| Book analogy
Mar 8 2004 on poll Your oppinion about settings and usability? |
I think books are a good resource when considering user interface issues. If program settings were treated more like entries in a phone book, I think people would find them easier to use.
For example, the phone book is divided into several sections for different purposes. The business pages and residence pages are listed alphabetically for quick reference when you know what you want.
The yellow pages provide a topical interface for when you know the type of thing you are looking for. Multifaceted businesses are often listed in several sections. Sometimes, a section in the yellow pages will refer you to other similar sections. When you are completely lost, there is even an index of topics.
At the front of the book, there is a short introduction with info about the phone company, maps of the town, and government listings.
In addition to the phone book, most people generate custom address books. These books collect info for commonly called people and businesses.
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Translating this into a settings interface, several observations are possible:
- Trying to uniquely categorize each option is wrong; common settings could appear in several places.
- At a minimum, there should be categorical and indexed methods of accessing all settings.
- A brief introduction that outlines how settings affect the system might be useful.
- A user customizable "Personal settings" panel might be a good thing.
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My personal feeling regarding "simple" and "advanced" interfaces is that they have good intentions but poor results. These categories just feel artificial and disconnected from the options.
When a new user wants to change something and doesn't find it in the "simple" dialog, what should he do?
- Give up, assuming its not available?
- Look through other parts of the "simple" dialog?
- Enable the "advanced" interface, learn how it works, and then march through it to see if their option is available?
This feels to me like a book that puts most of its material into appendices because the author thought they were cool. |
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