GUI Bloopers 2.0

On the forty-second page of “GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and Dos” author Jeff Johnson wrote (some emphasis added):

• send him an e-mail and wait to see if he replies (several hundred bytes, including mail headers),
• call him on the phone and listen to see if he answers (kilobytes of audio),
• visit his Web site and view an image from the Web cam in his office (megabytes), or
• knock on the wall between our offices and listen to whether he knocks back (analog signal).

Regardless of the method used and the amount of data transferred, I receive only one bit of information, assuming that all I care about is whether Bill is in his office.

Software applications often treat data as if it were information. They put it all in your face and make you figure out what it means. Software should focus users' attention on the important data and help them extract information from it.

Design displays carefully; get professional help

Basic Principle 2 says, "Consider function first, presentation later," but there comes a time in every software development effort when you must consider how to present the software's controls and status as well as the users' data. When that time comes you should consider screen design seriously and carefully. Your goals:

• Visual order and user focus: A successful UI doesn't just present. It directs user's attention toward what is important. For example, find the selected text in each of the computer screens in figure 1.9. The large amount of contrast

Figure 1.9

The amount of high contrast on the screen can make it hard or easy to spot the selected text.

More information about “GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and Dos” (and the book itself) is available from:

• Amazon.com
• Powell's Books
• Barnes & Noble

(Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, September 2007. Paperback, 424 pages. ISBN: 0123706432; EAN: 9780123706430.)