Tantek: UI Design muppet?
I was checking out the WSG links for light reading and came across this:
Three Hypotheses of Human Interface Design by Tantek.
As I was reading through this post I was bedazzled by his use of words like hypotheses and critiques and the use of phrases like cognitive load and geometrically proportional but all the time I was thinking “what the hell does this all mean?”.
Let me summarise what Tantek had to say:
Essentially, UI design is like Fitts’ Law and Tantek believes he has come up with some “rules” on UI that no-one has thought of before:
Hypothesis 2: Human interface cognitive load is proportional to interface latency
They’re interesting reads if you like this sort of thing, but I can’t help but think Tantek has made things overly complex and is describing things that even people who AREN’T into UI or even know what ‘UI’ stand for will know.
So, for those people interested in UI without a degree in physics, socialology, psycology or any other -ology, here is the heavydog summary of Tanteks three hypothesies:
- Hypothesis 1:
- Humans are lazy.
- Hypothesis 2:
- Humans are impatient.
- Hypothesis 3:
- Make things quick and easy and visitors will arrive in droves.
I think that sums it all up nicely. Obviously it goes waaaay deeper than that, but even so, bare those three things in mind when designing your next form, or view page and you’ll come out on top.
