Presentation Style: Function and Fashion
Introduction
Interface design has yet to match the high art of architecture or trendiness
of clothing design. However, we can anticipate that as the audience for
computers expands, competition over design will heighten. Early automobiles
were purely functional and Henry Ford could joke about customers getting
any color as long as it was black, but modern car designers have learned
to balance function and fashion. This chapter deals with four design issues
that are functional issues with many human factors criteria, but also leave
room for varying styles to suite a variety of customers. They are: error
messages, nonanthropomorphic design, display design, and color.
User experiences with computer-system prompts, explanations, error diagnostics,
and warnings play a critical role in influencing acceptance of software
systems. The wording of messages is especially important in systems designed
for novice users; experts also benefit from improved messages. Messages
are sometimes meant to be conversational as modeled by human-human communication,
but this strategy has its limits because people are different from computers
and computers are different from people. This may be obvious, but a section
on nonanthropomorphic design seems necessary to steer designers towards
comprehensible, predictable, and controllable interfaces.
Another opportunity for design improvements is in the layout of information
on a display. Cluttered displays may overwhelm even knowledgeable users;
but with only modest effort, well-organized information-abundant layouts
can reduce search time and increase subjective satisfaction. Large, rapid,
color, high-resolution displays offer many possibilities and challenges
for designers. Some guidelines are useful, but there are too many variables
and situations to ensure success without repeated trials even by experienced
designers.
Recognition of the creative challenge of balancing function and fashion
might be furthered by having designers put their names and photos on a title
or credits page, just as authors do in a book. This is commonly done in
game and some educational software, and seems appropriate for all software.
Credits provide acknowledgment for good work, and identify the people responsible.
Having their name in lights may also encourage designers to work a bit harder,
since their identities will be public.
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Last Updated: 6 August 1999
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