[IxDA Discuss] Affordances in interface design

[leo.frishberg at exgate.tek.com]

Cecily,

1) Check out "About Face 2.0" - Alan Cooper's and Robert Reimann's
canonical text on several things interaction design.  In it you'll find
discussions about when "metaphors" shouldn't be taken too literally - in
your case, building the on-screen equivalent to a paper document.
2) Also mentioned in the book is Cooper's design methodology that
incorporates "Personas" and "Scenarios".  In your case, you have to
respond to "stakeholders" with a cogent statement of "which users."
With Personas you can describe who your users are and with Scenarios,
you can present compelling arguments why doing things according to the
status quo is actually not desirable by a substantial portion of your
user base.
3) To do this for real means you really have to get out into the field
and do the legwork: interview users, observe them using the product,
observe them doing their accounting work with or without the product,
and so forth.  With this fundamental data in your possession, you can
provide a very qualified statement why a proposed solution is not only
better, but will be received with great enthusiasm by "the users."

I am constantly barraged by various stakeholders that my proposed
changes will be met with either resistance or at least raised eyebrows
because "it's radically different from what they're used to."  Because
of their investment in my doing research, however, not only am I
confident in my assertions, but they are more confident in my
assertions.  In addition, where I expect to have dissonance from
long-term users, we are gearing up to help get them ready: marketing
materials with early messaging about change is good, early training to
lighthouse customers, the technical sales force has been engaged early,
etc.

Generally in these cases, my belief is "when we stop hammering their
heads, our users will sigh in relief." In other words, just because they
have become habituated to a really bad interaction doesn't mean they
like it or wouldn't really appreciate something much better.

Leo

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of
Cecily Walker
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 4:30 PM
To: discuss at ixda.org
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Affordances in interface design


Hi Everyone,

I have a question that I'll preface with statement. I work for a
company that builds accounting software for the desktop. Screens for
data entry (i.e., paying bills, creating invoices) were designed to
look like the paper forms they were based on, and have looked like
this since the Windows 3.1 version of the software.

Research has shown us that new users frequently find this design
confusing. Stakeholders have told us that they want to hold on to this
design because "It's what our users are used to."

My question is this - does anyone have any resources that talk about
affordances in application design? If you don't have any resources,
I'll take opinions: how important is it that a  "Create Invoice"
screen resemble a paper invoice? How important is it that a payments
screen looks like a check?

Thanks in advance for your responses,
Cecily