: provided by address bar, page style

32. Navigation Review Basic principle: navigation is excise
Avoid: navigation between windows
Manageable: navigation between panes
Tools & menus: minimize mouse movements
Information: analyze what’s being presented

33. Improving Navigation Ways: Will consider each… Reduce # places to go
Provide signposts
Provide overviews
Map controls to functions carefully
Avoid deep hierarchies
Will consider each…

34. Reduce # Places to Go Minimize number of pages and windows
Minimize number of panes to be placed adjacent to each other
Visual Studio: makes user work out what's needed!
Limit number of controls on screen to what's really likely to be used
Let user decide…
Minimize scrolling
Avoid zooming; make discretionary, not required
In general: minimize mouse miles and clicks

35. Provide Signposts, Overviews
Visual cues on page for status, hints on what to do next
Put operations next to data to be manipulated!?
Web pages: make each distinct page look different
Difficult to find a room in a building where all walls are gray!
Common signposts
Menus: reliable, consistent way to get at operations
Generally fix menu content - keep those seat ejectors hidden
If do add to menu on the fly, add at bottom
Toolbars
Caution: protect against removal
Early versions of Netscape allowed accidental removals
Breadcrumb navigation (esp. web pages)
Overviews – also an effective tool for orienting user
Thumbnails – see lower right corner in Rational Rose diagram editor

36. Mapping Controls to Functions
Consider:
Make target of control obvious from control placement
Sorts: separate menus for type, direction
Definitely not: “sort ascending, sort descending”
Better: “oldest first, smallest first, largest first”, etc.

37. Hierarchies Deeply nested hierarchies intimidating to most users
Solution: define collections, chose collection first
Some hierarchy is ok!
People understand category & subcategory
Problem: circular reasoning behind “a directory is a folder with files and other folders in it”

38. Improving Navigation Reduce number of places to go Provide signposts
Minimize pages, windows
Provide signposts
Visual cues for status, context, hints of where to go
Provide overviews
Map controls to function carefully
Avoid deeply nested hierarchies

39. Rethinking files and save
About Face 3, Ch. 17
Problem: current file/save reflects our model
How to improve?
Auto-save document
Provide (hidden) backup copy for abandoning changes
Support Control-S for the paranoid
EVERYTHING undoable, including abandoning changes
Remove Save As…
Allow user to change name on title bar
Add explicit operation to move file location
Make document format a property

40. Rethinking files and save
More improvements
Store revision history with file
Allow user to name milestones in history
Provide publish operation to publish w/o history
New File menu:
New, Open..., Close, Rename/Reposition, Make Snapshot Copy | Print | Make a Milestone, Revert to Milestone | Abandon Changes | Document Properties... | Exit
A good idea?
People resist these sorts of changes!
How many people still complain about the Office ribbons?
Users likely to learn a new model quickly!

41. Review Removing excise Implementing undo Reducing navigational excise
GUI, training, computer, visual, errors, notifiers, confirmations
Implementing undo
Command pattern
Reducing navigational excise
Fewer places to go, signposts, overviews, mapping, avoiding hierarchies
Improvements to File menu