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anotheranonI have been tasked to help write a "how to" manual for one of our in-house applications that will be going into production soon. I've been printing all of the screens in the application so I have them on hand when we meet with the folks who will actually be using the application.
I have no problem with writing this manual - I've never written one before so its something new and different. What grates on me is that the application is designed in such a way that actually impedes use - I'm going to end up writing at least 20 pages to explain this thing when it would only take 10 if the interface had been planned more carefully. Some of my gripes:
Maybe I'm too much a disciple of Jakob Nielsen but is it too much to ask that the page layout make sense in the first place? I know the person who designed it. They are an excellent coder and the thing works like a dream - once you realize what elements are buttons, links, etc.
Think I'll spend some time figuring out the additions to Photoshop 6 before I attempt to address this behemoth. As it is the meeting isn't until Thursday so I can't do much on it today anyway.
I have no problem with writing this manual - I've never written one before so its something new and different. What grates on me is that the application is designed in such a way that actually impedes use - I'm going to end up writing at least 20 pages to explain this thing when it would only take 10 if the interface had been planned more carefully. Some of my gripes:
- buttons placed near button-like graphics. Clickable areas that do not look like buttons.
- columns of checkboxes with no clear purpose - do you check it to see the selected item, delete it, edit it - ? If someone had labeled the column there would be no explanation necessary.
- edit, delete, and view screens that are so similar that I often had to check to see which one I was using.
- some links are brown, some are blue. Some are underlined, some not.
Maybe I'm too much a disciple of Jakob Nielsen but is it too much to ask that the page layout make sense in the first place? I know the person who designed it. They are an excellent coder and the thing works like a dream - once you realize what elements are buttons, links, etc.
Think I'll spend some time figuring out the additions to Photoshop 6 before I attempt to address this behemoth. As it is the meeting isn't until Thursday so I can't do much on it today anyway.
