Screen Writing: "Brevity is the Soul of Wit"

Brevity. Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the U.S. constitution, once wrote a letter to his friend John Adams. At the conclusion, Jefferson apologized for the lengthy discourse. He wrote that he lacked the time to frame his thoughts in more concise prose. While we in our so-called modern age may complain that "time is money," Jefferson was in effect saying "less time is money" when applied to reading ease. It costs the writer much effort to package ideas so his reader would spend less time. How do developers handle this in their GUI designs?

We find that many, if not most, screens fail to communicate well. Screens often display too many words or too few words. Or the words fail to meet the users needs. It costs readers time (and money). There are reasons for these problems. They all stem from the wily work of our eternal foe, cryptodesign. Recall that cryptodesign manifests when a developer uses a design solution suitable for one problem, but misapplies it to another, quite different situation. Soul design takes different situations into account. Soul is the wit of brevity (to turn a phrase). Here's how developers go wrong. We'll use a metaphorical story.

DRIVING YOUR RENTAL CAR TO LA GUARDIA Imagine that you are driving your rental car in Manhattan. (Yes, we know most of you would take a cab, but let's enjoy the metaphor.) Now imagine that you have only 90 minutes to get to the La Guardia airport. This is your first time to drive the route. You must struggle through lower Manhattan, race to the so-called "freeway" (clogged with cabs, trucks,and other hapless traffic victims), survive crossing the Triborough bridge, choose the correct exit to La Guardia, and turn in your rental car. Good luck, because 90 minutes is short. (Life is short, too.) If you miss the exit, you must continue on the freeway another 10 miles before you can turn around. ONLY ONE CHANCE TO GET THE CORRECT EXIT!

While driving, you look down to your map to identify the freeway. (You then look up to view the highway exit signs.) Down, up. Down, up. Down, up. Finally, you see the exit. Yes....here's the one you need! You make the commitment and take the turn. You depended on clear highway instructions.

Then, after making the turnoff, what do you do next? When we ask this question in our GUI seminar, we invariably hear that drivers want to see confirmation that they chose the correct exit! Very interesting. What good is mere confirmation? You already made the turn. But nevertheless, all of us need emotional closure on that demanding decision process. We not only need to know what to do, but also whether we did it correctly! What lesson have we learned? Good road signs both instruct and confirm our actions (see Figure 1).

The faster we travel, the clearer we want our signs. Whether on the highway or on the screen, we need to make decisions fast and without error. Cryptodesign fails to give us the signs we need!