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Design  
Updated Oct 16, 2014 by luis.d.c...@gmail.com

principles of design are straightforward. 1. Use both knowledge in the world and knowledge in the head. 2. Simplify the structure of tasks. 3. Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of Execution and Evaluation. 4. Get the mappings right. 5. Exploit the power of constraints, both natural and artificial. 6. Design for error. 7. When all else fails, standardize.

Good design exploits constraints so that the user feels as if there is only one possible thing to do—the right thing, of course. make sure that (1) the user can figure out what to do, and (2) the user can tell what is going on. Design so that errors are easy to discover and corrections are possible. We do not have to experience confusion or suffer from undiscovered errors. Take pride in the little things that help; think kindly of the person who so thoughtfully put them in. Realize that even details matter, that the designer may have had to fight to include something helpful.

design proceeds from conceptual model to user interface to implementation (object/action analysis) Develop a lexicon Write task scenarios “user” is developers’ jargon error messages that announce a vague, generic error condition instead of giving users helpful, task-oriented information about what happened and what to do about it

checking the validity of long process before actually executing it (maybe its been cancelled already)

Save as... (ellipses denote bringing up dialog box which needs some more user input)

■ Show work remaining, not work completed. Bad: 3 files copied. Good: 4 files left to copy. ■ Show total progress, not progress on current step. Bad: 5 seconds left on this step. Good: 15 seconds left. ■ For percentage complete, start at 1%, not 0%. Users worry if the bar stays at 0% for more than a second or two. ■ Similarly, display 100% at the end only very briefly. If the bar stays at 100% for more than a second or two, users assume it’s wrong. ■ Show smooth, linear progress, not erratic bursts of progress. ■ Use human-scale precision, not computer precision. Bad: 27 seconds. Good: Less than 1 minute.

background processes - emailing working ahead - autocomplete software should look for opportunities to reorder tasks in its queue. Sometimes reordering tasks can make completing the entire set more efficient

No design, No standards or guidelines, No oversight

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