Taking Scissors to a Web Page
In an attempt to find an interface style that would make Charlie easy to use, I first considered a conversational interface convention and then a PowerPoint interface convention. I very much liked the simplicity and user friendliness of the conversational interface convention, but a significant problem prevented me from saying, “That’s good enough. I’ll just run with that.”
The problem with the conversational and PowerPoint interface conventions is that they both see a webpage as being a single document. The user opens an entire webpage for editing, performs some edits, and then saves the entire document. The problem is that the webpage will be constructed from any number of separate plugins, and each plugin may need to present its own set of tools for the user to edit content. While it helps the user to see the webpage as a single document, it helps Charlie to see the webpage as separate pieces. There is a mismatch between the needs of the user and the needs of Charlie.
When I started thinking about the Windows Explorer and the Mac Finder, a solution occurred to me. Initially I thought that splitting a webpage into separate pieces (for the sake of Charlie) would cause confusion for the user. But then I thought about how users actually work with their computers. Office workers are used to working with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so on to create separate parts of documents. Designers are used to working with QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Illustrator, and so on to create separate parts of documents. The users employ Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder to keep the parts separate, and are used to firing up different programs to edit the parts separately. With the introduction of an explorer interface convention, website owners would be comfortable seeing the separate parts of their websites, and working on those parts separately, bringing the needs of the users in line with the needs of Charlie.
My only concern so far is that an explorer interface convention does not give Charlie a friendly face, which I have determined is important. But it may still be possible to integrate the best parts of the conversational interface convention with the new explorer interface convention. If the user fires up the Article Editor, the screen may look as follows.
When the user has finished composing or editing an article, he or she clicks on the Save and Publish command button. Charlie’s avatar can then report on what has occurred.
While the dummy screen above looks clumsy, I have not yet attempted to craft the interface. Still, I feel that I’m on the right path to an administration interface convention for Charlie.
by Alister Jones | Next up: I’ll Take What’s Behind Door Number Three →
----
Post a Comment