9- Emily Gries

This is an interesting question. After reading chapter 6, everything that was said makes sense. When I don't understand something online, I usually do not look at the help options because if I couldn't figure it out, the language used in the help options most likely would not help me out and it would probably frustrate me. This part made sense. However, experts would probably feel uncomfortable that they couldn't figure it out, so they would try to fix it to relieve that tension. They would also most likely understand the language and have minor problems with the application. Like the seven themes of good design says, no design can be perfect. Designers have to make sacrifices for designs, a little give and take. Therefore they sometimes cater to either experts or other users. The help options, even though aren't used by all types of users, I think are an essential tool because with that give and take, the help options can be useful for the group that the design is not catered to.


For project 5, I think the personas could be either kids/teenagers that read the comics or older fans who are invested in the comics. These people are the most likely to buy merchandise or a product.

9-Trevor Corradin

I believe that help systems are a great addition to any design. We all know the unlikelihood of a "perfect design", so a help system is a great way to assist users having trouble. While users should be able to figure out most aspects of a design, there will always be things that are not perfect. It is for this reason that a help system is a complement to good design, not a substitute. By offering additional support, a user can spend much less time trying to fix his/her problem and more using the design efficiently.

I believe that the different fan-groups of the superhero should be considered when developing personas. They are the ones who have an investment in the character and story, making them a significant aspect of the design process. For example, we would need to make sure to account for fans with an extensive and specific knowledge of the superhero and his story, as well as people more interested in the plot than the details.

9 - Hayden Mills

I do not believe HELP systems work. Personally, I never have the patience to walk through a tutorial or help box that pops up. I usually learn how to use an application through trial and error. I find it annoying when a box pops up and comes between me and the design of the application. HELP systems are definitely not substitutes for good design they just help cover up below average design. I cant see any situations where tutorials or help boxes would be necessary if the designers would focus on a better overall design for the application.

Persona categories to focus on for project 5:
- Avid comic book readers
- Fan that run fan websites
- Social media accounts for avid users and distribtuors
- Comic books themselves

- Comic Con attendees

9 - Kristi Starling

I am intrigued by this question.  I've never really thought about help features as a substitute for good design, but I guess in some cases they are.  From my own personal experience, help features are often as frustrating as whatever issue drives me to the help feature in the first place.  Video tutorials or step-by-step instructions are often helpful, but are often time consuming, so I don't bother with them until absolutely necessary.  In a way, I think sometimes they are an attempt to substitute for good design, and in such cases I think they're rarely all that helpful.  However, because of the breadth of the user base for most software and the variety of backgrounds, I think even the most obvious of designs should have some sort of help feature for the less tech savvy.  The goal is of course to make the design obvious enough that the help features are not needed by anyone, but often such goals are unobtainable.  It seems to me that the best option is to design in such a way that help features should not be needed by the average user, but still provide them for the security and peace of mind for the user with below-average comfort with technology.

For project 5, we are designing not for the superheros themselves but for the actual people who have some sort of investment in the story of the superhero.  Personas should then be drawn from groups such as the fan base, television producers, and comic book authors.

9-Adam Johnson

In my opinion, HELP systems are essential and useful for the majority of situations.  However, I also feel the majority of people don't bother to check these systems out, even when they are legitimately confused and need help.  I for the longest time did not use things like tutorials, until I just recently found spending time at the beginning learning the basics of a program/tool saves time in the long run.  In my opinion, HELP systems, as in the tutorials and "Help" sections created by the actual software/design are becoming slowly and slowly less used, and may one day become obsolete. This is because of third party search sites like Google or Bing, which have absolutely massive amounts of resources available.  Online help is extremely important, and will be even more in the future.  However, this does not mean in any way Google can be a substitute for a good design.  If for the most part a design can't be figured out just by a quick glance and seemingly use it effortlessly, it is destined to fail no matter what.  I feel most software will always have technical aspects that the not so technically savvy person will not understand, and look online for help so it is essential they be there, and at the same time does not make it a substitute.  No matter how simple the design, I feel there will be a need of some sort of online help or tutorial explaining how it works on all levels so everyone can understand it (this means everyone should understand the main concept of the design, but i don't think a design will ever be so good that there wont be a tutorial or online help threads for some feature of the design).

As far as the persona is concerned for project 5, I believe it is very important.  We will have two personas (obviously).  We hope to have one appeal to the younger crowd, kids that are avid fans of their favorite superhero.  Our other persona is that of a die-hard fan, who knows all aspects of the superhero.  Hopefully our design will appeal to both, as it is very important to satisfy the (although made up) needs and likes of our personas.

9- Nicholas Barker

In looking at chapter 6 dealing with the help system, it doesn't take long to determine that they are essential for our design.  Although we hope to provide users with the best possible design, as we have discussed in class, our design is never done and can always be improved.  With that being said I think HELP systems are effective. In saying that I also believe that HELP is not a substitute for good design.

For our persona for project 5, I believe we are going to focus on someone who would be a fan of our hero.  He would like technology and more futuristic things.

9 - Baiyan Zhang

I think the HELP system is an essential part of a design. Although users may not use them very often, it can help users when they met the problems. I think this is not the substitute of the good design because whatever good or bad design, part of users does not know how to solve the problems they met. So the HELP systems can give users some hints for solving or an explaination for why this problem happen. A good design would be attractive but the HELP system would be the tool to help users.

When we thinking the persona for Project 5, we think that person would be a movie fan of our hero. He might be the people who like the high-tech things.

9 - Nicholas Fields

I do not think that a good tutorial is equivalent or as helpful as just using 'obvious design' to begin with.  First, I think it ends up wasting more time trying to make a good tutorial than it would have in the first place if people put a little extra time into making the design better in itself.  Also, I think that tutorials are often still put into the 'programmer's lingo' too often and do not end up helping the people that actually need the help.  Finally, I do not think that people view or look at the tutorial that often even when they do need help. 

As for the persona for project #5, I think that a good target group would be an avid fan.  This could be classified as someone who has read some or most of the comics pertaining to a specific super hero.

9 - Jake Van Schouwen

I love HELP systems.  I have looked to help-tabs or tutorials for as long as I can remember when dealing with a design or game I am unfamiliar with.  I do not believe HELP systems are an excuse for poor design because I like to think most people are quick learners.  If the help tab nudges the user into the proper way of thinking then I think it is for the best.

The we are focusing on the people who are not die-hard fans of our hero but know enough about him to appreciate what we are trying to achieve with our design and who support our goals.

9 - Yousef

The HELP systems work depending on context. Even the HELP systems must have good design to work. They are definitely not substitutes to good design but they are supplementary. They help the user get what s/he wants. I think HELP systems are usually not as useful because it takes too much time to find what you want on them. It would take less time to struggle and learn from trial and error than it is to find the feature on a HELP system. Which leads back to the main point that good design should be user friendly. On another note I found it interesting that mostly expert users use the HELP systems. It is probably because it is much harder to find what you want when you are an expert thus making it faster to look for it than it is to use trial and error.

For our persona, I was thinking of video gamers in general most probably from ages ranging from 9 to 25? 

Week 09 Blog Assignment

Skim Chapter 6. (That is, read the chapter quickly but read slowly any section that grabs your interest.)

What do you think about HELP systems--online help, tutorials, etc.? Do they work? Are they substitutes for good design? That is, if the design were better and more "obvious," would you really need these help or tutorial systems?

Also, when you think about developing personas for Project #5, what are categories of people on whom to focus? (There is no single correct answer!)

Finally, comment on someone else's post to this blog assignment.

Yousef - Spring Break

Went to NYC for a couple of days with family. It was great! 

Spring break! #sbi300

The only highlight of my highly uneventful spring break (not complaining).. Turning 20 dollars into 700! #sbi300 #roulette

8 - Donald MacLeod

In learning the process of playing the whole game of HCI, two concepts sticks out at me more than anything else, and that is iterate and fail faster.  Iteration is necessary to narrow down a design, and fail faster is necessary to not waste time on sub optimal designs.  I have always kind of done this in some way or form when working on projects, but I always have fell into the trap of being worried about removing or changing things that I have already dedicated resources to.  By iterating more and failing faster,I am less likely to fall for this trap.  Also, I am more aware of not being afraid to throw stuff away.  The class is being an enriching process to things that I might have subconsciously known.  Finally, I liked the story/thoughts on how school is designed to make us feel stupid.

8 - Kate L'Heureux

What I've learned about playing the whole game of HCI is that there are lot of factors that go into a good design that I hadn't realized before. Simply the whole notion of design being an iterative process, and the different methods of considering the user when designing. I really enjoyed the part in our reading that had to do with stripping down your deign and taking out the "nice to have" features and keeping what's important for the user's needs only. The concept that a good design relies on making mistakes and trying again is a huge part of the game that is important to think about when the design process is tough for projects.

8 - Jon Burris

I have felt I have gained a lot from this class and learned even more about the game of design. The biggest thing I have come to realize is that every design should undergo iteration of all of the steps. Not just revising the design, but going through new concepts, the design team, team protocols, etc. over and over again is a must. I did not realize how important it was for the development of better design. Lastly, the characters we choose in developing our personas has greatly helped my team in project 3 and project 4. Personas help us see our audience, our users, and without them it would be hard to design. The significance of personas are high and that was something I thought were useless, but after completing prior projects I see how we utilize them.

8- Grant Pendrey

The main thing that I have learned through playing the whole game that every design is an iterative process. This mindset can be taken forward to many other experiences in life to understand that not all things are going to work well the first time but being able to learn from these "failures" is the most important aspect of iteration. "Failures" should be turned into learnings, basically becoming research and improvement towards a better end product. When you view each attempt as progress instead of an individual process, the goal is better understood that it doesn't matter how you get there, it matters what the end product is. For example, writing out multiple designs and realizing that what you created makes no sense to a users is great! You can better understand their mindset and better design for their needs.

6- Grant Pendrey

When working to redesign the playlist interface for youtube, there was a definite difference between the mental model and actual workings of the interface.

The users saw the list of videos as the actual videos, wanting to edit and remove the list to personalize the list of videos for themselves. For the users, the playlists were simply recommendations from the playlist author but they wanted to further change the playlist to fit their wants and needs. This however was in much contrast to how the actual playlist list was actually implemented into the website. The playlist is simply a list created from a database storing the order of videos and the location of the videos to stream in order. There was no "loading" of the videos so there was no ability to change the order take videos out of the list.

3 - Nicholas Barker

Here is what I chose from blog 2.  It is from ESPN.com the main page of the website.  I believe the motivation for the design from the team comes from the need of the consumer, especially the sports consumer.  Why do they want all of this? Because it shows them the most important news of the night and then continues this by highlighting the 'Biggest' current story by adding a photo in the middle with a link to the article.  Add to that the ascetically pleasing color arrangement and I think that hit a homerun with the design here.

8 - Hayden Mills

Reflecting on what I have learned thus far in INFO-I300 I can honestly say I have learned a lot. I have learned more about what it means to "play the whole game" in HCI. I did not realize the importance of thoughtfully planning out and researching your user base before starting to design. I assumed one just made a design that looked beautiful to them and it worked out. I never realized that when designing something you need to have the users who will be actually using the product at the forefront of your mind. I have learned the importance of teamwork and being brutally honest with your teammates. Other important ideas I have learned are concept sketching, iteration, usability reports, prototyping, and persona development.