GUI Usability (Part I)

• Use tabs - only one line of tabs / not too many - use scroll tabs
• Use wizard (to teach the user how to use something. Where it is the case)
• not too many windows/not too less
• use wizard to perform a complicated task
  
• restrict wizard to a single task
• Do not force the user to enter a field after he/she completed another field if those field are not related 
• Sample: force to enter the name before the phone no.
• Reduce as much as possible the text
• User do not usually read notes, observation, long stories
• Have a logo/motto:
• this may give a hint about the contain of the page/application
• should be short: "Leader in IP network testing"
• Think the application for people that cannot:
• read
• use a mouse (they may not have it)
• Do not force the user to choose if it is not really necessary
• Affordances:
• User expect the windows to have a bar - so he/she can move it
• little grip at the edge: to grap it/wide the window
• Metaphors:  
• Buttons are something that can be pushed
• Navigation tabs
• Be consistence:
• Take the most known applications: use as sample
• Use common used short-cut
• Use common used images for icons 
• Sample: 
• a cart for the shooping chart
• a floppy disk for save, ...
• OK button is always to the left, Cancel button is on the right
• Make your application intuitive
• Use short-cuts / do not force the user to use mouse
• Use tab indexes
• Use appropriate font / font size
• Do not ask user to remember things that computer can remember
• Use ribbon control (at least menus/toolbars):
• functionality is better expose to the user
• better categorized 
• Less more clicks
• Use autocompletion whenever is possible
• Advanced user are not usually annoyed by the explanation for beginners
• Think in terms of activities that the user can perform - you as programmer - (not the task that you have to complete)
• Samples: Cards for greeting/anniversary .... , not put a text, put a image, sent email/print it 
• Figure out most important activities that the users will perform
• Have a search box on your web page
• Use common used words:
• Do not use "Go" instead "Search". User is searching your page for a "Search" word
• Do usability testing (5-6 testers (usually, common people) seems to be enough)
• Use brighter colors (there are studies that shows that usability is raised with 5%)
• Usability tests measure learnability 
• A programmer is better if the user learn / became comfortable with it.
• What are you(developer) created in day, the user appreciate it in seconds
• Don't consider that things that seem to you to be obvious are also obvious for the user
• Use heuristics 
• Replace "teh" with "the"
• "Design black and white"
• Use colors for emphases. 
• People have problem remembering color codes
• Image on icons should be self-explanatory for the icon functionality
• When user press on web page logo, he/she is expecting to go to Home page
• No one likes to be asked a question they can't answer 
• GUI is the era of WIMP (windows, icons, mouse, and pointers).
• Create real-word analogy (Outlook calender looks like a wall calendar)
• Use conventions:
• it is the way that users learn to work with a variety of software.
• Windows developers have to "Act-Like-Microsoft"
  
• Microsoft is generally the standard.
  

 

Biography:

 Joel Spolsky, "User Interface Design for Programmers", Appress

 Steve Krug, "Don’t Make Me Think! a common sense approach to web usability", SECOND EDITION, New Riders Publishing, Berkeley, California USA

 Matthew MacDonald, "User Interfaces in C#—Windows Forms and Custom Controls", Appress, 2002