Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 7.1
Programmers have many
priorities, such as organizing and
debugging the program. The diffuse
picture of the user's needs may come
second hand.
The programmer and the user have different goals, and therefore different mental
models (see Figure 7.1). Often the programmer will impose her model in developing
software. The programmer has a different point of departure, which is based on the
structure of the program and the code, and the user needs may sometimes come second.
The top priority is often to just debug the program. As a result users' needs are
deemphasized and usability flaws may sneak into the program without being noticed.
Table 7.1 lists some of the issues that should be taken into consideration in software
design. In developing a user interface, the programmer and the usability expert must
think of many issues (see Table 7.1).
CONSISTENCY IN USER INTERFACE DESIGN
Lack of consistency is a major problem in interface design. This forces the user to adopt
several different methods, rather than one consistent method, to solve similar problems.
For example, the information may be presented at different locations on adjacent screens,
thereby forcing the operator to search for the information. The requirement for
consistency is applicable for all levels of design: screen layout, command words, and
organization of dialogue.
Much research has been devoted to the choice and abbreviation of command words
(summarized in Barnard and Grudin, 1988; Paap and Cooke, 1997). The problem is how
