Designing explorable interaction based on users' knowledge: A case study on a multi-functional printer application

Abstract

Many studies on exploratory learning advocate that the label-following heuristic is the user's basic and strongest exploration strategy (Polson, 1988). According to various observational studies, users exploit their prior knowledge when label-following fails. Their prior knowledge is classified by Yoon and Park's (1997) task knowledge types (Lee and Yoon, 2000; Lee et al., 2001). This paper deals with how that knowledge guides users' exploration. A framework for exploratory learning is suggested, which defines exploration as bi-directional search both from user goals and interface widgets. A case study shows that the framework assists designers to identify the source of usability problems and helps inspire design alternatives based on gathered users' knowledge. Usability evaluation shows that the design alternatives resulted in better performance and user satisfaction. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.