week 5: about face

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 starts by addressing the issue of intermediate users when interacting with a new interface. They’re left frustrated when treated like a beginner or an expert, not receiving the help they truly need in the middle ground they sit at. While everyone is a beginner at some point, nobody stays there forever. Over time, users become better acquainted with an application and start to understand how it functions. Most users are intermediates, so it’s best to create a design that reflects their abilities. Inflection is the UI equivalent of a ski resort having beginner, intermediate, and expert hills to practice on. Inflection means to organize an interface to minimal typical navigation, placing the most desired functions in convenient locations with less desired ones tucked away deeper within an interface. Designers should create an interface with the intermediate user in mind and consider the frequency in use of tools, minimization of user confusions, and the creation of an interface that’s good for everyone’s uses. 

Chapter 11

This chapter starts by emphasizing the priority of maintaining a user’s attention to optimize their productivity when navigating an application. Elements in an interface should work coherently towards a single goal, living harmoniously amongst one another. Keep in mind a user’s mental model and build an interface around their needs. One mental model has different needs and concerns from another one, so create a design based around those concerns. This chapter focuses on good tips for designing an interface, some mentioned are limiting dialogue, providing choices over questions, keeping necessary tools close, and providing modeless feedback. It’s also important to design for the probable, yet anticipate what is possible. Separating the possible from the probable is a great method for better orchestrating a user interface. Motion is also mentioned and is said to be a powerful tool for expressing the relationships between objects. Animated transitions help the user visualize how elements are presented in one view vs another. The goal of motion should be to enhance the user’s flow, described as their ability to stay focused on an interface they’re interacting with. Overall, this chapter provides many tips and tricks for working out different aspects of an interface.