Laws And Myths Of Usability && Interface Design

Laws and Myths of Usability & Interface Design

Introduction

Usability and relevance have been identified as the major factors preventing mass adoption of
Business Intelligence applications. What we have today are traditional BI tools that don't work
nearly as well as they should, even for analysts and power users. The reason they haven't
reached the masses is because most of the tools are so difficult to use and reveal so little
about the data that only power users are willing to put up with them. Just as Google redefined
the web by making search and therefore access easy … the same needs to occur with the BI
suite.

Overwhelmingly, traditional BI products are designed for the technology expert. The perceived functionality requirements are driven by widget wish lists
rather than actual business user (the BI consumers) needs.

Our design philosophy has been honed through experience and results in a simple equation:

Usability = Simplicity + Unity

This paper is a reflection on some of the design approaches used in the development of
Yellowfin. Its purpose is to provide an insight into what makes web based applications ‘work’
and how Yellowfin will continue to evolve and improve. The principles are defined by 5 laws
and 5 myths.

The laws:

1. Simplicity – the art of Zen and interface design
2. Strive for internal and external unity
3. Innovation stretchs engineering capability
4. Everything changes except change itself
5. First impressions count
The Myths:

1. Form follows function
2. Only users know what they want
3. Involve many people in your design process
4. Usability testing will ensure a great UI
5. You can’t live without rigorous design processes
At Yellowfin we use the principles outlined in this paper to continue to deliver innovation,
improvements and what we hope is an exceptional software experience for our customers.

#1 Simplicity – the art of Zen and interface design

Users want simplicity! They want to do the job they need to do with the minimum of effort and
complexity. Users must be able to perform their most frequent, most important tasks without
any resistance. This means:

1. not having to spend time sifting through an array of irrelevant options, and
2. not having to browse help files or a manual to accomplish simple tasks
The goal, then, is obvious: to maximize performance while minimizing confusion. But as
vendors and users are discovering, that's no small trick. Simplicity is sometimes the least
simple thing to achieve." 1

Simplicity requires that your code does all the hard work, rather than the user. Google, as an
example, maintains the simplest of search interfaces. No distractions from blogs, news or
ads, you simply type in your query and go. Behind this simplicity is up to 500,000 computers
globally linked and participating in answering your query. In essence, one of the most
complex hardware/software systems on the planet is hidden behind a very simple webpage
that is virtually 100% whitespace.

Deliver the right level of blatant functionality to suit user skills

The most common UI issue in report writers is BOS (Button Overuse Syndrome). If there is a
formatting option, or any option for that matter, then traditionally it needs a button. How
wrong can you be! BOS delivers too many options and results in a user confused by choice.

The cure for BOS is UI simplification through minimalism – the art of Zen and interface
design. Focus on what users do 90% of the time. Chances are your users will not mind using
a drop down menu or popup forms if the action they are performing is not regularly repeated.
Provide buttons for those actions that are regularly used and then drop down menus or side
panel menus for all the others. Whatever you do, keep the interface simple and consistent.

Of course the level of competence of your user will influence your design decisions. An
example of a product that is tailored for user sophistication is the video camera. Consumer
versions have lots of functionality but hidden in layers of menus, whilst professional versions
tend to be button centric to allow rapid access to all the functions desired.

Taking this lesson into account we have designed the UI specifically to suit the technical
ability of the average user. The interface is made more flexible through role based access,
where greater control is exposed as technical proficiency increases. For example the report
writer (a business user function is menu driven) but the more technical metadata layer is
panel and options driven.

Simplicity in everything you do