It Just Keeps on Flowing

Dietrich Kappe, Friday, April 28, 2006 @ 9:48 am

Our Elyse Sanchez has just authored an article entitled "Features into Flow: Techniques for Optimizing User Interactions." It distills some of our experiences designing software for educational reform in an Arabic gulf state. Some choice excerpts:

The success of our design methodology is dependent in a large part on user research and the creation of personas and task-based scenarios. Our principle Enumeration persona, Ahmad, spends a few weeks each autumn traveling through the desert from school to school, generally spending about a week at each location, where he has to manage with makeshift accommodations and associated distractions. A thorough and competent data collector, he dislikes making errors. Using his laptop computer, he enters his data very quickly but often struggles to meet his deadlines.

We were able to incorporate several strategies for optimizing flow and offering Ahmad the benefits of a “smart” application. First, we designed a linear, tabbed structure that guided the information-collecting process and ensured that all dependencies were correctly met (for example, information on teachers had to be obtained and completed before student information could be gathered). For selected subtasks, information had to be moved from one area of the display to another. To enable this in as few keystrokes as possible, we implemented a drag-and-drop function that greatly simplified what could have been monotonous, time-consuming data-recording tasks.

You can read the article here (pdf).

Related posts:

1. Types of Flow – A Quick Reference
2. Great Article on Prototyping Complex Interactions
3. What are Task Flows?
4. Use a Task Flow to Show “How do I ___?”
5. What’s on my Bookshelf

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