Ready, Set, Go!
In my previous weblog entry I introduced three characters to the story of Charlie. Tom, Michelle, and Joshua have each decided that they need a website, and have visited a Charlie-based website that will allow them to create a turnkey website. They have each clicked on the “create a new website” button. What should happen next?
What should happen next is whatever the visitor expects to happen next. And what will the visitor expect? It is my firm belief that the visitor will expect some sort of Wizard process to start. Every computer user has installed either an operating system, an application, a game, a utility, a driver, an internet connection, or something else. And nearly every such installation involves a Wizard process. In fact, anything except a Wizard process will be so unexpected as to feel somehow “wrong”. So I am not even going to think about alternative approaches. Moreover, I think that the Wizard approach is one of the better software interface innovations. A Wizard it will be.
The first thing that the Wizard should do is have Charlie say hello. Long ago I made the argument that Charlie should be visible to the user. It seems to me that the first step of the Wizard process should be for Charlie to introduce itself.
I did consider making the first Wizard step devoid of having the user enter any information. But that would just drag out the sign-up process with a useless, if polite, first step. Worse, a long introduction might smack of salesmanship, and nobody likes a salesman.
Right now, I am not too concerned with how the Wizard works. The point of this exercise is to find the simplest way for Tom, Michelle, and Joshua to get going with the look and feel of their turnkey websites. So let’s just presume that the next screen asks the user to provide a password.
Let us also presume that the following step is for the user to choose his or her username.
Now we come to the heart of the matter. Tom just wants to get going with his turnkey website. Michelle wants to some control over how her website looks. Josha wants great control over how his website appears. Should we ask the user how much control he or she wants? Not only would that be a silly question, it would suggest to the user that once he or she has made a choice, that choice cannot be undone. A much better approach is to give the user some starting options, and let the user know that the choice can be changed.
Providing starting templates is a common approach in many software applications. Typically, those starting templates provide a base from which the user can either change the template or use it as a starting point for extensive customisation. In other words, this is a common approach that precisely reflects the customisation available to the Charlie user.
A starting template is helpful to Tom, Michelle, and Joshua, even though they each have very different customisation needs. So this will be the approach taken with Charlie.
In retrospect, this idea of a starting template is so common that it seems comical that I have given it any consideration. But stay with me, because we still need to determine how this templating system will be implemented in Charlie. Will it use the MasterPage system of ASP.NET version 2.0, use a custom system based on User Controls, or use some other system altogether?
by Alister Jones | Next up: Olive, Teal, Peach, and Mauve →
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