Discussion Archive: September 2005

Web Design Seminar in Chesterfield, England, Nov 07

I'm running a one-day intensive seminar, Web Design from Scratch LIVE, in
Chesterfield (Derbyshire, England) on November 7th.

The seminar content is based on my forthcoming book, of the same name, which
derives from my free online course in the fundamentals of design for the
web: http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/

The day covers both site architeture and page design, using a set of
strongly goal-oriented techniques that I've developed from my own design &
development work.

Helping first time users, Guiding experienced users

Desktop applications currently and over the years have taken many
approaches to teaching or guiding users within the software. It seems
as if software help system trends come and go. Many discussions I've
had end up being similar to a Friar's Club Roast of Clippy :-).

01 First time use
Many applications which don't map perfectly to a well known schema
such as Word or Email may require a small initial learning curve.
Once users get over this initial 'hump" they have an understanding
and comfort with the tools. The component needs an opt-out.

Re: info on Button Behavior

Hi Jerry,

What's the user's most likely expectation?
1) Results from even a Google search have a last page. (more likely based upon assumption than actual experience ;>)
2) If the button is labeled "Next" and lets me click it, there are (still) more search results to peruse.

Isn't it best to meet the user's expectation in the absence of a compelling reason to the contrary? Seems to me more rude to leave the Next button enabled than disabled.

Meebo

Anyone play with this new AJAX IM program? Nifty.

http://www.meebo.com/