Ease of Learning - User Friendliness

Much has been made recently of increasing sophistication in technology with one of the major benefits advertised as an increase in something called user-friendliness. This term and its meaning needs to be explored further as only by understanding what makes a user friendly system can we work to create one. User friendliness comprises four main elements:

Ease of learning - this can be thought of as minimum start-up time. A system is more user friendly if it can be learned quickly to the point where the level of proficiency is achieved that allows effective achievement of the tasks that need to be carried out.

This includes communication with the user in a language the user can understand, common systems of organisation used in each function and the availability of only those features that are required to complete the work so that the user is not obstructed by peripheral functions that get in the way.