List of HyperTopics
List of Examples
List of Tables
Forward
0.1 What's This Book All About?
0.1.1 Who Should Be Reading the Book?
0.1.2 What Is the User Interface?
0.1.3 What Kind of User Interfaces Does This Book Cover?
0.1.4 Why Focus on Design?
0.2 How to Use This Book
0.2.1 HyperTopics and Examples
0.2.2 Exercises
0.3 About Shareware: How to Get and Pay for This Book
0.3.1 Why Shareware?
0.3.2 Special Note to Instructors and Students
0.3.3 Where to Get Up-To-Date Copies
0.3.4 Corrections and Additions
0.3.5 Let Us Know What You Think
0.4 About the Authors
0.5 Acknowledgements
0.6 Disclaimers
1 The Task-Centered Design Process
1.1 Figure Out Who's Going to Use the System to Do What
1.2 Choose Representative Tasks for Task-Centered Design
1.3 Plagiarize
1.4 Rough Out the Design
1.5 Think About It
1.6 Create a Mock-Up or Prototype
1.7 Test the Design With Users
1.8 Iterate
1.9 Build the Design
1.10 Track the Design
1.11 Change the Design
Task-Oriented vs. Waterfall Design
The Design Team
Responsibility
Usability Objectives
2 Getting to Know Users and Their Tasks
2.1 Getting in Touch With Users
2.2 Learning About the Users' Tasks
2.3 Using the Tasks in Design
Requirements Analysis
Specification
Planning, Design, and Beyond
3 Creating the Initial Design
3.1 Working Within Existing Interface Frameworks
3.2 Making Use of Existing Applications
3.3 Copying Interaction Techniques From Other Systems
Geometrical and Movement Arguments
Memory Arguments
Problem-Solving Arguments
Attention Arguments
Convention arguments
Diversity Arguments
3.4 When You Need to Invent
3.5 Graphic Design Principles
4 Evaluating the Design Without Users
4.1 Cognitive Walkthroughs
4.1.1 Who should do a walkthrough, and when?
4.1.2 What's needed before you can do a walkthrough?
4.1.3 What should you look for during the walkthrough?
4.1.4 What do you do with the results of the walkthrough?
Summary
4.2 Action Analysis
4.2.1 Formal Action Analysis
Points Raised by the Analysis
Summary
4.2.2 Back-of-the-Envelope Action Analysis
4.3 Heuristic Analysis
Summary
4.4 Chapter Summary and Discussion
5 Testing The Design With Users
5.1 Choosing Users to Test
5.2 Selecting Tasks for Testing
5.3 Providing a System for Test Users to Use
5.4 Deciding What Data to Collect
5.5 The Thinking Aloud Method
5.5.1 Instructions
5.5.2 The Role of the Observer
5.5.3 Recording
5.5.4 Summarizing the Data
5.5.5 Using the Results
5.6 Measuring Bottom-Line Usability
5.6.1 Analyzing the Bottom-Line Numbers
5.6.2 Comparing Two Design Alternatives
5.7 Details of Setting Up a Usability Study
5.7.1 Choosing the Order of Test Tasks
5.7.2 Training Test Users
5.7.3 The Pilot Study
5.7.4 What If Someone Doesn't Complete a Task?
5.7.5 Keeping Variability Down
5.7.6 Debriefing Test Users
6 User Interface Management and Prototyping Systems
6.1 Concepts
6.1.1 Object-Oriented Programming
6.1.2 Event-Driven Programs
6.1.3 Resources
6.1.4 Interapplication Communication
6.2 OSF/Motif in X-Windows --- Toolboxes in the Trenches
6.3 Rapid Prototyping in HyperCard
6.4 Windows, the Shared-Code Approach, and Visual Basic
Features To Watch For
Action Logging
Big Program Support
Code Generation
Extensibility of the Interface
Extensibility of the Program
4GL programming
Operating-System Specific Techniques
Prototype to Final Application Capability
Stand-alone Application Generation
Style Guide Support
Vendor Support and Longevity
Visual Programming With Structure
Where To Find Out More
7 The Extended Interface
7.1 Manuals
7.1.1 The Detailed Task Instructions
7.1.2 The Command Reference
7.1.3 The Super Index
7.2 On-Line Help
7.3 Training
7.4 Customer-Support Phone Lines
L What Can You Borrow? A Quick Introduction to Copyrights and Related Legal Stuff, as of 1994
L.1 Background
L.2 What's Covered by Copyright
L.3 Practical Boundary Markers
L.4 Strategy
L.5 Some Philosophical Observations
M Managing User Interface Development
M.1 Staffing
M.2 Organization
M.3 Resource Allocation
M.4 Product Updates
Excercises
Forward
0.1 Looking for the Interface
Chapter 1. Task-Centered Design
1.1: Task-Centered Design in Other Areas
Chapter 2. Getting to Know Users and Their Tasks.
2.1: Task and User Analysis
Chapter 3. Creating the Initial Design
3.1: Selecting Controls
3.2: Borrowed Colors
3.3: Unpacking a Metahphor
Chapter 4. Evaluating the Design Without Users
4.1: Cognitive Walkthrough
4.2: Action Analysis for Knowledge Assessment
4.3: Heuristic Analysis
Chapter 5. Testing the Design With Users
5.1: Thinking Aloud
5.2: Failures of User Testing
Chapter 6. User Interface Management and Prototyping Systems
6.1: Learning About Your System
6.2: Pushing the Envelope
Chapter 7. The Extended Interface
7.1: A Mini-Manual
7.2: Help!
Final Project
F.1: The Design Assignment
F.2: Deliverables
Assignment 1. Task and User Analysis
Assignment 2. Initial Design and Cognitive Walkthrough
Assignment 3. Thinking-Aloud Study and Final Design
Index
Index