Interface Guidelines

1
Interface Guidelines Principles

• Deliver Information

2
Interface Guidelines Principles

• 7 principles for Interface Design
• Focus on the users tasks, not technology.
• Conform to the Users View of the Task.
• Consider function first, presentation later.
• Promote Learning
• Deliver Information

3
Deliver Information

• Data versus Information
• Data contains information.
• Information comes from data.
• Too much data does not lead to good information.

4
Deliver Information

• Search the web for information.
• Hundreds of results.
• Information search becomes information discovery.

Cartoon by Mark Parisi. Used by special
permission.
5
How to Deliver Information

• Display Design
• Visual Order and User Focus
• Find the selected text in the example below.

6
How to Deliver Information

• Find the selected text.
• Example on the right has the highest contrast.
• Text easily identified with high contrast.

7
How to Deliver Information

• Display Change Response.
• When the user changes the display, the result
  should produce proportional changes in the
  display.
• Examples
• If the user changes the name of a file, the file
  should not perform automatic alphabetical
  sequencing as the user types. The change should
  occur after the user is done.
• If the user selects a name, then highlight the
  name, not the entire entry.
• If the user selects a row, then highlight the
  entire row.

8
How to Deliver Information

• Give the user what he/she requests.
• If the users request is too large, provide the
  user with a means of reducing his/her request.
• Intelligent User Interfaces, Boolean Searches
• Explain data to the user when possible, this
  translates into information.

9
Deliver Information

• Visual Order and Focus of Attention.
• Display Change Response
• Respond to the users request.