There is such a thing as too much choice. For new users, too much choice (or control) is too much. For experienced users, too little choice is a problem. Ease of use usually comes from reduced control – but users don’t stay “new” for long. There’s a “canyon of pain” to quote Kathy Sierra in that transition from “new” to “experienced.” We call them “competent” users and we have to help them cross the canyon of pain.
Usability Sells Software – Word of Mouth Marketing
There are three main models for selling software. You can hire a direct sales force. You can spend a lot on marketing and advertising. You can let your users sell the software for you, a technique commonly known as viral marketing. There’s a catch with viral marketing – users have to like your software.
Overdoing Personas
Its easy for us to overdo almost anything. Kim Goodwin offers some good advice about how not to overdo it when using personas as part of our software development process.
Actor Hierarchies And Then Some
Actor Hierarchies give us an overview of the people who will interact with the system. We can extend this model to provide a visual indication of how use cases are distributed through the organization. Further, we can leverage a hierarchy to show how use cases are rolled out to the users – a targeted communication for our stakeholders.
Fifteen Ways to Shut Down
There are 15 ways for someone to shutdown a laptop running Windows Vista. This adds unwarranted complexity to our software. How can we avoid the same problem in our software?
Gathering Implicit Requirements
Johanna Rothman just wrote an article titled Implicit Requirements are Still Requirements. She points out that her expectations were not met, even though her needs might have been. Johanna also implicitly begs the question – how do we gather implicit requirement?
How To Not Suck At Design
Michael Shrivathsan just wrote an article presenting five tips for creating products with great design. Michael’s List Start with the user interface. [Roger Cauvin adds, start with a working first iteration] Work closely with UI designers. Pay attention to details. Simpler is better. Be brave. Our Thoughts User centric design […]
Bad Usability Calendar From Netlife Research
What a great way to demonstrate 12 key usability concepts – creating a calendar where each concept is demonstrated. You’ve heard the saying – “If you can’t be a good example, be a horrible warning.” Here is that saying manifested in calendar form.
How To Apply Market Research Better
Mike Mace provides us with some great insight about market research – helping us to avoid ‘the blender’ and ‘the gap’. The gap is a reflection of the inability of most customers to innovate. The blender is the loss of useful market information into a homogenized input that pushes only the lowest common denominator – again stifling innovation. We have to avoid the blender and the gap to get useful data from our research.