Presenting Your Best Face to the Customer

Core practices of user interface design

• Leveraging core best practices
• Realizing productivity gains
• Increasing your competitive advantage
• Converting binary data to meaningful displays
• Managing the complete user experience

Gathering Requirements

Viewing the system from the user's perspective

• Discerning system needs through user discussions
• Generating user personas
• Extracting user stories

Collecting user feedback

• Building prototypes
• Sketching mock-ups

Designing Based on User Input

Increasing user speed

• Determining sensible defaults
• Selecting the right controls for the job
• Exploring Fitts' Law

Reducing user error

• Limiting the scope for error
• Providing automatic cues
• Allowing for undo
• Supporting users with helpful error messages

Creating the User Navigation

Identifying user interactions

• Designing interface flow diagrams
• Focusing on the necessities

Selecting high-level structures

• Supporting intuition with network-based hierarchal or sequential organization
• Reinforcing the mental model

Applying best practice guidelines for user interface controls

• Choosing appropriate icons
• Adding shortcut keys for advanced users
• Organizing screen real estate with tabs
• Matching menus to widgets

Presenting, Sorting and Filtering Data

Grouping information effectively

• Structuring menus to match workflow
• Separating blocks of data with colour
• Deciding when to right/left/center justify

Handling presentation delays

• Providing feedback during long wait times
• Collapsing and expanding content on demand

Retrieving data meaningfully

• Implementing search boxes
• Facilitating advanced searches
• Filtering search responses dynamically

Incorporating Aesthetic Considerations

Leveraging images and colour

• Utilizing the color wheel
• Keeping the mental model consistent
• Sign posting with symbols
• Choosing colour harmonies
• Implementing the right metaphor

Handling text issues

• Achieving readability with high contrast
• Adjusting for different language considerations
• Increasing accessibility for different context

Testing for Usability

Gathering measurements

• Counting screen access
• Enumerating mouse events

Applying usability metrics

• Navigating problem discovery
• Determining interface effectiveness
• Calculating efficiency

Evolving the Interface for Future Needs

Porting to mobile devices

• Arranging for a smaller screen
• Adapting to user selection devices
• Customizing for differing interaction styles

Preparing for the future of user interaction

• Going beyond two dimensions
• Creating new uses for existing devices