Designs conducive to the use of efficient strategies

Studies on the widespread inefficient use of complex computer applications have suggested that users need to learn efficient strategies in addition to learning how to use tools. This paper argues that our growing understanding of strategic knowledge can be used to guide designers develop systems which are conducive to the use of efficient strategies. The paper first describes ten general strategies which appear to be useful across three computer application domains. Next, the paper discusses the functionalities required to execute the ten strategies, and what makes them conducive to strategy use. An analysis of six major computer applications in three domains reveals that these functionalities are not consistently offered, and how their absence directly affects the performance of complex tasks. The analysis leads to questions related to the generality of the results, the problem of featurism, and how strategy-conducive systems could facilitate the transfer of knowledge across applications. The paper concludes by briefly describing how we intend to use the strategy framework to develop analysis methods for designers and trainers.