Chapter 3: Getting Around

1. Chapter 3: Getting Around In complex software applications, it is critical to reveal where the user currently is, as well as how to get where the user wants to go. The effort expended by the interface developer in helping the user to maintain his or her bearings and to easily navigate the software application will often determine the success of failure of the software product. Tidwell Course Notes

2. Signposts Provide users with features that clearly indicate what they’re currently looking at and what they need to do to find what they’re looking for. SIUE’s Student Information System: Good signposts or bad? Tidwell Course Notes

3. Navigation Hazards Developing an interface that facilitates navigation might seem insurmountable in some cases. Microsoft Word’s Options: Endless search through a tabbed form. Tidwell Course Notes

4. Context Switching As much as possible, avoid forcing the user to page to different forms, deal with pop-up dialogs, or cycle through various controls when performing a task. Microsoft Visio: Does it satisfy the 80/20 Rule? Tidwell Course Notes

5. Long, High, and Broad Jumps Web applications are particularly prone to forcing users to jump from context to context. How many jumps from SIUE’s home page to a former CS 275 course’s syllabus? Tidwell Course Notes

6. Pattern #21: Clear Entry Points Provide users (particularly first-time users) with obvious controls leading to the most common tasks. Example: This Meeting Scheduler application clearly indicates how to schedule and cancel meetings. Tidwell Course Notes

7. Pattern #22: Global Navigation Provide a common section of each page of an application, combining controls to facilitate its navigation. Example: HP’s Business Inkjet Properties form maintains pretty much the same format for the top, bottom, and right sides of the different tabbed pages. These areas are where much of the navigation and bearings information reside.. Tidwell Course Notes

8. Pattern #23: Hub and Spoke Provide a primary “hub” page as the only means for accessing several secondary “spoke” pages. Example: Microsoft’s Window Picture and Fax Viewer displays the user-selected window and responds to certain commands by generating secondary forms that, when exited, return the user to the original form. Tidwell Course Notes

9. Pattern #24: Pyramid Provide a main page that is connected to each of the secondary pages in a previous/next sequence of pages. Example: In this modification of the Periodic Table application, when displaying an element’s secondary form, the user can return to the periodic table or to an adjacent element (i.e., one with an adjacent atomic number). Tidwell Course Notes

10. Pattern #25: Modal Panel When proceeding with an application requires user input, prevent the user from leaving the current page until that input is provided. Example: When setting the player controls for Microsoft’s 3D Pinball, the options must be specified (or the default values selected) before the player may return to the game. Example: When a Microsoft PowerPoint user issues an Insert Chart command, this modal dialog box must be completed before the user is allowed to return to other PowerPoint activities. Tidwell Course Notes

11. Pattern #26: Sequence Map When the path that users follow through an application is linear, provide them visual indicators of the current and remaining pages. Example: Adobe Acrobat allows users to see thumbnails marking their progress as they traverse a document, with the current page’s thumbnail highlighted. Tidwell Course Notes

12. Pattern #27: Breadcrumbs Pattern #27: Breadcrumbs When users tend to follow a tree-like path through an application, provide them simple mechanisms for jumping back up the hierarchy. Example: Instructors can use the Moodle tree hierarchy to access information about all of their current classes, employing the links at the top of the page to jump back up the hierarchy. Tidwell Course Notes

13. Pattern #28: Annotated Scrollbar Provide annotation in a scrollbar so it provides specific textual information in addition to its normal data about relative position. Example: Holding down the mouse button and hovering while scrolling in Microsoft PowerPoint reveals the page number and title of the slide at which the scrollbar would be released. Tidwell Course Notes

14. Pattern #29: Color-Coded Sections Distinguish between various sections of an interface via color coding. Example: HBO’s Web site color-codes the framing of its programs’ pages to reflect the relative “darkness” of shows in question. Tidwell Course Notes

15. Pattern #30: Animated Transition Rather than jolting users with sudden changes on an application’s display, ease them into the changes via animation. Example: In this State Quarters application, the “flipping” of the coins via animation enhanced the overall look and feel of the interface. Tidwell Course Notes

16. Pattern #31: Escape Hatch Whenever a page has limited navigation options, provide the user with a mechanism for returning to a page that is less of a “dead end”. Example: In the nVidia desktop color calibration screen shown here, the user is afforded the choice of two keyboard keys to escape back to the Desktop Manager form. Tidwell Course Notes