Mick Smith
A Session on Handling Application Complexity
Mick’s most recent assignment was on the Cybrarian Proof of Concept project, working with the University of Dundee to design a ‘Radically Simple’ user interface for an email system to be used by the over 60’s who had little or no prior experience of using computers. During the workshop session Mick will share some of the design experiences from this project and explore the relationship between ‘Application Complexity’ and ‘Ease of Use’. In you are interested in one or more of the following questions, then this session will be of interest to you:
- Why do certain office applications appear to be so complex and hard to understand?
- Does ‘Ease of Use’ necessarily conflict with ‘Complexity’?
- How does one design for ‘Ease of Use’ and ‘Complexity’ at the same time?
Whilst Mick doesn’t profess to have the answers to these questions, his session will explore implications of the ‘Radically Simple’ and ‘Layered’ user interface design approach adopted on the Cybrarian project as a means of stimulating discussion on the subject.
Mick Smith - biography
Mick has over thirty years experience in the IT industry, spanning most disciplines, including consulting, product and application development, management, research and higher education. He was one of the first crop of Computer Science graduates back in 1974, after which he went straight on to do a PhD on the application of Artificial Intelligence in the field of Intelligent Computer Aided Instruction. He has accumulated quite a varied range of work experience, including: five years as a Computer Science Lecturer at the University of Keele; several years in full time, collaborative research, under the European ESPRIT programme, working on Intelligent Help systems with the University of Leeds and ICL; seven years in Experts Systems, Knowledge Based systems and Decision Support Systems, again with ICL; five years working on Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Systems; and finally four years as a consultant with Fujitsu.
During his career Mick has accumulated valuable first hand experience of the benefits to be gained in adopting User Centred Design techniques. His early years in industry were in the field of Expert or Knowledge Based Systems, in which Knowledge Elicitation, Prototyping and RAD techniques were the norm, and which gave rise to his strong interest in Designing for Usability. Perhaps his biggest claim to fame lies in his role as chief designer and development manager for a Criminal Investigation system that is now in everyday use in the Canadian Province of Ontario, and whose success lies in the attention given to the needs of the user.