Your audience will not want to be needlessly frustrated by getting lost and missing things, unless they are willing to put themselves through this because, overall, they find it's worth the effort. Even then the learning/exploration processes involved must themselves be rewarding if the user isn't to feel resentful.
Making users jump through hoops but producing an impressive experience (as in a computer game), or keeping interaction simple & immediate to suit a more modest or urgent pay-off (as in simple hypertext like Evening) are two approaches to creating usable and satisfying products.
- Usability is a key part of establishing effort/reward balances, for any kind of interactive project
- User testing is an important part of the design process in any interactive media
- It is vitally important to listen to your audience
- Creating an experience of frustration should be deliberate and balanced with reward, not simply the by-product of bad design process
Further Reading
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IBM User Centred Design Guidelines
A good place to start, with an overview of the iterative processes involving users in the design of interactive products. -
Infodesign Usability Toolkit
Simple guidelines for usability testing, participatory design, contextual design, etc. -
Jakob Nielsen Papers and Essays
Practical and theoretical papers on usability. Take a look at the ten basic usability heuristics for some quick and simple evaluation ideas for your project.
© Timo Arnall 11th
February 2002
www.elasticspace.com
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