Saturday, April 27, 2002

Discoverability in Software A new feature in Mozilla is designed to improve discoverability of the sidebar. Discoverability affects, along with consistency and reversability, one of the core metrics for software usability evaluation -- learnability. Discoverability is not just important because it allows users to gradually encounter new software features. The type of learning that occurs in a user-guided discovery scenario is much more robust than if a person is told how to perform a function or consults a manual. There's less mental translation in the discovery case and the probability of the procedure 'sticking' is greater if the method is self-discovered. 5:10:28 PM    comment