Wednesday, February 01, 2006
User-Centered Design
Design of Everyday Things
So much of this article made me think back to the challenges we faced at the educational software company where I used to work. I worked primarily with the manager, the company's proprietary learning management system that was integrated with our curriculum. The manager was a fairly complex piece of software that teachers and lab instructors utilized to get infomation about student progress.
In designing (and redesigning) the manager we tried to make the system usable for the instructors, but the funny thing is... it couldn't be too usable. Norman writes "Any necessary instruction or training should be needed only once..."(p 188). We tried to simplify and standardize the user interface, but we were often reminded that usability should not be our top priority. Making the program run smoothly wasn't the only reason for this. As a company we earned some of our revenue from training hours. This was the reason the system couldn't be too friendly. Makes me wonder how many other applications are created with training in mind.
So much of this article made me think back to the challenges we faced at the educational software company where I used to work. I worked primarily with the manager, the company's proprietary learning management system that was integrated with our curriculum. The manager was a fairly complex piece of software that teachers and lab instructors utilized to get infomation about student progress.
In designing (and redesigning) the manager we tried to make the system usable for the instructors, but the funny thing is... it couldn't be too usable. Norman writes "Any necessary instruction or training should be needed only once..."(p 188). We tried to simplify and standardize the user interface, but we were often reminded that usability should not be our top priority. Making the program run smoothly wasn't the only reason for this. As a company we earned some of our revenue from training hours. This was the reason the system couldn't be too friendly. Makes me wonder how many other applications are created with training in mind.
# posted by JLynn @ 2:38 PM 
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Sha-hui,
I agree with you. However, in my old company earned a good amount of revenue through 'training hours.' If we made the manager too simple, too easy to navigate, we could not convince clients to invest in the additional training hours. Basically, it was a business decision to NOT to make usability most important issue.
Ideally, I agree that usability should be one of the most important considerations (if not THE most important)in design.
I agree with you. However, in my old company earned a good amount of revenue through 'training hours.' If we made the manager too simple, too easy to navigate, we could not convince clients to invest in the additional training hours. Basically, it was a business decision to NOT to make usability most important issue.
Ideally, I agree that usability should be one of the most important considerations (if not THE most important)in design.
Nice post Jessica, and true enough...
From an educator's perspective, I can also imagine scenarios in which we actually want to desing for dissonance, right? If the interface is too easy, can we be sure that learning will occur? It's true that the interface should not stand in the way of the content, but I also think that the interface should not make access to the content "mindless." Norman discusses this (as I recall) in his nuclear power plant example: we want people to think (in many instances) before they hit the button...
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From an educator's perspective, I can also imagine scenarios in which we actually want to desing for dissonance, right? If the interface is too easy, can we be sure that learning will occur? It's true that the interface should not stand in the way of the content, but I also think that the interface should not make access to the content "mindless." Norman discusses this (as I recall) in his nuclear power plant example: we want people to think (in many instances) before they hit the button...
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