Operation design elements from the point smoke device of Capital Airport

The smoking room in the capital airport does not put a few fixed lighters like other airports, but cigarette smoke device, and car smoke device is basically the same: first press the heating, after heating, it will automatically bounce, pull out, the inside of the resistance wire is red, you can point to smoke.

On the image of the car cigarette smoke, and the airport, like the cigarette, the heating process is only pressed down, did not show progress, also can not image the expression of "heating" meaning.

I go to the near of the smoke device, press, let it heating, and then wait, wait for a while still no movement, I do not know is still heating or out of trouble. A lot of people in the smoking room, feel that they are looked at by others, will not use this thing is very awkward, simply do not wait for it to bounce directly out to see exactly, the original is really not yet fully heated, fortunately, can be used, on the smoke, hard pumping two, is lit smoke.
If the cigarette burner in the heating process can have a clearer hint will be better, such as: heating in a small red light flashing, the more perfect solution is to really show the progress of heating ...

Tencent's new building is beautiful, but many colleagues are scratching their heads at the elevator.

After pressing the DOWN arrow button next to the elevator door, you can only see the down button is bright, that is, the elevator knows you want to go downstairs. Do not know where the elevator is now, can not predict the arrival of the elevator time. Therefore, everyone can only look forward to looking at the elevator door, and scratching his head. The elevator door was littered with long, scratched hair, short hair, straight hair, curly hair, stubble (which I scratched) ...
The current state of the system does not appear to be directly linked to the use, but users can be aware of the current state of the system to estimate the elevator arrival time, thus making decisions, is sad to climb the stairs or continue to wait.

As two experiences, I recall the company http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/32680.html "> Campus recruitment interactive Design of a written question:

What's wrong with this interface?
One obvious problem is the lack of a button that terminates the operation. Can't stop, just wait.

The above three examples are all about moving and changing systems. What are the essential elements of such a system that do not have the above problems?

The following are the elements required for a changing system:

Factor 1-Current progress (describe current state)
The description of the state has two levels of generality and precision. A flashing small red light in the light of a cigarette burner is a general description that the system is currently working, similar to the Windows system's hourglass cursor. The current download to 54% is a precise description that not only indicates that the system is working, but also shows the specific progress that makes it possible for the user to anticipate the remaining time.

Factor 2-The result that the system will eventually achieve (describe the current state)
For the elevator, the final result is the arrival of the elevator, for the download interface, the final download is complete. The description of the final arrival result is not necessarily a separate piece of information that can be recognized by the user.

Factor 3-Information that assists the user in estimating the completion time-rate of progress changes, etc. (describe current state)
Download large file download software, a download task usually takes several hours to complete, the progress is relatively slow, only according to the progress of the changes, users do not have a good estimate of how long it will take to complete, the current download speed, such as information can assist the estimate.

Factor 4-Terminate operation (provide operation)
Terminate the current changing state and revert to the state before the change began.

Factor 5-Other operations (provide operations)
In the current state of change, an operation other than the terminate operation. For example, minimize, hide to background run, reduce running speed ...

The first three points describe the current state of the system, and the latter two are provided operations.
These types of elements do not necessarily have to have, summed up the value of these elements is: to avoid considering the whole problem of design defects. There's no more "other operations" on your system. Of course, there's no need to make a mistake. Fill in the blanks for "other operations".

Next, let's focus on software, Web products.
With these elements in the design of a changing system, probably not a big problem. The next question is: are the elements that are summed up in the "system of Change" to be used more broadly? Spread to all mankind?
Let's take a step further and see the location of the "changing system" in this large collection of software products.
A software, Web site, was originally composed of several stable systems. For example: Network album home page, a single album list pages, photo details page ... The user does not do the operation, these states are unchanged. Through the user's operation, a website jumps from this stable system to another stable system:

During these jumps, sometimes, an operation will produce a relatively complex behavior, it takes a long time, such as: In a network album, add photos, an empty album to become a photo album, need a upload photo process, upload photo process is a "system of Change", This system will eventually automatically reach the stable state of the upload completed.

The stability of the system can also be summed up "elements" to avoid the design of ill-conceived:

Factor 1-Describe the current state
A description of the current state of the system.
For example: Receipt Confirmation, confirm payment, login ...

Factor 2-operation
Several actions currently available.

It is also "state" and "operation", but no further refinement is required. A stable system is much simpler than a changing system, and that's why we don't usually try to analyze the regular pages, preferring to analyze the design elements of the upload and download interfaces.

In a changing system, the "factor 2-the system will eventually achieve", which is not much value in the previous system that focuses on change. Now put the changing system and the stable system together, to see the whole product, "the system will eventually achieve the results" is valuable. Because of the changing system, just an intermediate process, in the album list page to point to add photos, the user's expectation is to finally see the photos added to this list, in the upload photos page long waiting, need to tell users, here delayed a half-day, is to allow photos to add.

Combining the above two types of systems, you can use the following picture as a whole to indicate:

The above "stable system" and "system of Change" are all developed from the first few examples, a specific perspective, through this perspective to analyze the design. To solve the problem of usability in design, specifically, "before the operation, the results are predictable; "Question.
Careful thinking you will find that it is not enough to summarize the elements of the system as a whole, and to make sure that "predictable" "undo" also needs to be analyzed separately for operations that are represented by the buttons in the previous illustration. The analysis of them alone, summed up the operation in the design of the necessary elements, and the system as a whole to combine the elements, in order to better guarantee the "predictable" "revocable." Analysis of operations.

In view of the above text is very difficult to read, then the operation of the analysis will read the same difficulty, I would like to be divided into two pieces, separate.

(The above analysis should particularly thank the interactive design peers, the Chinese people's old friends: Justkiddings.) ）

In the "Airport cigarette" in the analysis of a software system in the state and enumerated the different States required to display the various types of information to users, we first briefly review:

To design a software system operation, in addition to recognize the state of the system and the corresponding elements, but also need to analyze the operation of the function itself.

When you give users these feature buttons, what information do you need to tell the user at the same time?

What do we always have to know when we need to make a decision in our daily life? For example: When a bank salesman recommends his family's credit card, what information do I need to know before I can make a decision?
I will generally ask the salesman about these questions:
What is this? Oh, credit card, first money, back to the kind of card.
What's the amount of this card? How much money can I spend first? Oh, 1 W.
I have to run this card, do you want to pay annual fee?
If I do not repay the time, what will be the negative impact on me?
If I have a card, I keep it all the time, okay?
......

You can also imagine what questions you may ask, and perhaps the specific questions you ask are not exactly what I asked, and it doesn't matter, at least the questions we ask are generally divided into two categories:
1. What is this?
2. What impact will it have on me if I have to run a card?

Well, when the user is faced with an operation, the need to decide whether to execute the time, need to understand the information, can be divided into these two categories.

Here, the design of the operation seems to have been analyzed clearly. Well, it should be said, if the leader speaks with, said: "The operation of the design first need to explain what this operation is, the second need to describe the consequences of the operation will be clear." "It's not just enough, it's enough to show the speaker's ability to generalize." But this analysis is not enough to be instructive in practical design.
Let's refine these two requirements:

Interpretation of the operation itself
Need to explain: what is this operation? What's it for? What can you do?
For most operations, no further explanation is required, what does the delete feature do? No need to explain. "Publish", also understand. "Off," you know. "Battery ruler Reset" This is not necessarily clear to anyone. Yes, a few of the operations themselves contain new concepts that need to be explained.

The consequences of the operation
We can refine this requirement into the following points:
Costs to be paid: time cost, economic cost, interference with other operations (whether modal) ...
It takes time to upload a photo, click to confirm that the payment is to be paid, and perform this operation, other functions will not be used until the operation is completed.
loss to be caused: current data will be lost.
Do you want to format the C disk? C-disk data will be completely deleted, irreversible.
Impact on privacy: Does your buddy know about this operation?
In Qzone, send a friend a birthday present, other friends will know? Do you know what the specific gift is? Would you see a message on a specific gift card? Knowing or not will directly affect my operation.
will not cause any loss.
Fill out multiple pages of the form page, is currently the second page, back to modify the first page of content, the current page has been filled out will not be lost. Tell the user that the user dares to return to modify.
Possible risks.
To their own qzone hang a lot of dress up, navigation, player, floating ... This may make it difficult for friends in some regions to open up your space during the peak of the network. Users may not be aware of potential problems when they dress up, but these problems are really related to his actions.

Of course, these summaries are not enough or even true. The criteria for checking whether a description is sufficient is whether the user can make a decision without doubt.

Software system State elements, operating elements together, the behavior of the design needs to have something, it is more complete:

The purpose of summarizing these elements is not to each operation, the system must be in black and white to tell the user directly. If you do not say that the user can know, of course, needless to say.

Source: http://www.chouyu.com.cn/?p=314