Microsoft's Inductive User Interface
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The problem with wizards was there was the high barrier between wizard and "full" mode, the wizard often even heightening that. IU eradicates this problem by making everything a wizard IU.
Shog9 wrote:
You know, i'll bet if they'd come right out and said back in '9x that Wizards were intended to impede expert users, we'd have had a lot less grief
You didn't get the memo?
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
My first real C# project | Linkify!|FoldWithUs! | sighistpeterchen wrote:
IU eradicates this problem by making everything a wizard IU.
Ha! Used the control panel lately...? ;)
peterchen wrote:
You didn't get the memo?
I was busy trying to decide how i wanted my helpfile indexes generated...
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Yes, but can you blame them for doing so if that's the only legal way they can hire programmers they want at the rate they can afford?
-- Nish on sketchy hiring practices
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Inductive User Interface (IUI for short) is a term that describes the collection of methods and guidelines for designing interfaces that, according to Microsoft, are easier to follow than the current generation of software products are. Microsoft’s solution is to design interfaces that induce, or lead, the user through one task at a time. As such, the computer screen should act not unlike an expert standing over the user’s shoulder, directing them through one screen at a time. The four essential ingredients to designing an IUI are: 1. Focus each screen on a single task. 2. State the task. 3. Make the screen's contents suit the task. 4. Offer links to secondary tasks. http://blogs.pathf.com/uxd/2007/06/msdn-the-micros.html[^]
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Inductive User Interface (IUI for short) is a term that describes the collection of methods and guidelines for designing interfaces that, according to Microsoft, are easier to follow than the current generation of software products are. Microsoft’s solution is to design interfaces that induce, or lead, the user through one task at a time. As such, the computer screen should act not unlike an expert standing over the user’s shoulder, directing them through one screen at a time. The four essential ingredients to designing an IUI are: 1. Focus each screen on a single task. 2. State the task. 3. Make the screen's contents suit the task. 4. Offer links to secondary tasks. http://blogs.pathf.com/uxd/2007/06/msdn-the-micros.html[^]
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peterchen wrote:
IU eradicates this problem by making everything a wizard IU.
Ha! Used the control panel lately...? ;)
peterchen wrote:
You didn't get the memo?
I was busy trying to decide how i wanted my helpfile indexes generated...
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Yes, but can you blame them for doing so if that's the only legal way they can hire programmers they want at the rate they can afford?
-- Nish on sketchy hiring practices
Shog9 wrote:
Used the control panel lately...?
Not on vista. And the XP one is set to classic. You have something specific in mind?
Shog9 wrote:
I was busy trying to decide how i wanted my helpfile indexes generated...
:laugh: The prototype of overengineered and underdeveloped UI!
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
My first real C# project | Linkify!|FoldWithUs! | sighist -
My thoughts on that idea: I hate it. I really don't like anything which goes through step by step (unless the steps are dependant on previously chosen settings) since half of them are pointless. To use installshield, you wait on it initialising, make coffee, come back, press Next, Next, Yes, Next, Next (optionally changing to the secondary drive) and then Next, before having dinner and coming back to see if it's still running. Plus, the more screens there are, the longer it takes to load the things. However, I like having information dumped on me, mainly because I can handle that. Kinda makes me a little biased. After all, I enjoy using a 16-channel soundboard with enough buttons and dials and sliders to rival a cockpit...handling five volume controls across 8 used channels, plus other stuff - just to do a Sunday morning worship service at a relatively-small-in-comparison-to-the-US church.
Need Another Seven Acronyms...
Confused? You will be...Agreed. When a user use an application for the first few times, intuitiveness may be useful, but as the user gains familiarity (i.e. the rest of the app's usage life), efficiency becomes more important. I think it's obvious which should have the priority here. Unless you don't expect the user to use it more than a few times :rolleyes:
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Nope. Pretty often, but it isn't that bad.
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
My first real C# project | Linkify!|FoldWithUs! | sighist -
Shog9 wrote:
Used the control panel lately...?
Not on vista. And the XP one is set to classic. You have something specific in mind?
Shog9 wrote:
I was busy trying to decide how i wanted my helpfile indexes generated...
:laugh: The prototype of overengineered and underdeveloped UI!
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
My first real C# project | Linkify!|FoldWithUs! | sighistpeterchen wrote:
You have something specific in mind?
Vista has some sort of web-ish UI for most control panel apps, with advanced/related tasks along the side, and back-forward buttons... I kinda assumed that was supposed to be a IUI thing. Someone mentioned that there's a way to turn it off, but i haven't looked yet.
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Yes, but can you blame them for doing so if that's the only legal way they can hire programmers they want at the rate they can afford?
-- Nish on sketchy hiring practices
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peterchen wrote:
You have something specific in mind?
Vista has some sort of web-ish UI for most control panel apps, with advanced/related tasks along the side, and back-forward buttons... I kinda assumed that was supposed to be a IUI thing. Someone mentioned that there's a way to turn it off, but i haven't looked yet.
----
Yes, but can you blame them for doing so if that's the only legal way they can hire programmers they want at the rate they can afford?
-- Nish on sketchy hiring practices
there is for some of them. The catch is that it only works when the new control panel app maps directly to an old one. Some such as the display one in XP don't and consequently even in classic mode the Vista version uses the Vista layout. All moaning about "they moved everything around" aside, the control panel applets I've used in vista really are easier to go at cold than the XP and prior design.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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Heh, yeah, that doesn't sound at all like an "expert system" or "wizard"... I'm sure it'll turn out to be a panacea this time... :rolleyes: Oh, but wait!
Sholom Sandalow wrote:
Unlike the Wizard, that ubiquitous and often controversial feature of many a Microsoft product, IUI’s aren’t meant to be modal, and according to Microsoft, aren’t intended to impede the expert user.
You know, i'll bet if they'd come right out and said back in '9x that Wizards were intended to impede expert users, we'd have had a lot less grief. :sigh:
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Yes, but can you blame them for doing so if that's the only legal way they can hire programmers they want at the rate they can afford?
-- Nish on sketchy hiring practices
Funny, every time I use Vista, or a fresh XP install, my overall feeling is that Microsoft has been trying to 'impede the expert user' in order to assist the clueless, for some time now.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "I am working on a project that will convert a FORTRAN code to corresponding C++ code.I am not aware of FORTRAN syntax" ( spotted in the C++/CLI forum )
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Inductive User Interface (IUI for short) is a term that describes the collection of methods and guidelines for designing interfaces that, according to Microsoft, are easier to follow than the current generation of software products are. Microsoft’s solution is to design interfaces that induce, or lead, the user through one task at a time. As such, the computer screen should act not unlike an expert standing over the user’s shoulder, directing them through one screen at a time. The four essential ingredients to designing an IUI are: 1. Focus each screen on a single task. 2. State the task. 3. Make the screen's contents suit the task. 4. Offer links to secondary tasks. http://blogs.pathf.com/uxd/2007/06/msdn-the-micros.html[^]
It's a good idea. IUIs are not wizards, although they're wizard-like. The point is to reduce the obnoxious complexity of a standard GUI, without locking the user into long sequences of just pressing the Next button. An average GUI has maybe 10 (often more) different actions the user can take. For a sequence of three actions, there are 1000 possibilities, which overwhelms new users. And everyone is a new user at some point. IUIs are an attempt to address this problem by reducing the distracting, irrelevant courses of action typically presented to the user. It's about time. The implicit assumption by many GUIs that all users are experts is wrong, and it produces interfaces that are almost unusable.