ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how improving screen design principles might work by means of two examples: one hypothetical but based on a real situation, the other one based on an actual product. It defines useful redundancy as any repetition that supports performance of the user's tasks rather than interfering with this performance. Although redundancy and repetition are often useful techniques in instructional design because they assist the process of moving information from short-term memory into long-term memory, they are less helpful where space is tight and the goal is instead to provide aids to navigation and comprehension. Each step reiterates the fundamental components of the analysis that underlies good information design: thinking about a problem from the audience's perspective; thinking about the underlying principles of how something works; simplifying a design based on the relationship between the audience's needs and how something works; and confirming that the results really do suit the audience's needs.
