RE: Another Newbie question about procedures

["Sharon Burton" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>]

I sort of agree with you, Bonnie, and sort of don't.

The original poster identified the audience as experienced users. In that
case, they know how to cancel out of something, unless the interface is
really bad. In that case, you can say before the procedure: "Cancel at any
time by clicking the Bob button."

Most people only read the part of the manual that they need right now and
don't read earlier stuff, like a Conventions section at the front of the
manual. So preparing the user at the beginning of the book is of no help to
them, because most users - and I have seen reports on usability tests that
back this up - don't read the manual, just the bits they need. Japanese
users are very different in this regard.

But overall, given that the average interface has a Cancel button, for most
audiences, you don't need to tell people how to back out, because, in
general, if they don't know what they Cancel button does, the knowledge gulf
is too big for your manual to correct.

My uncoffee-ed thoughts.

sharon

Sharon Burton
CEO, Anthrobytes Consulting
951-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
President of IESTC

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-189020 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-189020 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]On Behalf Of Bonnie
Granat
>
> When I teach, I talk about Task Flows. It's the idea that you
> need to walk
> your user thru the steps to do what they need and only the
> steps that the
> user needs to complete that task. If there are other things
> that CAN be
> done, in a dialog box for example, you ignore them because
> they are not
> related to the current task path.
>
> Thus, I wouldn't tell the user what the Cancel button does,
> as it does not
> move them forward thru to the end of the task.

But what if they get stuck and want to start over, or they have to
stop for some reason. I think it's absolutely necessary to tell
them how to back out.

I agree that users don't need to know about things that aren't part
of the task they want to accomplish, but certainly they need and
deserve to know how to back out of a procedure.


However, I
> would tell them to
> click OK to finish the task, simply because I think users
> expect to be done
> with the steps and the procedure at the same time.
>
> Having said that, Microsoft, in the 3rd edition style guide
> for tech pubs,
> says to not bother with the Click OK thing. I would like to see
some
> usability stuff on this. Does it confuse users or doesn't it?

You don't just DO it without preparing your users. Your manual
should have a simple section called How to Use This Guide or About
This Guide in which you explain housekeeping things.

There's a compromise that involves putting ", and then click OK."
at the tail end of the last step or as a separate sentence there.





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