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Eric Schaffer,
Ph.D., CPE, is CEO and Founder of Human Factors International, Inc.
He has been involved in creating and teaching software design for
more than 14 years. He can be reached by email at
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John Sorflaten,
Ph.D., CPE, started out writing and directing training films and
documentaries then switched to UI design. "A screen is a screen,"
he says. He works at Human Factors International, Inc. and can be
reached by email at
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Brevity. Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the U.S. constitution, once
wrote a letter to his friend John Adams. At the conclusion, Jefferson
apologized for the lengthy discourse. He wrote that he lacked the time
to frame his thoughts in more concise prose. While we in our so-called
modern age may complain that "time is money," Jefferson was
in effect saying "less time is money" when applied to reading
ease. It costs the writer much effort to package ideas so his reader would
spend less time. How do developers handle this in their GUI designs?
We find that many, if not most, screens fail to communicate well. Screens
often display too many words or too few words. Or the words fail to meet
the users needs. It costs readers time (and money). There are reasons
for these problems. They all stem from the wily work of our eternal foe,
cryptodesign. Recall that cryptodesign manifests
when a developer uses a design solution suitable for one problem, but
misapplies it to another, quite different situation. Soul
design takes different situations into account. Soul is the wit
of brevity (to turn a phrase). Here's how developers go wrong. We'll use
a metaphorical story.
DRIVING YOUR RENTAL CAR TO LA GUARDIA Imagine that you
are driving your rental car in Manhattan. (Yes, we know most of you would
take a cab, but let's enjoy the metaphor.) Now imagine that you have only
90 minutes to get to the La Guardia airport. This is your first time to
drive the route. You must struggle through lower Manhattan, race to the
so-called "freeway" (clogged with cabs, trucks,and other hapless
traffic victims), survive crossing the Triborough bridge, choose the correct
exit to La Guardia, and turn in your rental car. Good luck, because 90
minutes is short. (Life is short, too.) If you miss the exit, you must
continue on the freeway another 10 miles before you can turn around. ONLY
ONE CHANCE TO GET THE CORRECT EXIT!
While driving, you look down to your map to identify the freeway. (You
then look up to view the highway exit signs.) Down, up. Down, up. Down,
up. Finally, you see the exit. Yes....here's the one you need! You make
the commitment and take the turn. You depended on clear highway instructions.
Then, after making the turnoff, what do you do next? When we ask this
question in our GUI seminar, we invariably hear that drivers want to see
confirmation that they chose the correct exit! Very interesting. What
good is mere confirmation? You already made the turn. But nevertheless,
all of us need emotional closure on that demanding decision process. We
not only need to know what to do, but also whether we did it correctly!
What lesson have we learned? Good road signs both instruct and confirm
our actions (see Figure 1).
The faster we travel, the clearer we want our signs. Whether on the highway
or on the screen, we need to make decisions fast and without error. Cryptodesign
fails to give us the signs we need!
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