Creating an elegant, intuitive, user interface
Mary Margaret Couse · 1995
This paper describes our t',rperiences doing usability tt'sti}[,g oftht user interface (UI) andonline docume}ttutiorl for lllu~ellun ServiceMonitor (TM).Rather thun waiting for a jiniskd user interface to document, w< undertook our efforts right up froru in the producl development process.We based the usability test on Sophw Kolm Kaminsky's "Do-It-Yourself Usability T~s/' (s~~"T<s~~~rly, T~s~~ft~n" i~~th< ~~~DO~ Conference Proceedings, OUuwu, October.1992).This papv shows our testing methodology, the benejits we ha~e st'tin, and imp[icationsjbr the profession of technical lntror.iucin~MagellanServiceNlonitor Designed and developed by Bell-Northern Research, Magellan ServiceMonitor was the first prototype of a PCbased network management product for data communications service providers and their customers.Our goal was to produce an elegant, intuitive user mtertaw for tasks ~Jf' value to potential customers.Clmsequently, the des~gn process was iterative and very user-centered.Both the user interfdce and the documentation were viewed by us as the interface to tie product, and as such had to work together.We felt that the