#29780
How Design Documents Enhance Information Product Development Process Quality 
Panelists from LSI Logic Storage Systems review their company's approach to enhancing process quality by using design documents as process enforcement and project-planning tools for planning the development of information products (IP). Hear how effective planning solves problems that occur during the IP development process and how capturing the planning elements in design documents helps solve role-based problems for developers, editors, and managers. Discuss the many problems design documents help project teams solve: they help developers solidify the IP development task sequence, they help editors define the rhetorical context, and they help managers reduce the cost of rework.
Burroughs, Dia H., Randy Clark, Sylvia McCombs and Tony Washington. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>User Interface>Workflow
#25087
How Many Items Should Go in a Menu?
A lot of people think 7 ± 2 (i.e., between 5 and 9, with a preference for 7). NO! It isn’t! And here I will explain why.
Salmoni, Alan James. Milui (2005). Articles>User Interface>User Centered Design
#20834
How Much Bandwidth is Enough? A Tbps!
In the long term we will need about a million times more bandwidth than a T1, as shown by the following list of requirements for the perfect user interface.
Alertbox (1995). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface
#26915
How to Build a Better Web Browser
Web browsers are funny things. On the one hand, they’re supposed to be lightweight little programs that just let you view websites, and on the other, they carry the same burdens as operating systems and application suites, trying to provide everything to everyone. Here in this little essay I explain what I know about designing browsers. I’m in the lucky minority of people that have actually designed successful browsers, or parts of them, for any length of time, and with Firefox and Opera in the headlines, and the art of browser design becomes important again, I thought I’d write down some of what I know. Its been years since I was a program manager on the Internet Explorer project, but I’ve maintained interests in the design of navigation and searching systems of all kinds: what follows is a rough summary of what I’ve learned.
Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Interface>Web Browsers
#24808
How to Design an Effective User Interface
Technical communicators who work as members of software development teams often act as user advocates. Part of this role includes working with developers to design screens that allow users to easily use the software and understand the information presented. This two-part workshop presents various exercies and handouts which help attendees develop an easy-to-use and understand interface for users.
Chiricosta, Tracey C. and Alice Alspach Jones. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>User Interface>Usability
#31997
IDEA 2008: An Interview with Bill DeRouchey
Bill DeRouchey is fascinated with buttons and the history of interface design. He talks to us as he prepares for IDEA 2008, October 7-8. In Chicago, Bill hopes to help attendees expand their sources of inspiration to include just about anything in their everyday lives.
Unger, Russ. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Interviews>User Interface>User Experience
#28414
The Impact of Globalization on User Interface Design 
Did you ever try to use a machine that has been programmed in a foreign language? Or perhaps, even with an unfamiliar character set? Suddenly everything seems to be different although only the language has changed. This is the situation faced by many foreign users that work with German machines.
Zühlke, Detlef, Alexander Bödcher and Kersitn Röse. Tekom (2006). Articles>User Interface>Globalization>Localization
#21079
Information Architecture for the Rest of Us
The purpose of this article is to explain information architecture in a very simple and clear manner. If you have been confused about information architecture and what it is all about, this is exactly the article you should read. An analogy is used to get at the core concepts and several useful examples are provided.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2002). Articles>Information Design>User Interface
#20819
Information Retrieval of Imperfectly Recognized Handwriting
A user test of handwritten input on a pen machine achieved a 1.6% recognition error rate at the character level, corresponding to 8.8% errors on the word level. Input speed was 10 words per minute. In spite of the recognition errors, information retrieval of the handwritten notes was almost as good as retrieval of perfect text.
Nielsen, Jakob, Victoria L. Phillips and Susan T. Dumais. Alertbox (1993). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface
#28658
Instructional Text in the User Interface: Some Counterintuitive Implications of User Behaviors
User assistance occurs within an action context--the user doing something with an application--and should appear in close proximity to the focus of that action--that is, the application it supports. The optimal placement of user assistance, space permitting, is in the user interface itself. We typically call that kind of user assistance instructional text. But when placing user assistance within an application as instructional text, we must modify conventional principles of good information design to accommodate certain forces within an interactive user interface. This column, User Assistance, talks about how the rules for effective instruction change when creating instructional text for display within the context of a user interface.
Hughes, Michael A. UXmatters (2007). Articles>User Interface>Help>Online
#30020
Instructive Interaction: Making Innovative Interfaces Self-Teaching
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.
Constantine, Larry L. and Lucy A.D. Lockwood. Constantine and Lockwood (2002). Articles>User Interface>Documentation
#20186
Integrating End-User Support Into New Software
Most writers have little or no control on how their online support is integrated into the product. Except for contextsensitive links, most help systems, online manuals, and tutorials are standalone applications. This separation negatively impacts the usability of the product. Technical writers need to insist on integrating their support material into the product ifthey are to achieve Day-One Performance.
Timpone, Donna. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Software>User Interface
#26784
Interface in Form: Paper and Product Prototyping for Feedback and Fun
Sketching and modeling are integral features of the design process, critical for both the generation of ideas, and the communication of concepts to others for discussion and evaluation, particularly in the context of human-centered design. While these methods are a natural component of the designer’s education and professional tool kit, there is immense value in exposing other professions involved in the development of products and interfaces to at least a limited set of these same basic tools.
Hanington, Bruce. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Interface
#29793
What do customers want from our software and documentation? They want to accomplish tasks, and to obtain information about tasks, as quickly and painlessly as possible. Do they also expect to be entertained along the way? No, not when there is work to be done. Years of usability analysis in the software industry indicates very clearly that clarity and ease-of-use is topmost on the minds of software users.
Kocher, Sue. Carolina Communique (2007). Articles>User Interface>Software>Usability
#29288
The original tab signaled an information storage revolution and helped enable everything from management consulting to electronic data processing.
Tenner, Ed. Technology Review (2005). Articles>User Interface>Information Design>History
#20817
A Layered Interaction Analysis of Direct Manipulation
The concept of direct manipulation is usually viewed as a single characteristic of a class of interaction styles. Here, direct manipulation is analyzed according to a detailed layered interaction model, showing that it has quite different effects on the dialogue on the different levels. In particular, the "no errors" claim may be true at the syntax level but not at several of the levels above or below that level. Furthermore, a unified framework is presented for conceptualizing Direct Manipulation, What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG), Transparency, Immediate Command Specification, Arcticulatory Directness, and Computational Appliances according to a layered interaction view.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1992). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface
#23717
Users have goals when they use software applications. Their goal is NOT to 'use' the application. Their goal is to complete an activity or task using the application. Performance support is defined as providing users what they need to be successful in completing their activity or task when they need it – at the point of need. Technical communicators can benefit from incorporating performance support elements into their work, even if they are not creating a performance support system.
Rupel, Roberta A. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>User Interface>Usability>EPSS
#21047
Learning From Photoshop's "Variations" Tool
Adobe has been using one of the most effective contemporary goal-oriented interactive mechanisms for years, and a lot of product designers should have been paying attention. It is, of course, the 'Variations' tool.
Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Articles>User Interface>Human Computer Interaction
#25905
Listen Up!: Speech Recognition's Impact on Communication, Rhetoric, and Interface
Look around the computer screen on which you're viewing this document. Do you see a keyboard and mouse a short distance away? These two traditional input devices have become so deeply entrenched as the established human-computer interface that they are inseparable from our notion of the 'computing experience.' Yet in many ways, keyboards and mice only make our experiences with computers more unnatural, forcing us into modes of interaction that we would never use with other people. In other words, they make humans interact with machines, rather than machines with humans.
Propper, Ryan. Stanford University (2005). Articles>User Interface>Rhetoric>Voice
#23960
Localization Guidelines for Your User Interface
When delivering your product in foreign languages, it is important to consider how the user interface will appear to users around the world. While there are no hard-fast rules, the following suggestions provide some guidance in facilitating localization in regard to your user interface.
Microsoft (2001). Articles>Style Guides>User Interface>Localization
#25577
Localization of Digital Games: The Process of Blending for the Global Games Market
The process of localizing digital games can be significantly different from the process of localizing productivity software.
Thayer, Alexander and Beth E. Kolko. Sakson and Taylor (2004). Articles>User Interface>Localization>Games
#31036
Looking At GUI Libraries: Spotlight On Infragistics
As a Graphical User Interface (GUI) programmer, I have many interface development tools to choose from. Over the years, my development environment changes to accommodate my needs. This often includes learning new languages and the tools that go with them.
Flowers, Natalie. Carolina Communique (2008). Articles>User Interface>Programming>Software
#18978
Map-Based Horizontal Navigation in Educational Hypertext 
The paper discusses the problem of horizontal (non-hierarchical) navigation in modern educational courseware. It considers why horizontal links disappear, how to support horizontal navigation in modern hyper-courseware, and looks at our earlier attempts to provide horizontal navigation in Web-based electronic textbooks. Map-based navigation -- a new approach to support horizontal navigation in open corpus educational courseware -- which we are currently investigating, is presented. We describe the mechanism behind this approach, present a system, KnowledgeSea, that implements this approach, and provide some results from a classroom study of this system.
Brusilovsky, Peter and Riccardo Rizzo. Journal of Digital Information (2002). Articles>Web Design>User Interface
#21213
Measuring the Success of Visual Communication in User Interfaces 
This article discusses three key areas of visual communication we address in user interfaces (UIs): conventional—emphasis on imitating generic forms that meet readers' expectations; icon recognition; visual appeal or 'look-and-feel'. The article uses five case histories to demonstrate how usability research has helped the authors evaluate the quality of visual communication in navigation, icon recognition, and look-and-feel. It describes some of the research methodology the authors use, with examples from the case histories. For each of the three topic areas, we discuss the lessons we learned from the case histories about both usability testing methodology and visual communication guidelines. We mention, but do not concentrate on, related topics such as visual clutter.
Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. and J.O. 'Joe' Bugental. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>User Interface>Assessment>Visual Rhetoric
#14992
Measuring the Success of Visual Communication in User Interfaces
Discusses three key areas of visual communication--information access and navigation, icon recognition, and visual appeal--as related to usability research.
Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. and J.O. 'Joe' Bugental. Tec-Ed, Inc. (2002). Articles>Usability>User Interface
