In my experience, I've found that very few developers are good at designing truly usable interfaces. Too often, the interface (and application flow) mirror the back-end design of a system. This may make sense to techies but, when you're designing a system that is to be used by non-techies, it will likely not be the best interface.
Many developers tend to scoff at the notion that usability is anything more than making sure things work. The truth is, there's a whole field of Computer Science dedicated to usability, and rightfully so. Usability is something that should be worked on from the very start of an application's development process. To take your example of "integer vs. number" error messages, you're right that the definition of an integer is taught in elementary school. But I'd hazard a guess that a good number of non-techie people couldn't give you an accurate definition any more than I can remember the name of most historical figures. As to your second point, I'd very strongly disagree, sort of. There is a certain aspect to usability that has to do with color schemes and control layouts. A design that uses light gray text on a white background will not be very usable. Likewise, a design that requires form field to be to the left of their labels may work for some people but, because it is not a common layout, it would likely score poorly in the usability department. However, "polish" and "eye candy" do not make or break a site's usability (usually -- too much can be distracting and lower usability). They tend, instead, to reflect a site's (and, thereby, the company's) professionalism, attitude, etc. A car company's website may "require" lots of glitz to help it sell cars, but that has to do with presentation, not usability. Funky layouts, graphics, movies, etc. can help you sell a car, but if you can't find the link that let's you buy the car, than the site is not usable. OK, so there are some generalizations in there, but I think you get what I'm saying. -- Mosh Teitelbaum evoch, LLC Tel: (301) 942-5378 Fax: (301) 933-3651 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://www.evoch.com/ > -----Original Message----- > From: LI, Chunshen (Don) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 2:06 PM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Usability > > > This is not a new question, however, IMHO, it won't > hurt to talk about it again. > > In my view, some assumptions are made by developers > when they think of an application's usability, for > instance, for data validation, when a developer's help > doc says something like "You need to enter an integer > for this entry/field", the assumption is that the user > knows what an integer is (any one who went to primary > school knows what an integer is). Now, one may argue > that "You need to enter some number for this > entry/field" may sound easier to average user's ears. > I would beg to disagree here. "Some number" could be > 728, or it could be "728.25" while the later would > fail because the data type is set to INT. > > Secondly, I think presentation and usability are > closely tied together, and depending on the nature of > the application, presentation may need to be highly > polished or it need not to. For instance, a fancy car > web site, presentation is certainly very important > while a data admin application/utility for just two or > three users does not need fancy presentation at all, > e.g. http://68.32.61.40/datadata/DataMan.cfm > > What's your thought(s)? > > > Li, Chunshen (Don) > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
