If it were me, I'd start with the survey, and try to assess general sophistication. I'd create rough user profiles based on the survey data, then follow up with interviews, and maybe some observations of folks using systems with the same general level of complexity (assuming you'll be doing this work pre-implementation). Amy Jones -----Original Message----- From: ACM SIGCHI WWW Human Factors (Open Discussion) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Hal Shubin Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 2:49 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Concern about the level of sophistication of users of a Web application I'm developing a Web application with a client. The users will all be internal -- a small group of people, but it's an application they'll use all day long. The client is worried that using anything beyond standard HTML may confuse the users because some of them are not very sophisticated in their Web use. (Based on my interactions with the users to far, I'm not sure this is a problem, but the client does, so it is.) I'm developing a plan for a survey and a series of customer interviews. I want to see what they currently use online and see how they react to some things that we are considering for the UI. At this point, I think I'll do some interviews, use that information to create a survey, then do some more interviews based on all that we learned up to that point. There is some training involved in this application, but they're obviously looking to limit the amount that is required. On the other hand, it's an application that will be in use for many years, so a few minutes of training to introduce some new concepts that save time seems like a good investment. I don't want to use cool features just for the sake of having them, but I don't want to create something that's immediately out of date. And if we can save time by eliminating page transitions, then I'm all for it. (I've always thought that page transitions are one of the biggest problems on the Web -- sometimes you forget what you were doing by time the page loads.) And I thought I'd start by asking all you smart folks if you had any suggestions while I'm coming up with the plan. thanks -- hs - - - - - - - - - - Hal Shubin 617 489 6595 | www.user.com -------------------------------------------------------------- Tip of the Day: Quote only what you need from earlier postings CHI-WEB: www.sigchi.org/web POSTINGS: mailto:[log in to unmask] MODERATORS: mailto:[log in to unmask] SUBSCRIPTION CHANGES & FAQ: www.sigchi.org/web/faq.html -------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------- Tip of the Day: Use the archives to research common questions CHI-WEB: www.sigchi.org/web POSTINGS: mailto:[log in to unmask] MODERATORS: mailto:[log in to unmask] SUBSCRIPTION CHANGES & FAQ: www.sigchi.org/web/faq.html --------------------------------------------------------------