Richard J. Wolf

Heuristics in real user interfaces

It is the conventional wisdom in user interface design that direct manipulation is best and that interfaces should be predictable. This tends to argue against having a system “guess” or use heuristics or other AI approaches. However, an increasing number of todays successful software products do use heuristics in their interfaces. The heuristics are used to help guide the user and to perform tasks that would be too difficult to specify by conventional direct manipulation approaches. We believe that user interface designers will increasingly need to consider using heuristic techniques in their interfaces. This panel discusses a number of todays successful products using heuristics and the important HCI design issues such as feedback.

Diversified parallel design: contrasting design approaches

Three leading user interface designers were asked to design interfaces for a given problem. Each designer was asked to optimize the design for certain usage conditions, making this panel into a case study of diversified parallel design. The panel will feature a lively discussion of the designers’ various approaches and solutions, including a discussion of their preliminary design solutions and their design process. Furthermore, in preparation for the panel, the designs have been made available to a usability specialist who will critique them and point out possible usability problems inherent in the designs. DIVERSIFIED PARALLEL DESIGN The goal of parallel design is to explore different design alternatives before one settles on a single approach that can then be developed in further detail and subjected to more detailed usability activities, including iterative design [2]. Diversified parallel design takes this idea one step further by asking each designer to optimize his or her design for specific usage conditions. For example, one designer may be asked to design for maximal learnability whereas another designer could design for maximal “power user” productivity. Other dimensions along which designers may be asked to diversify are the discretionary nature of the users (full emphasis on pleasant and attractive design versus full emphasis on task throughput) and available computational resources (design for a pocket messagepad versus design for a two-page workstation display). By driving the design towards the extreme comers of the design space, it may be possible to discover design elements that could be combined in a subsequent merged design for all users without actually hurting those users for which they are not intended. Alternatively, some design elements may be provided through preference settings, as dialogue accelerators, or as part of a “training wheels” interface [1]. References 1. Carroll, J.M. The Nurnberg Funnel. MIT Press 1990. 2. Nielsen, J. Usability Engineering. Academic Press 1993. DESIGN PROBLEM GIVEN TO THE DESIGNERS Design a graphical user interface to allow users to manipulate their voice mail messages, assuming that the underlying voice mail system could not be changed but would be able to supply the computer with the information about the duration of each message as well as its originating telephone number for calls from the U.S. and Canada (for calls from the rest of the world only the name of the country can be supplied). For calls from with~n the user’s own company, an online directory can match the originating telephone number with the caller’s name, group, and management level. BIOGRAPHIES OF PANELISTS