[Imc] Radical Librarian Meeting Notes
David Young
dyoung at clam.clamcenter.org
Wed Jan 10 04:27:10 UTC 2001
Here are a few (ok, several) pointers for the radical librarians regarding
the usability of the archive catalog:
Change all the 'Yes' checkboxes to 'Yes'/'No' radio buttons, because
on some browsers, it is hard to tell if a checkbox is checked or
unchecked, and testing shows that users are confused by switches
doing double-duty (turning things both on and off) when they have
just one label.
Standardize on a date format. No date should be displayed in any
format but the standard. No date should be asked for in any format
but the standard. The DD/MM/YY and MM/DD/YY formats have all sorts
of problems, not the least of which that it's hard to know whether
the day after 01/01/01 is 02/01/01 or 01/02/01.... Consider using
the format 1 Jan 2001, it's totally unambiguous and "international."
Try to imagine right now the tasks you will want to complete with
the archive tomorrow, a week from now, months, and many years from
now. Try to imagine, too, who future users will be. Design the pages
and interaction around those tasks and users. I am a big advocate
of making a site map and storyboard. Do it on a big piece of paper,
a whiteboard, or something. Dedicate an entire meeting to it. Don't
get bogged down in issues of data representation or algorithms,
this is a non-technical task. Consider other systems you've used
and liked, as well as systems you've used and disliked.
Do not ask (or trust) your programmer to be your designer. =) Most
usability boondoggles involve the programmer(s) choosing the least
usable design alternative at every turn because it is expeditiously
programmed, "nifty," "slick," or "neat" (translation: beware!).
Avoid scrolling. Split a page to fit on two or more pages if it's
very long.
Consider keystroke/mouse efficiency where it counts. For example, if
there's a form that one will fill out a dozen or a hundred times in a
sitting, keep the number of keypresses and mouse gestures very small.
Separate the data model and your user interface.
Don't take my word for it, read the cranky experts:
'Designing Web Usability' by Jakob Nielsen,
'The Humane Interface' by Jef Raskin,
'The Inmates Are Running the Asylum' by Alan Cooper (?),
and others...
I make these suggestions not to make Bob's work harder but to make every
radical librarian's a little easier. I have made systems before where
my interaction design did not preceed my first programming, and I didn't
follow any usability guidelines. Usability suffered. I had the opportunity
to correct some of these systems, but it was difficult and time-consuming.
Dave
On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 08:50:50PM -0600, Ellen Knutson wrote:
>
> The bulk of the meeting was spend discussing the first draft of the archive
> catalog. Bob created the database based on fields discussed at the previous
> meeting. The first draft is located at: che.onthejob.net/~bobcook/firstDraft
>
--
Didn't you hear? Commentary and Dissent merged and became Dissentary.
-- Woody Allen
More information about the IMC
mailing list