Rapid development by Steve McConnell Debugging the development Process by Steve Maguire GUI Bloopers by Jeff Johnsons Dont

make me think by Steve krug Designing Web Usability Jakob Nielsen Information Appliances and Beyond by Eric Bergman

-cooperation -flow of task -building technology is building relationship not just tools with feature React to people( available when needed) Adaptable ( Flexible Obtain information Give feedback

Understanding of user expectation to maintain good relationship.

Quality Quantity Relevence Manner

Chapter 1. Chapter 1 discusses about how the technology should be. Technology should be cooperative with the people. To cooperate well with user it should follow the natural flow of task. Technology with many features but with less ability to address the expectation of user will be finally replaced with more user-friendly technology. For technology to be user centered it should be available when needed, should have ability to change depending on what users do, offer options but not too many options, and give feedback. Technology should follow the following cooperative principles. Respect the users physical effort Respect the users mental effort

Quantity (Offer sufficient information early and in context, prevent errors), solve problems, dont complain Quality : Be predictable Relevance: Request and supply only relevant information Manner: Explain in plain language.

Chapter 2. Dont Impose: Respect the users physical effort.

Treat clicks as sacred Technology should only ask for minimum physical involvement with user. Users more physical involvement like clicking, pressing button etc adds up more steps and makes the process complex. Therefore to make technology simple it should be able to process imposing less possible users physical effort. Evey click removed improves the feature, saves time and effort, and makes technology more pleasant to use. There should be less physical involvement to the feature, which is frequently used. Complex clicks (complex motion ) involves more physical effort like scrolling, holding and dragging. Complex motion is not useful for physically impaired people. Frequent pop up breaks the flow and adds extra click which involve more users physical effort. Sometime user need to shift to another input device or hand position. Need to follow -Reload the form if info is not available/incorrect instead of pressing back button - Redirect directly to the page if search returns only one item -auto fill -pass information from one process to another instead of asking each time If there is an undo feature, there is no need to break the users flow to ask them whether they really want the program to do what they just asked to do ( do you really mean pop ups). Pop ups should be used only when The user could lose a lot of data The data cannot be recovered or reconstructed without a lot of effort.

Undo feature helps to avoid pop ups and add flow to the process. Auto save is another feature reduces break in flow. Instead of asking user to save data every time when they close application, technology should take responsibility of data and auto save. Similar representation for two different things also breaks the flow e.g. links for mailto and for web page looks same so anyone can click on mailto link thinking another webpage which breaks the flow.

While designing interface common cases (that people encounter most) should be handled elegantly and the rare cases should be handled adequately. Engineers mostly focus on edge cases, which are possible but rare than common cases. Similarly, designers may ignore edge cases and not specifying how the engineers should handle them.

Remember where they put things. Applications should be able to record the preferences of user automatically. It should be able return the same adjustment that user made last time when they come back to the application. Adjustment includes moving or resizing windows, choosing tabs, scrolling, moving tool-bars, sorting data, recording items, option selection. Remembering the users position is very important on menu-intensive devices with limited input mechanisms like on cell phones, cameras. Option to save and open document from current folder is much usable than providing default location.

Remember what they do Do not ask same information many times rather pass information automatically forms one process to another. Application should remember the information provided / updated and should be able to use that info when needed e.g while filling form.

Stick with a Mode Switching the hand position disrupts the flow e.g. moving hand form keyboard to mouse. It is harder for people with less mobility. Switching modes can be minimized by-Providing multiple ways to enter data (default button is pressed when enter button is pressed) - Putting insertion point in the first text field in a window or on a web site. - If more typing is involved try to make more options available from key board. - need to be more careful while designing application for mobile devices as they dont have standard mouse and keyboard.

CHAPTER 3 Dont Impose: Respect Mental Effort Technology should not make user think too much by adding more information than required. It involve more mental effort thus breaks the flow.

Use Visual Elements Sparingly Fewer items are better. As screen might be small but it takes more mental effort to scan whole screen to find an item if there are more widgets (buttons, menus, check boxes). Fewer widgets for the same functionality make the product more powerful.

Make Common Tasks Visible; Hide Infrequent Tasks Present the frequent task cleanly while suggesting further functionality without cluttering the screen. If more options are provided to new users it will be intimidating and it will be annoying for frequent users as they need to use same mental effort every time. Highlight the items more frequently used. Design Guideline: Determine the most common user tasks and make sure they are visible and easily accessible. Hide less common tasks that clutter the screen and make it hard to find the common tasks.

Give Feedback; Show Signs of Progress

An application should be able to tell people immediately whether it understood their request and provide its status in responding to it. Response can be a progress bar or a message etc. If the task takes a long time to complete then provide option to interrupt. When task is completed provide feedback that it completed. Giving feedback is very important if the task needs multistep process to complete e.g survey, check out procedure. It is good to combine sounds with visual cues to reinforce the information and to support those with visual or hearing impairments.

Keep Preferences to a Minimum; Give Smart Defaults Only few people preferences to modify the behavior of the application. Most of the people want smart default based on the frequency of use or last used settings.

Follow Conventions Follow the convention of the platform in which the application is going to be built. Violating a convention confuses people about when the convention applies, so they stop using across all application.

Look for Widget less Features