Today I shall be posting notes and comments on Andrew Price's brilliant videos about UI design:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIedljapuz0 Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_2106536565&feature=iv&src_vid=UWacQrEcMHk&v=yIedljapuz0 I'll start with Andrew Price's eighth and last ui design principle, (25:56 of part 2) for two reasons: 1. Andrew says this last principle is most important. 2. It shows how Leo could be made much easier for newbies to use than it is now. Here is a slight reworking of my notes from the video: - Users are *not* interested or focused primarily on their tools, but on their goals. Normally, people devote *very little attention* to the tools they are using to perform a task. Users tend to notice only things on a computer display that *match their goal*. - The literal thinking users exhibit when performing a task on a computer has been called, *following the scent of information* toward the goal. - Cognitive psychologists call the gap between what a user wants and the operations that the tool provides the *gulf of execution*. - Designers need to *understand the goals* that users are likely to have...and to ensure there is a *clear indication* of how to reach that goal. - The most import scene is what users see when they first open the software. From its first screen, the software should show users the way to their goals. What a shock. There is absolutely no "scent" that would tell a newbie how to create an external file! Indeed, there is no indication whatever that this is one of Leo's primary tasks! This is a giant hole (gulf of execution), one that would never have been apparent to me on my own. After all, that's why I created Leo, to create source files! Note: Yes, Leo's tutorials (and soon, Leo's videos) tell how to create source files. But here we are talking about the user interface, *not* the documentation! Happily, it should be easy to fix this glaring (in retrospect) omission. We could add a button (with corresponding command) to create an external file. Similarly, it should be made obvious to a newbie that importing files or directories is possible and relatively easy. Given the extreme importance of these two operations (and possibly others not directly related to programming), these buttons should be part of all icon bars by default. The obvious way to do this is in a plugin, say goal_buttons.py, that is enabled by default. Becoming aware of this blind spot is easily worth the several hours of study I have invested in these videos. Later posts in this series will discuss the other 7 points covered in parts 1 and 2. Your comments, please. Edward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
