Dr. Norman's Teapot

Many technically solid applications suffer from a lack of imagination in their user interface. The cover of Donald Norman's book The Design (Philosophy) of Everyday Things (POET) depicts a teapot with the handle on the same side as the spout. Too many software applications use this approach in designing their user interface. [If you ever had to deal with FEMA you'll immediately understand what I mean.]

Alan Cooper's excellent reference About Face outlines the approach to user interface designed used by Microsoft when they designed the Visual Basic Integrated Development Environment.  The author talks about simplicity, consistency, recognizability and preserving the "flow" that an experienced user can get into when using a well designed application. You make the computer do what it can and try not to irritate the user. He emphasizes providing an undo capability rather than constantly badgering the user for confirmation of what he just asked to be done.

Jakob Nielsen's excellent user interface reference at www.doit.com provides ten heuristics for interface design with which I generally agree. His work on navigation is a must if you are offering a complicated site. His take on error messages (few and English)  and documentation (unneded but present and in English)  is right on.

So it's not just a pretty face you must present to the public, but it never hurts to be attractive. Coordinated colors, integrated images and a consistent attractive layout will help you make friends and influence people. Flashing blocks and scrolling junk messages do nothing but make a site look trashy.

Simplicity is critical. Most people are trying to use your site to accomplish something that they want to complete before they get on with the rest of their lives. They don't want to be educated in the intricacies of using your site. A few people may use your site regularly, they want to be rewarded for what they've learned and not have repeatedly enter the same information.

ConsenCIS believes there is no such thing as a good error message. Most error messages represent design shortcomings. A good design will lead the user to choose among the valid options, not leave him capable of making a useless mistake.

There is a natural flow that the experienced and even inexperienced user expects. They've been exposed to other applications on their own computers and on the internet. Your application needs to work like the others (or better). A couple of importatant factors for the experienced user include where the cursor is initially positioned, how it moves to the next field and what happens when you press enter. Most people now days are familiar with point and click and you'll have to satisfy them, but your experienced users will appreciate a site that also works well using keyboard accelerators.

The user interface will determine if you get calls from customers congratulating you on your website or calls asking for help in getting their work done.