Standing Up for the Expert User

1. Standing Up for the Expert User Alex Kodat Sirius Software Inc.

2. The Most Important Attribute of any Software System – Ease of Use • Right? • Systems that are difficult to use are doomed to failure • People too busy to have the time to learn the intricacies of a complex software system • Non-management level people have high turnover rates and low skill levels, so need simple systems • Many users are not full-time users, but simply use systems as part of their jobs

3. The Best Measure of a System's Ease of Use – The Learning Curve BAD! Two years

4. The Best Measure of a System's Ease of Use – The Learning Curve GOOD! Two days

5. The First Great Ease of Use PioneerDouglas Engelbart Invented the mouse, and hypertext! One of the pioneers who worked on the original GUIs Watch the Movie

6. The Goals of Douglas Engelbart and the First Ease of Use Pioneers • Provide a system that anyone can use, even children • One of the insights was to provide facilities that you can interact with the way young children interact with the world • By pointing • And clicking? Well, yes. Children have vocal equivalents of a click • Clearly these pioneers started off in the right direction • Everyone uses computers now • Especially children • Can't get them off the damn thing

7. But Let's Look at a Different System • It takes a year to become even slightly proficient • To become a moderately skilled user takes several years of several hours a day work • Complete proficiency probably doesn't come in less than 10 years! • Many incompatible standards • So... • Anyone interested? • What are the odds of this system getting any adopters, much less, surviving more than a few years?

8. So What is This System With the Learning Curve From Hell? • Why language of course! Усилиями Уполномоченного по правам человека в России Владимира Лукина КС озаботился эпизодом из жизни жителя Курска, врача-невролога Вадима Бочкова. A Magyar Labdarúgó Liga taggyűlésén arról döntöttek a képviselők, hogy az MLSZ október 13-i elnökségi ülésén a liga delegáltjai kezdeményezik a szervezet közgyűlésének összehívását.

9. But How Can Something So Difficult to Learn Be So Successful? • Because once you learn it, so many things become so much easier • If you don't believe me, try ordering a burger in Seoul • Yes, you can pull it off, but it'll be a time-consuming and perspiration inducing experience • And you probably won't get exactly what you want

10. Imagine if the World Switched Over to the Easy to Use Point and Click Paradigm • You could travel anywhere in the world and not have to worry about language issues • But haven't we been there, done that? • Point and grunt, anyone?

11. You're Not Seriously Suggesting We Stop Using GUI Applications, Are You? • Of course not • But I am suggesting that perhaps the learning curve is not the be all to end all • If it was, people would not bother learning languages • So yes, applications should be easy to learn, but if there are significant benefits from making them a little more difficult, maybe it's worth it • Of course, this is an art not a science • Let's take a look at some cases where “ease of use” as a mantra has actually made things worse

12. Too Easy By a Half OK, we understood why this is done this way – People don't know the “correct” format for a date, so they make it impossible to get it wrong. But, isn't the above generally harder than

13. Another Annoyingly Helpful Form So we can trust a user to correctly enter a 5-digit ZIP code, but we can't trust the user to correctly enter a two-character state code or spelled out state? Sure, maybe everyone doesn't know all the state codes – make “State” a link to the list of codes.

14. Drop-down Lists – The Bane of the Expert User's Existence • Why do in two keystrokes, what you can do in 10? • Or with wasteful keyboard to mouse and back context switches • I've learned that NY or New York is usually 6 N's. How convenient. • The paradox of drop-down lists • The more items you have, the more useful they become • The more items you have, the more annoying they become • True expert users can remember a tremendous number of codes with little effort

15. Better Browser Support For Drop-down Lists Would be Nice • Being able to enter more than just the first letter to get to an item • This would make a state drop-down list as good as a plain input field • There is JavaScript or DHTML code that does this • But probably cross-browser issues • Maybe it's better to force users to type in state codes • Searches in drop-down lists • JavaScript available to do this • Drop-down lists on demand • Probably possible with JavaScript

16. Let's Talk Searching And what better place to start than Google? Here's a nice friendly form. But it's limited – Supposed you had two exact phrases? And it's not a “heads-down” operation filling this out, is it?

17. Let's Talk Searching But Google likes the expert user: So you get more functionality by just entering into a raw search window and it's faster to type in. You too can become a Google power user!

18. Searching • Something people do heavily in any environment • One of those things best done as raw text • Booleans operations, wildcards, groupings of text, identification of fields, all possible • Which is easier? • Going to a customer selection form and filling in last name of “Smith” and first name of “Don” • Typing “lname='Smith' fname='Don'” • Of course, online help or training would be required • If you have the time, the Google approach is great – a form for building search criteria and the text form of the criteria being echoed to the user

19. More Help for the Expert User –Hot Keys • On web pages, the accessKey attribute is trivial to use • <b>L</b>ast name: <input name=”lname” accesskey=”L”> • <a href=”/search” accesskey=”S”><b>S</b>earch • Make sure access key highlighted, somehow • For input field, accesskey sets focus • For links, accesskey follows link • Supported by IE, Netscape, and Firefox • Note: IE requires Alt-<key>-<Enter> for links • And don't forget the tabindex attribute • So users can tab through fields in an intelligent order

20. Some Accesskey Tips • Use a few for heavily used links on the standard navigation bar • And save a few for page-specific uses • For example, an information display page could have an accesskey of “E” (for Edit) to edit the displayed information • Or, the “N” key to go to the next page of info on a multi-page display and “P” to go to the previous

21. Other Things To Help Out the Expert User • Lots of checkboxes might be replaced by a keyword box (or provided as an alternative) • Make sure URLs are re-usable wherever possible • URL parms must have all information to recreate page • Facilitates bookmarking page and retrieving from history • Facilitates cutting and pasting of URLs, especially to e-mail • Make URLs as readable (and so editable!) as possible • Have “Helpful Hints” link on pages with accesskeys, text search windows, or text input fields that require special values

22. And Think Thin This means don't think lots of graphics. Don't think fancy CSS tricks. Think simple basic HTML. This also probably means don't use an HTML generator (or at least look at what the generator has done for/too you). It doesn't get much thinner than this, does it?

23. The Advantages of Thinking Thin • Reduced latency because less junk to download • Expert users will often go through screens very quickly • Pages use (expert) user's settings for fonts, link colors, page sizes, etc., allowing user to tune browsing to her preferences/needs • Bad eyesight? Use a bigger font. • Simple HTML better adapts itself to varying screen sizes • HTML generators often either optimize for programmer's screen or use lowest common denominator screen size target • Text links easier to read and easier to maintain

24. And, of Course, There's the Application • Sure, ask yourself how an application could be made to be as easy to use as possible • But also ask yourself how an expert user who expended some effort to learn the system would best accomplish the application's task

25. Turning All Your Users Into Experts • Encourage experimentation • Provide training • Yes, the web makes it possible to get by with just point and grunt but that doesn't mean people can't do much better • A few hours of training could save hundreds over the long haul • And create happier users • If your applications are web apps, encourage and help users learn more about their browsers • Which means application programmers should spend time seeing what browsers can do

26. Should All Systems Be Made Expert Friendly? • Not if most users are relatively infrequent users • Someone using a system once a week or less won't want to bother to learn much about a system • But the threshold is not as low as one might think (IMHO) • Even a few minutes of daily use of a system might make a bit of learning worthwhile • Especially, since some of the learning might be applicable elsewhere • Learning makes people feel better about themselves

27. Conclusions • Don't forget your expert users when designing your applications • Encourage and train your users to become expert users • The end result will be happier users and more work getting done • They be working smarter not harder!

28. Let's hear it for Douglas Engelbart! But let's also hear it for the expert user! Any questions or comments?