It's probably still a good idea to test the behavior (if your budget and timeline allow). Even if you assume correctly that most people will "figure it out" on their own, the real question is "what is the overall impact of removing the text?"
You may be able to display some additional lines, or use a larger font, or have more whitespace, all of which may lead to increased productivity or satisfaction. But you may also experience some delays as the user switches their mental model from repetitive process to concentration and reasoning. This break in "flow" might outweigh the gains realized. This would also be a good candidate for "longitudinal research", since the negative impact would lessen over time as existing users acclimate and new users are trained on the new system. In the absence of the requisite time and money to do the test, though, I'd get rid of the extraneous text. It sounds utterly superfluous to me. Dante Murphy | Director of User Experience| D I G I T A S H E A L T H 229 South 18th Street | Rittenhouse Square | Philadelphia, PA 19103 | USA Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.digitashealth.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jonathan Abbett Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 4:38 PM To: IxDA Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Retain "obvious" instructions? I've been working on a redesign of the web-based user interface for a personal health record platform, and I began to wonder -- do I need to retain the one-line instruction that seems to be on the top of every major data listing (medications, lab tests, immunizations, etc.): "Click any item in the list to see more detail" (or something similar to that effect) The title of each list item is hyperlinked with underlined, blue text. I guess the bigger questions are: Do I assume my users' basic browsing abilities at my own peril? Does even a basic task of web usage need to be field-tested? I'm already prepared for the "it depends" answers! ;) Thanks, Jon ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
