RE: 40 buttons on one screen?

["Kathleen" <keamac -at- cox -dot- net>]

Ashok,

Sounds like you've made great progress! Those labels and work areas are
going to be a huge help for the explanation and the user.

I'd refer to the xyz (etc.) sections as sections or subsections. Perhaps
others have more intuitive suggestions :-)

Thanks for the summary. Let us know if it works :-)

Kathleen

-----Original Message-----
From: ashokgopal -at- vsnl -dot- net
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 11:39 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: 40 buttons on one screen?


Thank you everyone for the suggestions. What I propose to do--and I
think
it will work--is take a bit of everyone's advice:
1. First I talk to the developers. I tell them their screen is a mess.
Maybe they don't know this.
2. I tell them to divide the screen into 3-4 clear work areas. I tell
them, "Think of a mall. The Lingerie section, the Toys section.."
Actually
the screen does have distinct work areas. It's just that there are no
lines or boxes to make this clear.
3. I tell them (i.e. suggest)put a label ("Lingerie") for each work
area.
4. I then suggest a "What's this?" for each such label (not each button
under that label).
5. "What's this?" opens up a topic like "Finding your way in the
Lingerie
section", or rather "Working in xyz box". Topic has screen shot of xyz
box--parts thereof will be legible.
6. I also have a "finding your way through the mall" topic which
explains
that there are distinct work areas in the screen, called xyz, abc and
lmn.
I briefly explain each work area and give links to "Working in xyz box",
"Working in abc box", etc.

I am pretty sure the developers will accept this--it doesn't make their
life significantly more difficult and it does make the user's life
significantly easier.

Just one doubt: do I call the boxed work area a "box" (client wants
everything according to "Microsoft style")? My co-writer says "It's too
big to be called a box".

Ashok
ashokgopal -at- vsnl -dot- net  




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT - EDIT AND REVIEW, REDEFINED
Accelerate the document lifecycle with full online discussions and unique feedback-management capabilities. Unlimited, efficient reviews for Word
and FrameMaker authors. Live, online demo:
http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.