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I regret I've not seen Mr. Heckel's book; here's my 2 cents
on GUI - -
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E. Winters: Principal Program Facilitating and Consulting
Berkeley, CA, USA 510-843-0909 ewinters -at- netcom -dot- com
Instructional Design * Interactivity * Cross - Cultural Communication
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The 'look' and 'feel' is really 2 things; the *appearance* (look)
and *interaction* (feel). If things 'look' familiar then the
application is a bit easier to learn; the 'comfort' level is high.
'Feel' is what goes on when the mouse is clicked or a key
is pressed. Is success constant? Does the user accomplish
what was planned?
Then, there's - what I'm calling _ the *cognitive* aspect;
this is the organization of stuff on the screen. EG: in a
WP program the information about margins, tabs, columns - -
are found pretty much together - - if not on the same screen
then nearby on a pull-down menu or some such oranizational
tool. It's not necessary to hunt down what you want - -
MOST of the time. (There are unfortunate examples as well.)
Which brings us to *navigation*; how people move around in the
application. This is menus, control panels, dialogue boxes, and
the like. These are ways of simplifying, and when well designed,
cut down on the confusion.
And, of course, the *metaphor* is this a desktop or a file cabinet,
or wherever.
I think all of these aspects are culturally linked; I, for one,
have always wanted to pull the corners of the screens in such
a way as to have a round interface.
Elaine
On Thu, 29 Sep 1994, Richard Mateosian wrote:
> >Is *anything* about using a computer intuitive? I don't think so.
> In The Art of Friendly Software Design, Paul Heckel talks about user
> interface design in terms of creating metaphors for real-world situations,
> so the user's experience and intuition can function to advantage. ...RM
> Richard Mateosian Technical Writer in Berkeley CA srm -at- c2 -dot- org
