Many people who are involved with User Interface (UI) design think that user errors frequently reflect design flaws in the UI. While I wouldn't go as far as to say all user errors result from UI flaws, I do think that better UI design can significantly reduce the number or severity of user errors.
My wife (KI6SLX), a retired Apple quality assurance manager, had a long conversation with an Elecraft representative at RadioFest in Monterey recently. Her interest was whether she could learn to use the radio. (She has no HF operating experience. Her 2+ year use of a FT-60 has been punctuated with frequent screams of anguish.) As he led her through the UI, she noticed that there was a logic to the way things worked. She realized she could build a mental model of the radio's operation and possibly even use it without constant reference to the manual. That conversation is one of the reasons I now have a K3. Is the K3 UI perfect? Of course not. But, it is quite good. One way to make it better is to look at user errors and ask, "How can we change the UI to reduce the chance of this error occurring?" Cheers - Bill, AE6JV On 4/13/12 at 12:47, km4ik....@gmail.com (Ian Kahn - Ham) wrote: >It's a safe (but unscientifically generated statistic) bet that >70-80% of the issues/problems reported on this forum are user >error or lack of knowledge/understanding about the rig. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | Privacy is dead, get over | Periwinkle (408)356-8506 | it. | 16345 Englewood Ave www.pwpconsult.com | - Scott McNealy | Los Gatos, CA 95032 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
