bobr@tekgds.UUCP (08/30/83)
Here are several comments on the current debate about designing systems for novice users: 1) I see two partitions in any user community, between novice/expert and infrequent/frequent users of a system. Infrequent novices will remain so. Frequent novices will become expert in the partition of the system they use or will stop using it. 2) Most comments about user interfaces have concentrated on the migration of frequent novices to frequent experts. Little attention has been paid to infrequent experts--occasional users who know a lot about the system but who may not, for example, always remember the names of all the commands due to their infrequent use. 3) For these systems (my own interest is in interactive graphics systems), regardless of how expert the user is supposed to be, it is important to have a sound and consistent model of how the system works. The richness and robustness of the system should come as obvious extensions of the model, not slapped on functions with disjoint points of view. 4) Any system that is anything more than a toy will have a learning curve for novices. Any system, no matter how obscure, will have its set of experts, who will get work done despite its obscurity. The things that will really make it hard for a novice to learn will be the same things that frustrate users in this middle ground. Robert Reed, Tektronix Logic Design Systems, tektronix!tekgds!bobr