Analyzing User Interfaces: Where to Start.

Analyzing User Interfaces: Where to Start

Develop a task scenario. A description of one or mare tasks that a user of the system would do using the system. Make this independent of computer implmentation to the extent that this is possible.
Using the scenario, list the steps a user would execute to accomplish the tasks with the system's user interface.
Answer the folloing questions.
1. What does the user need to know before beginning the task? How much of this knowledge is about objects and actions and how much is about the computer system. (See how this realted to the SSOA model of computer systems and interfaces.
2. What action does the user take to accomplish each step? Is it easy to do? What information does the system provide about the next step? What happenms if a user gets lost?
3. What feedback does the system give after each action? Does the feedback contain too much information, or not enough? Is is easy to perceive and understand? Does the user need to remember large amounts of information in going from one step to the next? In short does this system respond well?
4. Looking at a series of actions done by the user, is it efficient? Are any transitions awkward? Are the steps related to steps in the task, or to manging the interface?

This is similar to the early stages of the lifecycle of a software project.

Return to GUI home page.

Last Changed: 18 April 1995