9 principles of GUI Design (Article 2), gui Design 9 Article 2

Source: Internet
Author: User

9 principles of GUI Design (Article 2), gui Design 9 Article 2

Basic Principle 4: The design must comply with common conditions
Basic Principle 5: do not distract users from their goals
Basic Principle 6: Promote Learning

4) Principle 4: The design must comply with common conditions
In any task field, users have various goals, from common goals to rarely occurring goals. Applications should be designed to be able to identify these goals.
4.1 makes it easy to implement common results
If your goals are predictable and commonly used, you should not do a lot of work to achieve them. If the target is uncommon, You can require more work. More formally, to get a desired result, the quantity that the user must specify should not be proportional to the complexity of the result. It should be proportional to the expected result deviation from the common result.
There are four ways to simplify common tasks. These approaches have been mentioned in basic principle 3 as a way to reduce the complexity of the user interface, that is, appropriate default values, templates, or directories that encapsulate the solution, wizard, and customization. The bottom line is that users can get a lot of results without having to specify a lot of content. Do a small amount of work and get a lot of results. This is what the user needs.
4.2 two types of "common": "How many users are" and "how often they are used"
Text-based systems generally provide many functions, that is, different operations that users can perform. When designing a user interface for a function, it makes sense to consider how often the function is used. The User Interface Design for frequently-used functions is different from that for rarely-used functions.

  • The more features you use, the less clicks you need.
    Users should not need a large amount of user input to call and control functions that are repeatedly used in a short period of time. They only need a few buttons and click operations. For features that are frequently used, you do not need to click. For example, you do not need to click anything to view the time when using a computer. You only need to check the clock display. On the contrary, users can tolerate more click and button operations for features that are not often used. Use only one or two features each year, such as setup installation or configuration options. Minimizing key operations is irrelevant to the clear and easy to remember commands.
  • The more users use a function, the more obvious it should be.
    The more users need some advice, the more obvious and prominent it should be. To make sure that everyone can find it. If all users use a function, it is reasonable to occupy the screen space and it needs to appear in front. The operations that few users need can be less prominent. You can only give prompts on the user interface, or even hide them. For example, it is hidden behind the "advanced" button or called by special function keys or combination keys.

  • Various Combinations: they are often used by most people, often used by a few people, rarely used by most people, and rarely used by a few people.

  • It is designed for core situations and does not work too much for "edge" situations.
    The core scenario is much more important than the edge scenarios. The core scenario is the main cause for people to use your program, while the edge scenario is what people may or may not do. Grasp the basic points! If you do this, the user will ignore the edge issue.
     

5) Principle 5: do not distract users from their goals
Software systems should not distract users from their own tasks and goals. Don't let people always think about the software they are using. Software operations should be in the context of user awareness, rather than in the foreground. If the user interface design forces the user to stop considering their own goals and consider the user interface, the design of this user interface will fail.
5.1 do not ask users to solve extra problems
People have many problems to solve in their work, hobbies, and personal life fields. That's why they use computer products and services: helping solve those problems and achieve their goals. They don't need and don't want to distract themselves from the problems and goals they have originally caused by additional problems imposed on them by computer products and services.
The software should allow users to focus their attention on their own problems and goals, no matter what they do: analyzing financial data, search for job opportunities on the Web, find out the birthday of a friend, and view the photos of your holiday. The software should support problem solving in the target task field, but it should minimize or eliminate the user's need to spend time solving problems in the computer technology field.
5.2 do not allow users to infer through exclusion
Minimize the need to solve problems in the computer technology field, including preventing users from using the exclusion process to guess how the software works. The functions of controls, commands, and settings on the user interface should be clear and clear.

6) Principle 6: Promote Learning
Software applications often cause complaints that are hard to learn. Learning takes time. The more things a user must learn to use a product or service, the longer the learning time required to use it effectively. Time is money. In addition, if you do not need to learn how to use an application (for example, because of their work), you do not have to worry about it. Therefore, the user interface should be designed to facilitate learning. The user interface of the application can facilitate learning in several different ways.
6.1 correct design approach: from the outside to the inside
When designing a user interface, thinking from the outside to the inside is to ensure that the user interface is meaningful to those who do not know the intent of the designer. This does not mean that the user is stupid. In fact, you may know more about the tasks to be supported by software than developers. They just don't know the meaning of the content displayed in each part, and they don't know "what depends on what ".
If the target users misunderstand your design, they may have a problem immediately. However, you may have more serious and long-term problems: users are not satisfied, and the product is unsalable. Therefore, make sure that the user interface is meaningful, not to you, but to the user.
6.2 consistency
The user interface should be conducive to the cultivation of user habits. When using text-based software and appliances, users want to enter their subconscious habits as quickly as possible. They want to ignore software or devices. And focus on their work. The more consistent the software is, the easier it is for users to use it.

Some designers are either unaware that users may look at things from different perspectives. Or they can define consistency for users. Some surprising bad designs were born in the name of consistency, including some poorly designed software applications, all of which were controlled by the data entry forms or menu hierarchy, even if the data item form or menu may not be suitable for controlling all functions. Grudin or even suggestions. The concept of consistency is so hard to define and can easily be used incorrectly that it should not be used as a user interface design principle.
Do not regard the rejection of consistency as the design goal of the user interface. We must make it more user-centric. When accessing or observing a user, you should try to determine how the user understands consistency. What aspects of the existing tools seem to be consistent with them and what are inconsistent?
Test the software framework or other prototypes for representative users, and pay attention to the aspects that users think are inconsistent on the user interface. User interface consistency should not be evaluated based on how logical the designer and developer looks, but on how predictable the user is.
6.3 provide a low-risk environment
Errors are inevitable. A software application is a high-risk software if it is easy for users to make mistakes, does not allow users to correct errors, or costly or time-consuming to correct errors. People who use such products or services will not be very productive. They will waste too much time correcting errors. Such software will not be popular.
The impact on user learning is even more important than that on time. High-risk situations that are easy to make mistakes and costly to make mistakes make people reluctant to study the software. People tend to be familiar with and secure paths. When exploration is blocked, learning is severely impaired. In low-risk situations where mistakes are not easy to make and errors are easy to correct, stress can be mitigated and people are willing to explore, greatly facilitating learning. In this case, the user will not hesitate to try a new path: "Well. I want to know what it will do ."

Let's take a look at the future.

9 principles of GUI Design (Article 1): http://blog.csdn.net/sanqima/article/details/45598999
9 principles of GUI Design (Article 3 ):
Http://blog.csdn.net/sanqima/article/details/45602855

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