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Eric Schaffer,
Ph.D., CPE, is CEO and Founder of Human Factors International, Inc.
He has been involved in creating and teaching software design for
more than 14 years. He can be reached by e-mail at
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John Sorflaten,
Ph.D., CPE, started out writing and directing training films and
documentaries then switched to UI design. "A screen is a screen,"
he says. He works at Human Factors International, Inc. and can be
reached by email at
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Every battle has a psy-ops component, otherwise known as psychological
operations. Each side attempts to demoralize the other and re-moralize
it's own troops. In UI design, the battle against GUIs from hell is no
different. Recall the evil influence of cryptodesign – design ideas
that work for certain situations but get misapplied in other, quite different
circumstances. We've seen a lot of developer trauma associated with icon
design: cryptohyperinconitis. But hang on. This article gives you, the
troops in the field, some psycho-innoculation against the cryptic IMFAP
syndrome (Icon Mania, Fetish, and Phobia)!
ICONS WERE MEANT TO BE HANDLED According to the dictionary,
an icon is either:
- an image; esp. a religious image painted on a wood panel, or,
- a small picture on a computer display that suggests the purpose of
an available function.
Think about a folder icon. You can drag a document icon to it and the
document pops into the folder. You can drag the folder and pop it into
another folder. Ergo: icons were meant to be handled. The folder and the
document icons suggest the purpose of their "available function":
the folder stores the document. Stretch the folder metaphor, and a folder
can also store a folder. However, stretch the metaphor even more, you
can click on a folder and it turns into a window! Oops! (or OOPS for our
object-oriented friends). Thus, there are many uses of icons, although
some may require considerable suspension of disbelief. But that's okay
if it works.
In summary, icons provide the benefit of being "directly manipulated."
They can be dragged, they can be dropped--all activities that are natural
to our kinesthetic, non-verbal intellect. This augments the analytic,
verbal intellect. We can do both kinds of thinking at once. It's called
"dual task processing." What better satisfaction than dragging
a document to a shredder (or trash can) while talking to someone on the
phone? We can do neat things in a few motions that would otherwise require
prohibitive amounts of attention-diverting verbal commands. "Soul
design" brings this satisfactory outcome from that small iconic picture
on your computer display.
CRYPTO ICONS SNEAK ATTACK In our GUI design seminar,
we survey participants for their ideas on what icons do for users. Here's
one list:
- Save time (users doesn't need to "read" a label)
- Save space (a picture is worth a thousand words)
- Cross cultural (pictures transcend language)
- Usable by illiterates (again, the picture thing)
- "Easy"
- and "Flashy."
Here's a test: Enter the function of each
of the icons in Figure 1.
A hint: They are used for text formatting
and printing functions.
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