02 Apr 2015
Chapter 8
Development of the User Interface is important for any system/software that will have a client-facing aspect. The chapter discusses 9 design principles for a good user interface:
- Completeness
- Language
- Simplicity
- Navigability
- Feedback and recovery
- Data integrity
- Client-server integrity
- Security
- Documentation
I agree with most of these, although they could be expanded upon a bit. Simplicity includes that the pages should be “pleasant to view”, but I believe that it should be a point on its own. Part of communicating the UI to the user is its appearance. Use of textures, colors, fonts, images, icons, etc should all be carefully considered. For example, if you have a series of navigation links you need to think: will an icon convey all of the information we need? Or is text needed? Things such as buttons and links should also feel usable and responsive. This can include hover effects, different coloring etc. But one has to be careful to not go overboard.
The only other point I would expand upon is Documentation. They assert that:
Every page or group of pages in the user interface should be linked to a step-by-step on-line instruction that teaches a user how that page can be used to accomplish a task.
Here you need to evaluate the amount of hand-holding your user may need. This includes realizing who your primary user base is. To any user it should be very clear what steps need to be taken to accomplish the majority of simple tasks on any UI. If you’re required to go reference documentation for everything it will disrupt the user’s experience. It’s important that an interface be intuitive without being cluttered. For very complicated tasks there should be easy to follow documentation.
Laura Barber at 8:42AM