ETC5523: Communicating with Data

Workshop 10: Guiding an interactive journey

Author

Michael Lydeamore

Published

1 October 2001

🎯 Objectives

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

  • plan the sequence in which an interactive app reveals information;
  • write useful default, empty, loading and error states; and
  • guide users without overloading every screen with instructions.
Continue or begin

Continue with last week’s app or your own project. If needed, use the supplied library-visits app: users choose a branch and date range, inspect a plot and table, and download the selected records.

1. Quickwrite: before the result exists (5 minutes)

What does a user see before an app has enough information to display a result? List all the ways a blank space, spinner, warning or default chart could be interpreted.

2. Map the journey (5 minutes)

Draw four boxes and label them:

  1. Arrive
  2. Choose
  3. Interpret
  4. Act or explore again

In each box, write the question in the user’s mind. Connect the boxes in the order the app should answer them.

3. Design the default state (7 minutes)

Choose whether the app should open with a useful default result or wait for input. Write the text visible at that moment.

If you use a default, make clear what is currently selected. If the app waits, tell the user what is required and what will happen next.

4. Write conditional states (10 minutes)

Draft one message for each state:

  • loading: work is underway;
  • empty: the selection is valid but contains no records;
  • invalid: the selected combination cannot be used;
  • failed: the app could not complete the task.

Each message should help the user answer:

  1. What happened?
  2. Why, if known?
  3. What can I do now?

Avoid blaming language such as “You entered an invalid value”.

5. Tabs, disclosure and downloads (7 minutes)

If the app has tabs, write labels that name user tasks or content rather than implementation details. Decide what belongs on the first screen and what can be revealed later.

Then replace generic download text such as Download with a label that states what will be downloaded, and write a useful default file name.

6. Journey walkthrough (8 minutes)

In pairs, one person reads the four-box journey and all state messages in order. The reader identifies:

  • one moment where the next action is obvious;
  • one moment where they might become stuck; and
  • one instruction that appears too early or too late.

Move, cut or rewrite one piece of text.

7. Writer’s note (3 minutes)

Complete: “A useful error message returns control to the user by…”