9 - Drew Hrvatin

Skim Chapter 6. (That is, read the chapter quickly but read slowly any section that grabs your interest.)

What do you think about HELP systems--online help, tutorials, etc.? Do they work? Are they substitutes for good design? That is, if the design were better and more "obvious," would you really need these help or tutorial systems?

Also, when you think about developing personas for Project #5, what are categories of people on whom to focus? (There is no single correct answer!)

Finally, comment on someone else's post to this blog assignment.

 

From personal experience, I feel that help systems do not provide as much help as they could.  They usually make the process of accomplishing a goal even longer instead of shorter.  The chapter mentions that a lot of programs offer links and tutorials that take a user out of the program to try and learn how to work a certain tool or process for an application.  The user ends up going back and forth several times and this takes a lot of time.  Applications that have the tips and hints right where you are working save time and effort.  The chapter mentions that most users of an application are intermediate users.  Many applications have to tips and hints that are for beginners or advanced users when in reality these applications should have help for the majority skill level of their users (usually intermediate level).  I feel online tutorials/tips/help are usually not good substitutes for good design.  How could a substitute for a good design ever be good anyway?  I understand that a great design isn't great for everyone but an obvious design should be great for the majority of users.  The help systems for these applications would only need to be minimal.

 

Good categories would be people that are intermediate to advanced users of the superhero.  Our personas should range from normal/average comic book/superhero fans  to obsessed, advanced comic book/superhero fans.  I think this because that is the majority group of who were are designing for.