One time my old boss built a new edit room. This was at a time when you had to buy three tape machines and a separate audio mixer and video switcher. I asked him, “There’s so many great new switchers on the market, and you had the budget - why did you buy the same switcher?” He explained that with editors moving from room to room, it was much easier if they didn’t have to rethink the process every time they wanted to do an effect. This is a discussion I often have with software designers: functions that are familiar (close, save, next, previous, play, pause) need to be designed and placed in ways that will be familiar to users, even if there is a more elegant, “sensible” way. Intuitive…is a relative term. There are exceptions of course but exceptions should be made giving consideration to the goals of the program (not the programmer). We want to free the user’s mind to focus on the content, so the less mental effort spent on learning the user interface, the better.
Tags: usability, user experience
