management bloopers

Management Bloopers

Counterproductive

Attitude

Management BloopersChapter 8

Counterproductive Attitude

• Misunderstanding what user interface professionals do

• Treating user interface as low priority

• Discounting the value of testing and iterative design


Blooper 76Misunderstanding what UI professionals do

• Designer versus programmer distinction• Variations

– Assuming GUI programmer = GUI designer– Assuming graphic designer = GUI designer


Blooper 76

• Assuming GUI programmer = GUI designer– Profound misunderstanding– Disregards value of good UI– Top-notch UI programmers– Poor user interfaces

• Lack of UI design experience• Toolkit influences programmer• Lack of compromise


Blooper 76

• Assuming graphic designer = GUI designer– Beautiful versus usable– World wide web– Graphic design

• Detailed component appearance

– UI design• Choice of components / labels• Easy to learn• Helpful toward user goals


Avoiding Blooper 76

• Management– Understands distinction

between• UI programmers / UI

designers• UI designers / Graphic

designers

– Chooses well-rounded teams

• UI designer– Prepares UI specification– Analyzes user

requirements– Devises usability tests

Page 419, Table 8.1


Blooper 77Treating UI as low priority

• Assuming that usability has low impact on market success

• Initial expense, later revenue• Usability speeds market acceptance

• Assuming that the user interface is only “fonts and colors”

• Narrow view• Interaction


Blooper 77

• Assuming that users can adapt to anything• Functionality isn’t everything• Competition

• Rationalizing• Budget cuts• UI affects entire product

• Assigning the GUI to less experienced programmers


Avoiding Blooper 77

• Management– High priority

• Usability impact

• Early discovery

• Competitive marketplace

• Bad UI = Bad product

• Experience matters


Blooper 78Discounting the value of testing and iterative design

• Good designers do not need iteration

• “We do not have the luxury of usability testing”

• Allowing no time to fix usability problems


Blooper 78

• Good designers do not need iteration– Engineering discipline

• Scientific basis• Clear requirements• Generation / Alternatives• Constraints / Trade-offs• Testing / Evaluation / Revision

– Revisions equal failures?– Business risk


Blooper 78

• “We do not have the luxury of usability testing”– Shorten development schedule– Testing helps navigate

• Need not be expensive• Skipping does not save money

– Marketplace testing


Blooper 78

• Allowing no time to fix usability problems– Testing occurs without correction– Tests as proof– Tests as required step


Avoiding Blooper 78

• Test at every stage– Simple testing– Valued feedback

• Predevelopment tests– Page 431, Table 8.2

• Testing participants– Flexibility

• Use results!

/ Bloopers 8.2 /

8.2.1 – Poor Tools and Building Blocks

8.2.2 – Anarchic Development

8.2.3 – No Task Domain Expertise on Team

8.2.4 – Giving Programmers Faster Computers


/ Blooper 79 /

• Developers want to choose the best tools for their development efforts, but many times base their selection on the wrong criteria like:

• While these are important issues, they have very little to do with the usability and/or usefulness of the applications that will be built using them.

Poor Tools and Building Blocks – 8.2.1

Ease of Use Rapid Development

Ease of Maintenance Familiarity

Compatibility with current tools Native Operating System

Back-End Compatibility Current Ownership

Previous Use System Requirements

Cost Prior Performance Record

Licensing Issues Coolness Factor


/ Blooper 79 /

• What GUI Developers should be looking for in a development suite are things like:

• Developers and managers typically look at what benefits a tool will provide for them, not the benefits it will provide to the people who will be using the interface designed with that tool.

• Consultant recommendations on alternative development tools are regularly met with much gloom and doom.


Platform GUI Compliance General Interface Compliance

Provided Compliance Mechanisms Level of Customization

Timely Feed-back to user Internationalization Procedure

Responsiveness Program Accessibility

Cookie-Cutter Components, Custom Components, or Both


/ Blooper 79 /

• 5 Examples of Tools Hampering Usability

– Menus that Violate Users’ Muscle MemoryMenus that Violate Users’ Muscle Memory

– Unresponsive ComponentsUnresponsive Components

– Inadequate Navigation FeedbackInadequate Navigation Feedback

– Missing Important Visual DistinctionsMissing Important Visual Distinctions

– Focus on appearance and layout, rather than functionFocus on appearance and layout, rather than function



/ Blooper 79 /

• Avoiding Blooper 79

• The author does not provide a specific solution to avoid this blooper, rather he restates the importance of these development tool features:


Platform GUI Compliance General Interface Compliance

Provided Compliance Mechanisms Level of Customization

Timely Feed-back to user Internationalization Procedure

Responsiveness Program Accessibility

Cookie-Cutter Components, Custom Components, or Both


/ Blooper 80 /

• Uncontrolled, non-repeatablecrisis-of-the-moment based Development.

vs.• Proven, repeatable, company goals

and user requirement based Development.

• Examples p.442

• Programmers making business decisions

• Basically a total melt-down scenario

Anarchic Development– 8.2.2


/ Blooper 80 /


• Implement a professional development process and make sure to stick to it.

• Don’t Hack … Design• Developers are Publishers and should act like it!• Give GUI experts more clout• Take Responsibility

Anarchic Development– 8.2.2


/ Blooper 81 /

• Examples of task domain experience on p.462

• No in-house UI Designers for complex domains

• UI designers have no contact with experts

• Designing “in the dark”

• The burden of task domain identification and locating professionals in that domain falls upon the development organization

No Task Domain Expertise on Team - 8.2.3


/ Blooper 81 /


• User-Centered design process

• User’s task domain expertise is a must

• Learn about the user’s work method

• Use testing to guide design, not grade designers

• When all else fails … hire outside experts

No Task Domain Expertise on Team - 8.2.3


/ Blooper 82 /

• Some justifications

• Some Costs– Users can’t afford nor do they need an upgrade– Not everyone has T1 access speeds, or can even get

them– Programs may end up being poorly designed and

simply rely on pure processing power to make up the difference.

Giving Programmers Faster Computers - 8.2.4

Engineers like speed

Faster Computers = Improved Productivity

Using latest hardware helps to shake out flaws

It encourages customers to upgrade to faster units as well


/ Blooper 82 /


• Compile on fast servers

• Use mid-range systems to test product on

• Try to design to the lowest common trait

• Keep bandwidth limitations in mind

• Put yourself in the users shoes (pocketbook)

Giving Programmers Faster Computers - 8.2.4


/ THE END /NO MORE BLOOPERS!!!


Final Exam Review

• 40% Johnson chapter 5-8.– What are Interaction Bloopers?– What are Web Bloopers?– What are Responsiveness Bloopers?– What are Management Bloopers?

• 40% Project (sliders, radio buttons, combo box plus painting and Timers)– 50% commenting code

• 20% Comprehensive: broad questions asking informed comments on GUI design, GUI toolkits and the building of GUI applications in Java.


Course Review

• Project due Monday, midnight• I will write the exam Tuesday night and

base it on code received.• Course evaluation forms can be

supplemented with direct communication.• I thought presentations were very well

done and will post grades this weekend (all A’s and B’s as of today).

management bloopers

Documents

gui designerbeautiful

user goalsavoiding blooper

gui designerblooper

usability problemsblooper

usability problemstesting

ui professionals dodesigner

value of testing

usability andor usefulness