Its a little late here, so I'll expand my comments tomorrow.
This is a great little intro to the basics of UI design here JonO. The distinction between types of users is important, and often ignored. I find that using techniques from scenario based design helps the programmer get into the mindset of the different types of users, which helps prevent the tunnel vision and assumption holding Grim was describing.
Another important distinction is between information design and interaction design. They are easy to conflate because they are often implemented at the same time. Information design focuses on identifying tasks and actions, and how to represent them in a way to facilitate understanding, whereas interaction design aims to ensure users are able to do the right thing at the right time.
I've never heard of that breakdown in different types of help questions. Very enlightening JonO.
That PDF you linked is pretty informative, though personally I've always found a full GOMS analysis to be too cumbersome to do alone or in small teams. The concepts it attempts to model are important though, so its worth keeping them in mind when working on your design.
This is a great little intro to the basics of UI design here JonO. The distinction between types of users is important, and often ignored. I find that using techniques from scenario based design helps the programmer get into the mindset of the different types of users, which helps prevent the tunnel vision and assumption holding Grim was describing.
Another important distinction is between information design and interaction design. They are easy to conflate because they are often implemented at the same time. Information design focuses on identifying tasks and actions, and how to represent them in a way to facilitate understanding, whereas interaction design aims to ensure users are able to do the right thing at the right time.
I've never heard of that breakdown in different types of help questions. Very enlightening JonO.
That PDF you linked is pretty informative, though personally I've always found a full GOMS analysis to be too cumbersome to do alone or in small teams. The concepts it attempts to model are important though, so its worth keeping them in mind when working on your design.