[Sigia-l] Instructive Interaction vs. Contextual Help vs. Print Documentati on

[Boniface Lau]

> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On
> Behalf Of John O'Donovan
>  
> > No wonder many users found the "Click Here to Begin" animated	
> > caption annoying and asked to disable it.
> 
> Yep - it just looked like such an afterthought being very poorly
> integrated, and seemed to pop up at random.

The issue is not so much on integration as it is on animation.

A key point about instructive interaction is that instruction is not
obstructive to users who don't need it. Had the caption not animated,
users who were focusing somewhere else on the screen could easily
ignore the caption as if it did not exist. But due to animation, user
attention kept drawn back to it and therefore found it distracting.


> 
> In this context, one way animation can work well is as a guiding
> tool 

It is still animation.


> when the user is doing something for the first time, appears to be
> stuck

Apparently that was what Windows thought when it showed the animated
caption. Many users saw the animation as annoying.

It is wise to avoid animation not related to the current user focus
unless one needs to draw user attention to a critical situation. It is
like avoiding blinking text.


> or asks for help.

The idea of instructive interaction is that users do NOT have to ask
for help.


Boniface