16 Better Next Time: Improvement by Inspection and Review
Assessing Usability
It is all but impossible to get it right the first time when it comes to user interface design. The usability of software depends on numerous aspects of both underlying functional features and their surface appearance in software. The shape and position of icons on a toolbar can make a so-called productivity tool harder to learn and easier to misuse. Even with a simple and transparent menu structure to gain access to page formatting functions, unexpected or awkward behavior in the dialogue can make the cleanest and most intuitive interface layout pointless.
Software can be made dramatically harder to use by the smallest details of placement, sequencing, arrangement, ...
Get Software for Use: A Practical Guide to the Models and Methods of Usage-Centered Design now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
