think-cell technical report TC2003/01 A GUI-based Interaction ...

7.2 Résumé CONCLUSION
User Studies with the Prototype. I did a detailed user study for plain Power-
Point (Chap. 2), whereas only a small case study could be conducted on the smart
grid prototype (Sect. 6.2). As soon as the prototype can be used to create real-life
slides, studies with real users will shed more light on the strengths and weaknesses
of the smart grid approach and will help to refine the interaction concept.
Online User Interface Evaluation. In the current PowerPoint add-in, an online
error report is used to help finding bugs that occur at the customer’s site. A
similar feature could facilitate the continued improvement of the user interface:
Data about the frequency and the context of the usage of certain features could
be collected during productive use of the software. This data would help to refine
the software developer’s model of the user population and would help to discover
usability problems without the need for an intrusive user study. It is understood
that a technique like this requires informed consent from the user’s part.
Other Application Domains. The smart grid approach could probably be ex-
tended to other application domains than business slide layout. For example, the
design of graphical user interfaces – which is an active field of research – could
benefit from the experiences that were made with the smart grid implementation.
7.2 Résumé
User interfaces for standard software are typically targeted at a large and diverse
user population and a broad range of possible tasks. In this respect, Microsoft
PowerPoint is a good example: Almost anybody who has used a personal computer
before, can create PowerPoint slides with reasonable effort. There is no doubt
that the PowerPoint user interface is effective for a user population that includes
occasional users as well as professionals. However, the efficiency for a specialized
task, like business slide design, suffers from the attempt to serve everybody well.
The development of efficient user interfaces for a specialized task is relatively
expensive: First of all, a solid domain knowledge of the user population and the
specific task is required. It takes time and careful analysis to understand an existing
workflow and develop appropriate tools. Ideas from the laboratory must be tested
against real life conditions. This is only possible by involving real users from the
target audience. Moreover, the entire process must be iterated several times before
satisfying results can be expected. Under commercial conditions, the cost for this
process is often considered too high. As a result, the user interfaces of standard
software evolve slowly and not always in correspondence with the actual users’
needs.
Highly specialized research systems like Weitzman and Wittenburg’s system
[WW94] or Graf’s LayLab [Gra95] are far too complex to be usable in a profes-
sional context. More precisely, the automated layout systems that are developed
in research most often explore the potential of automation and do not care much
about usability.
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