Usage Scenarios, Usability, Interfaces and User Groups
Have you ever found yourself in this situation? You’re standing in front of a ticket machine, and find yourself paying more attention to the daily usage scratches and graffiti rather than the machines instruction panel?
This human-machine interaction often leads to us humans feeling small and stupid and causes a significant amount of stress in our lives. Without a doubt interaction is the new buzz word in design. In times of TV -sized touch screens and the increasing complexity and functional diversity on these surfaces a deliberate, logical and attractive operation is expected. Perhaps most importantly it must also be intuitive, the magic counterpart to interaction.
Designers must take inspiration from the "analog" world of the past. Designers must plug into the intuitive actions and reactions people are used to in order to bridge the transition from one medium to the next. However it will only be a question of time before these links to the old analog world are no longer necessary.
Key question: How to simplify the operating procedures?
As with most design cases “less is more!” – In order to aid understanding of function the inexperienced user should only be confronted by one action at a time. Is the user inexperienced, or is a training session required? It is important to recognize the different user groups and separate them based on the needs of the product and its operation. Where am I coming from, where do I want to go? With the aid of the ‘Scenario technique’, correlations between the two will become apparent. The reality is that previous activities are as important as the subsequent and resulting processes.
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-> More information on the methodology behind the 24 design factors
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