What are some basic tenets of interface design? [closed]

Answer 1

"Don't make me think!", the title and the book are extremely useful when designing a UI. Some of my favorite sections from it include:

• Create a clear visual hierarchy.
• Conventions are your friend.
• Happy talk must die.
• Instructions must die.
• Four reasons why I love tabs.
• The trouble with Rollovers.
• Farmers vs. Cowmen.
• The myth of the "Average" user.

Answer 2

If you read Asimov, you'll find this easy to remember: an interface should not, through action or inaction, allow the user's work to be inadvertently destroyed.

Answer 3

Know your users.

• Spend time with them experiencing what they currently do without your software / changes.
• Get them to try and use as earlier prototype as feasible - maybe it's just paper, see how they react.
• Keep pushing your prototypes in front of them as development progresses.

Answer 4

User interfaces are frequently for software developers or similarly tech-savvy people, not just laymen. If yours is such an interface, you can benefit from being a user as well as the author.

1. Write the interface.
2. Put it away for a while, preferably long enough that you forget exactly how it works.
3. Use it to do something when you're in a bit of a hurry, or otherwise distracted.
4. Things will break, or force you to do things manually that weren't covered. For each one, write a bug/feature report. (If you're in that hurry, write just enough to remind you later.)
5. Fix/address each report.
6. Go to step 2.

This experience will give you insights to writing better interfaces, some of which may extend to laymen as well as the tech-savvy. Beware, however; not every feature that is good for devs is good for non-devs. Steps 2 and 3 are intended to get you into that non-dev mindset, and get you most of the way; for the last mile, there's no substitute for a real user.

Answer 5

Joel Spolsky (who is co-creator of SO :) ) has a book called "User Interface Design for Programmers" as well as a series of articles on his website (Joel On Software) related to that book.

Another great resource to start with is Jacob Nielsen's usablity website.

Answer 6

Go and read Controlling Your Environment Makes You Happy and then read Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability.

Keep it simple, don't ignore convention and mimic sites/programs that work well.