I got home a bit early yesterday and found myself with about 12 hours of extra time before I rebooted into WORK MODE. I whipped out Ressurection of Evil and finished it! Review coming later.
Am currently listening to The Wonders' THAT THING YOU DO (fantastic tracks!) and typing up the last remaining parts of The Human UI.
I've been posting so much not-so-substantial posts that I think it's time to make this blog somewhat richer again. So here is a preview (draft version) of The Human UI article.
The Human User Interface
Dax Pandhi
Nukeation Studios
We developers often see monochromatically. Well, that’s a bit harsh. We do have coloring in our code. But that’s about it. And sometimes we’re so pumped up on technology – especially new technology – and the function of the software (I bet even right now you’re saying “SHOW ME THE CODE, stop talking!”) that we forget the end-user just might have different priorities. We work hard to make the app work – they just expect it to work, so they have additional wishes too. This is truer if you’re into retail software, or something that will be used by non-techie people. While the first instinct would be to call them ungrateful, they are our customers, so let’s see how we can make the experience better for them.
The question is: if you are going to be spending a few dozen hours (or more) a week staring at a particular software, you at least want it to be easy on the eyes. You also want it – and need it – to be as easy to navigate and use as possible. With the amount of software being churned out, an estimated 4 out of 10 software have a UI that the end-user really likes and is instantly comfortable using.
A massive amount of software is created for corporations. Whether it is developed in-house, or under the care of a consultant – more often than not a bare minimum time, effort, or money is invested into creating a better UI. The ‘designer’ role is rare in the development cycle – especially in the world of Windows® applications. This is not to say your application’s UI is ugly. There’s just a whole lot more you can do.
There are some basic rules to follow to have a much nicer looking and better functioning UI for your application. It doesn’t require too much investment of time or money on your part, and adds a good return-on-investment.
Today we will discuss twenty points of UI design that you can integrate into your application design phase easily. The result will be richer applications with better functionality –a “human” UI. But before we delve into that, let’s talk a bit about the basics of proper UI design.
The whole thing will be published on MSDN soon.