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Welcome Screen

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Welcome Screen

The WelcomeScreen sample is exciting because it is actually a real part of Microsoft® Expression™ Interactive Designer! The real Welcome Screen is shown when you first run Interactive Designer. You can also access the Welcome Screen by clicking Welcome Screen on the Help menu.

In Action

When you run the sample, you will notice that elements of the user interface (UI) fade in rather than appearing abruptly and that the artwork in the product name banner is gently animated. The purpose of the Welcome Screen is to introduce the user assistance (UA) features of the product to the user. The main aspects, in the order they should be introduced to the user, are the User Guide, tutorials, samples and Web resources. In the real Welcome Screen, these links take the user to the appropriate resource, and choosing to open a sample in Interactive Designer does just that. In this sample these actions, and the suppression option, are simulated with message box information.

UX

The eye can process visual information at an astonishing rate but there is a limit to its bandwidth. When most client applications present a piece of UI, its elements appear simultaneously. Frequent users ‘tune out’ parts of the UI which they are aware of but don’t need, and their workflow is smooth. But, for any user, an unfamiliar and busy piece of UI can amount to a denial-of-service attack on the visual apparatus. The overloaded eye doesn’t know where to look first and the user is temporarily stalled.

The elements of the Welcome Screen sample’s UI appear gradually. You can apply this technique to your own UI to make its elements appear in a logical sequence of introduction so that the user is presented with the most timely option or element on its own for a moment before less timely elements are made visible.

When you apply this technique to your own UI you need to consider frequent users as well as new users. Just as all good Welcome Screens have a suppression option for frequent users, the staged appearance of UI elements is also something which frequent users will wish to suppress, either literally with a check box or more subtly by halving the animation durations for a user on subsequent showings. Providing a keyboard interface which functions during staged appearance is another practical courtesy.

This content is subject to change and may contain minor errors or incomplete information.
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