Re: UI design [was Owen Taylor's paper]

On Fri, 20 Sep 2002 11:21:05, Thomas Dodd wrote:
>
>I wouldn't want someone working for me that I would
>have to "educate" to read the dialogs on the screen.
>
>Same for "training" on an applications "use".
>I've been forced to go to few of those (like
>using Word or Excel). And al they ever teach
>is stuff I already knew, and any half brained
>person could figure out.
>
>That was the point of a GUI. You had menus and
dialogs
>to control the app. Now you can point-N-click
>instead of remembering 50 key combos or commands.
>If you need training for basic application usage,
>you would not work for me. Go to a night school
>class, then come see me. Even my 55 year old
>mother could figure out how to use a GUI. She's
>no expert, but she didn't need "training" to figure
>out Netscape-3.x for web browsing and email, or
>WordPerfect to write letters. Once I convinced her
>to "look around", she's started using PhotoShop
>for photo restoration. She's never had any training.


******************************

The reason for training is so that people do not have
to "figure out" what things do. "Figuring out" costs
time and causes lost productivity which equals lost
$$$. 

I agree that almost anyone could fumble their way
through an application. The questions I have would be:

1. How long would it take a user to complete a task /
job by fumbling around?

2. If they had to fumble aroud, what would the quality
of finished job / task be?

Everbody can read dialogs....knowing what the buttons
do, however, is not always intuitive.


Chris
 


=====
"Let's Roll!!..."
Todd Beamer, 09/11/01

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