User Interface Best Practices Scott Lines Web App Express.

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User Interface Best Practices Scott Lines Web App Express

Transcript of User Interface Best Practices Scott Lines Web App Express.

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User Interface Best Practices

Scott LinesWeb App Express

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User Interface Best Practices

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User Interface Best Practices

Four objectives for your app / system:

1) Easy to learn2) Easy to use3) Fast4) Stable

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Easy To Learn

• Know your audience– Who is your user?– What is their education level?– How will they be trained?– Are you using their “language”?– Where will they be using your app?

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Easy To Learn

Boeing 737 Computer

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Easy To Learn

Site Inspection App

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Easy To Learn

• Keep it simple– Don’t do more than you need to do– Do what you need to do in an excellent way– Use it yourself– Simple 30 (20, 10) years ago is not simple today• Users are much more computer savvy

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Easy To Learn

Keep it simple!

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Easy To Learn

• Let users play with it– Have a test environment– Have a test mode

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Easy To Learn

• Keep it consistent– Have a consistent look and feel– Keep logical actions and components grouped

together– Use color consistently– Use the same button labels – Keep error messages consistent

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Easy To Learn

This!

Not This!

Be consistent and group logically

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Easy To Use

• Understand the manual process users follow• Use it yourself• Instruct the user what to do

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Easy To Use

Tell the user what to do.

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Easy To Use

Not This!

Error messages tell the user how to fix

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Easy To Use

• Error messages tell the user how to fix

This!

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Easy To Use• Easy on the eyes• Provide feedback

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• Mock it up – Balsamiq MockupsEasy To Use

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Fast

• Know the manual process…replicate in the app/system

• User interface speed vs. data retrieval/processing speed

• Save data at the appropriate time• Consistency

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Fast

• SQL + Alpha Anywhere– No excuse for slow data retrieval– No excuse for slow processing– Indices– Engine Configuration– Design– If slow -> get help!

• Tip: Put your webroot on an SSD

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Stable

• Handling “bugs”– Log the error so you can fix it– Email the error to your support team– Get the user back up and running– Find the root cause of the error and fix it

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Stable

Example email of a database error

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Stable

Database error log example

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Stable

• Test thoroughly• What will the user do?– Data entry – Backspace key– F5 key– Close the app/browser

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Stable

• Backup data– 6 backups per day– After 7 days delete all intraday backups except last

one– Especially useful when systems go live

• Make your system fast– Provide proper server environment

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Think!

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More Information

• Google• Blog.teamtreehouse.com/10-user-interface-

design_fundamentals• www.balsamiq.com• [email protected]