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From: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Request for human interface design anecdotes
Message-ID: <530@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Nov-87 14:29:35 EST
Article-I.D.: mtxinu.530
Posted: Mon Nov 23 14:29:35 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Nov-87 22:17:37 EST
References: <1721@spar.SPAR.SLB.COM> <1621@megatest.UUCP> <101@ateng.UUCP> <1402@cuuxb.ATT.COM> <407@minya.UUCP> <6713@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Reply-To: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley
Lines: 30

>Of course, for my own use I prefer flexible power to safety, so I
>would object to the removal of an expert-user interface; but I do
>think a naive-user interface is also needed.

I, too, want an expert-user interface while recognizing the need for
a naive-user interface.  The problem I've seen with most of the naive-user
systems is that there's no reasonable migration path from that
interface to the experts' one.  That is, there's no way for someone
to move on from being a beginner without learning a completely different
mechanism for interacting with the system.

Some attempts at solving this sort of problem have been clumsy (e.g.,
the "edit" and "ex" interfaces for editing text), while others have
just been bad (no example springs to mine:  I try to forget them).

People who design interfaces for novices should remember that a very
large fraction of users are complete novices for only a short time.
They soon move on to become more and more sophisticated with time.
As they progress, they should have easy access to more and more of the
power available in whatever system they're using, culminating in the
"expert" interface.  The only users who do not tend to progress
are those who use a system only very infrequently and essentially re-
learn each time.  All others need an evolutionary path from beginner
to expert.

-- 
Ed Gould                    mt Xinu, 2560 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
{ucbvax,uunet}!mtxinu!ed    +1 415 644 0146

"`She's smart, for a woman, wonder how she got that way'..."