Designing User Interfaces: Principles and Best Practices, Papers of Computer Science

Download Designing User Interfaces: Principles and Best Practices and more Papers Computer Science in PDF only on Docsity! Designing User Interfaces • User Interface: People’s perception of “The Product” • Good UIs have two well-integrated conceptual parts: – Form – Functionality • Implementing UIs requires harmony between – Visual Design – Navigation Visual Design is about • Information “Resolution” – How much you try to tell in a screenshot – Especially if you convey quantitative information • “Interaction” between Design Elements – What draws your attention, then what? • Color Issues – Support or interfere with UI? • Typographical Issues – Support or interfere with UI? • Overall Design “Quality” The Problem Intelligent human Powerful machine Co m m un ic at io n Bo ttl en ec k One screenshot < 1% of one printed page • Is paper better? 1-1 page to screen? • Scrolling requires users to rely on visual memory (a weak skill) • Multiple screens per page make it – difficult to make a comparison, a choice – difficult to keep track of context (“Where am I?”) • Multiple screens management adds lots of administrative debris (buttons, menus, navigational images, etc.) • Design needs to increase “signal” & reduce “noise” Principles of design ways to achieve unity Alignment Contrast Proximity Repetition Robin Williams’ cheatsheet: http://www.urlsinternetcafe.com/classroom/features/featuresgood.html Alignment is central to understanding Lay out the page with grids Negative grid space can be powerful Break the rules only when you know why Diagonals add tension Think of usage Alignment is not strictly via squares