Is Good Stuff

WTH is that? – you asked?

Well, the Principles of User Interface Design are intended to improve the quality of user interface design. And this has nothing to do whether you are an expert programmer, hardcore developer, famous designer and etc.

This article is merely to share with you all out there that trying to develop or design something for client or end-users. Consider yourself by following at least 1 or 2 of this principles as helping mankind. Well enough chatter, and let us begin..

The principles of UI I was yapping about are as follows :-

• The Structure principle: Design should organize the user interface purposefully, in meaningful and useful ways based on clear, consistent models that are apparent and recognizable to users, putting related things together and separating unrelated things, differentiating dissimilar things and making similar things resemble one another. The structure principle is concerned with overall user interface architecture. E.g. UI consistency, distinctive buttons, most active or used buttons are place nearer to the mouse and etc.
   
• The Simplicity principle: The design should make simple, common tasks easy, communicating clearly and simply in the user’s own language, and providing good shortcuts that are meaningfully related to longer procedures. E.g. one click at a iconic big button that instructs the computer to performs multiple complex tasks.
   
• The Visibility principle: The design should make all needed options and materials for a given task visible without distracting the user with extraneous or redundant information. Good designs don’t overwhelm users with alternatives or confuse with unneeded information. E.g. introducing subtle indicator prior to user action / response is a good sign on visibility (tool tip or mouse indicator) or clearly distinguish the click-able stuff and disabled stuff.
  
• The Feedback principle: The design should keep users informed of actions or interpretations, changes of state or condition, and errors or exceptions that are relevant and of interest to the user through clear, concise, and unambiguous language familiar to users. E.g. message or indicator that appears to reinforce the action committed, for example, message of showing records are deleted.
• The Tolerance principle: The design should be flexible and tolerant, reducing the cost of mistakes and misuse by allowing undoing and redoing, while also preventing errors wherever possible by tolerating varied inputs and sequences and by interpreting all reasonable actions. E.g. double verifying orders for something that is irreversible is a good idea to have. For example, This will delete all your save files, Proceed ?
• The Reuse principle: The design should reuse internal and external components and behaviors, maintaining consistency with purpose rather than merely arbitrary consistency, thus reducing the need for users to rethink and remember. E.g. reusing of same submit and cancel button that appears consistently at the same spot is good idea of reuse principle.

 

Last but not least, like all the robotic /computer laws. There are two laws that applies in user interface design because, we are making something to be used on a computer:- 

First Law :-

A computer shall not harm your work or, through inactivity, allow your work to come to harm.

Example, of 1st Law Violation
Imagine, a worker accidentally deleted entire database record of all citizens of the country in the immigration dept, just with one click. Resulting, him being fired and traumatize for live because, the developer that develop the system didn’t cater for tolerance.

Second Law :-

A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more work than is strictly necessary.

Example, of 2nd Law Violation
No indication of the server is busy, makes the player go wondering what has happened to his PC assuming it’s hang / crashed. He/she spends hours diagnosing the problem or restarted the PC innocently. Again this is because, the developer didn’t cater for feedback and visibility or auto-assumed this is a designers fault.

 

I really hope this article will enlighten you that such precaution step do exist in our development / design life cycle and should not be ignored just like that. Happy New Year from IGS and good luck in your projects!

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