Re: control, data, users

On 1-Nov-06, at 2:00 PM, Hallam-Baker, Phillip wrote:

> Same here, once you are faced with drawing out state machine  
> diagrams for the user side of a task you start to see the value of  
> eliminating unnecessary steps.

Sure, but I think Brad's point was: are state machines the right way  
of thinking of users, as opposed to some more accepted model from HCI  
techniques?

I work in the field of HCI, and would agree that designs should be  
tested early and often in front of real users to ensure that  
assumptions about behaviour are well founded. With so many IBMers in  
the group, perhaps we can get some donated time from their User  
Centered Design groups to run some of these user feedback sessions.

In addition, I think we should look at building up some repositories  
of user profiles and tasks so that we can start from a foundation of  
understanding who we're designing for (what terminology do they  
understand? what real-world parallels might they be able to relate  
back to?) and what it is that they're trying to do (shop? bank?  
subscribe to a newsletter?)

cheers,
mike

Received on Wednesday, 1 November 2006 19:37:36 UTC