what makes an application a good application (eclipse finance day 2012 zürich)

What makes an applica/on a “good” applica/on ? How is so'ware experienced by end-‐users ? Chris7an Campo Eclipse Finance Day Zuerich 2012

•  Chris/an Campo

How is so:ware experienced by end-‐users ? •  What is Usability ?

•  Flow ? •  Visual Coding ? •  “Gestalt” Laws ?

Who are we ?

So'ware Quality

Efficiency

Func7o-‐nality

Maintainability

Portabi-‐lity

Usability

So:ware Quality

Defini/on of Usability "The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effec1veness, efficiency, and

sa1sfac1on in a specified context of use."

Source: ISO 9241-‐11

Usability

Usability

Context of Use

Input

Output Throughp

ut

Input

Output

Throughp

ut Product

? USER

Defini/on of Usability "The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to

achieve specified goals with effec1veness, efficiency, and sa1sfac1on in a specified context of use."


Usability

•  Sa/sfac/on ›  Fulfillment in one’s expecta/ons, needs, or pleasure derived from this

Keep users happy by allowing for flow

Usability: sa/sfac/on Experience

•  Flow is the mental state of opera7on in which a person in an ac7vity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the ac7vity

How to allow for flow ? (Some principles)

•  The user must have a clear goal •  Task should be doable/workable •  (Inter)ac7ons should have immediate feedback

In So:ware ? (Some principles)

•  Direct, don’t discuss •  Keep tools close at hand •  Provide modeless feedback

What is flow ? Experience

Sources: About Face 2.0, Cooper, Reiman, The Psychology of Op7mal Experience; Csikszentmihalyi

Allowing for flow search

Allowing for flow save

Allowing for flow

•  Efficiency ›  Achieving maximum produc/vity with minimum wasted effort or expense

To make a product more efficient one can reduce TIME and WORK

Logical Work

Perceptual Work

Mnemonic Work

Physical/Motor Work

Usability: efficiency

“decoding visual layouts and seman7cs of shape, size, color, and representa7on”

“recall of passwords, command vectors, names and loca7ons of data objects and controls, and other rela7onships between objects”

“comprehension of text and organiza7onal structures”

“number of keystrokes, degree of mouse movement, use of gestures, switching between input modes…”

Source: About Face 2.0, Cooper, Reimann

Reducing perceptual work ?

•  (Some) Dimensions for visual coding

›  Posi7on

›  Color

›  Texture

›  Shape

›  Size

›  Alphanumeric Source: Productergonomie, H. Dirken

A 2 C H

Reducing perceptual work ?

Proximity •  Elements that are close together tend to be

perceived as a group (belonging together)

Similarity •  Elements with similar proper/es (e.g. shape, color)

tend to be perceived as groups

Reducing perceptual work


Label Textfield

10 px

next Label

30 px


remove marker


•  errormarker


"No influence"

Ambiguous meaning of disabled textfield

"Cannot edit"


better !

Combining...

Defini/on of Usability "The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effec1veness, efficiency, and

sa1sfac1on in a specified context of use.”

Recap


Flow “Gestalt” Law

s

Mind this Do not interrupt this

Visual Coding

The ques/on is ?

What is the context of use ?

Who are my users ?

What are their goals ?

How can I make their work more efficient ?

How can I make their work more sa/sfying ?

How can I make their work effec/ve ?

How do users experience YOUR so:ware ?

what makes an application a good application (eclipse finance day 2012 zürich)

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