Complexity and Ease of Use: A Design Study
M. Smith, A. Dickinson, A.F. Newell
Full text PDF 
( Download count: 5424)
AbstractThis short paper is a study of the user interface design experience for a prototype mail system targeted at an audience of older people with little or no experience of computers. The prototype was aimed at providing an engaging first experience for the target audience in an attempt to close the 'digital divide'. A'radically simple' user interface design philosophy was adopted that proved popular and preferable in comparison tests to those of a commercially available equivalent. The paper focuses on the user interface design experiences gained with respect to following a 'radically simple' design philosophy that attempted to avoid design complexity and to create a user interface that was genuinely easy to use. The paper concludes with a discussion of where and how complexity arises, whether some complexity is inherently necessary and whether the radically simple design philosophy would extend beyond the initial prototype.Keywords: interface design; complexity; usability
M. Smith, A. Dickinson, A.F. Newell (2006). Complexity and Ease of Use: A Design Study. Gerontechnology, 5(2), 113-117
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2006.05.02.008.00