Expert user meaning

Nielsen [7], for instance, showed that expert users are defined as individuals who have rich interaction knowledge, task knowledge, and domain knowledge of a specific system, and who are skillful in obtaining and using such knowledge to achieve goals or tasks in an interaction.

1. What is a novice user?
2. How do expert users interact with computers?
3. Why expert users may not prove to be a good source of information about the requirements for an interactive system?

What is a novice user?

A novice in the broad sense denotes a person who is new or inexperienced in a certain task or situation; in this sense the label embraces other labels like 'beginner' or 'new user'.

How do expert users interact with computers?

Expert users

These users have fast response time and will require brief feedback. Experts organise their knowledge according to a higher conceptual structure. They can recall more than novices because their knowledge is chunked. Expert users will look for keyboard shortcuts, abbreviated sequences.

Why expert users may not prove to be a good source of information about the requirements for an interactive system?

Experts may have forgotten what it is like to be a novice and user and hence may only provide a very narrow perspective on a potential design. Domain experts may have little appreciation about novel ways of performing a task with software support and may be overly committed to existing approaches etc.