Instructive Interaction: Making Innovative Interfaces Self-Teaching
http://www.foruse.com/articles/instructive.pdf

Constantine, Larry L. and Lucy A.D. Lockwood
Constantine and Lockwood
2002

Abstract:

An innovative approach to enhancing ease of use and learning for novel user interfaces is described. Instructive interaction comprises a body of techniques based on a learning-by-doing model that is supported by three design principles: explorability, predictability, and guidance. Taken together, these principles form the basis for creative designs that can support highly efficient production use by experienced users while also enabling new users to understand and make effective use of an unfamiliar system almost immediately. The underlying principles of instructive interaction are presented here and an assortment of specific techniques based on these principles is described.