Iconitis

[Eriks A. Ziemelis]

In article <17376 at cisunx.UUCP> jcbst3 at unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (James C. Benz) writes:
>In article <11555 at lanl.gov> jlg at lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes:
>>My major objection with icons is that often I know very well what I want
>>to do, but I can't do it without walking down some menu...  The
>>icon interface simply slows down experienced users.

And at times, icons slow down or prevent the novice user from becoming
an experienced user.

In a previous job, I did some support of a CAE/CAD system that uses
pull-down menus, icons, pop-ups, etc. I found that many users got so
used to working with these various non-keyboard interfaces that they
never progressed past them: they did not know of the other commands
available to them.  They would rarely read any of the reference manuals;
their sole source of information, in most cases, were the tutorial 
manuals they had used which usually focused on the non-keyboard methods.

They could perform the simple tasks that were programmed
into the icons and menus but would be lost when something "unexpected" would
happen or had to do something more complex that could not be performed
solely using icons etc.


Eriks A. Ziemelis


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