[IxDA Discuss] Affordances in interface design

[David Malouf]

Cecily,

To me your issue has little to do with affordances and more to do with
cultural change.
Having recently gone through a similar project for an enterprise class
hosted software system I can say that 80% of the problem was internal
reluctance of change. They mostly made up the discomfort issues of the
old users because they themselves were worried, but when I went out
into the field the design got high praise all around.

Even when customers and users did complain about the new design, it
was more about usability issues (just what I wanted to hear) than
about really the design. People say "that's bad" all the time, but you
need to delve deeper to understand what they are reacting to. In my
case there were clarity issues in the presentation design but the IxD
was very well received.

I would more simply answer your question that a spreadsheet tool
doesn't need to look like a ledger, a bill pay too doesn't need to
look like a checkbook, etc. In fact, I would stay clear from literal
interfaces. They usually break down when you bring them over to the
virtual.

-- dave


On 3/7/07, Sebi Tauciuc <stauciuc at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes, but don't forget that users may not always know what is best for them.
> That doesn't mean ignore their opinions, of course. But a small prototype
> with some usability testing could tell you if this is a good idea or not.
> Also, to me customization is not exactly the same with switching between
> 'old version' and 'new version'. Customization may be tedious (both for
> developers and users), but having it all in one 'switch' might not be that
> bad.
> Designing for change is probably a good ideea in this case and a solution
> like Jack proposed, although harder to implement, could be one step in a
> smooth transition.
>
> Sebi
>
> On 3/7/07, Cecily Walker <cecily.walker at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >From my research, our users are interested in customization only as it
> > relates to their workflow, not to information design/presentation.
> >
> > - Cecily
> > ________________________________________________________________
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Sergiu Sebastian Tauciuc
> http://www.sergiutauciuc.ro/en/
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-- 
David Malouf
http://synapticburn.com/
http://ixda.org/
http://motorola.com/