Giles Colborne — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:32 GMT

In my experience ‘training users’ never works in a self service medium like the Web.

I suspect that the real problem is that most search interfaces don’t encourage multiple queries. We know that search is an iterative process, and in the real world, people do have long conversations with each other when searching. But they don’t do this online.

Part of the problem is search results: they are not presented as a dialogue. Users’ attention is focused on the result list and the cues to encourage users to modify the search are overwhelmed. So the ‘dialogue’ is limited to ‘Do you have x?’, ‘No.’, ‘Goodbye’.

I see very few interfaces that progressively reveal advanced features (instead users are given a choice of one text box or every concievable control). Progressive disclosure encourages dialogue.

As designers, I think it’s our job to understand how to present features and interactions so that users see their value. In a sense, this is ‘training’ – not through instruction, but through environment.

Giles Colborne — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:35 GMT

Man, I miss HyperCard.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Giles Colborne