User Interface Design Tips, Techniques, and Principles

A fundamental reality of application development is that the user interface is the system to the users.  What users want is for developers to build applications that meet their needs and that are easy to use. Too many developers think that they are artistic geniuses – they do not bother to follow user interface design standards or invest the effort to make their applications usable, instead they mistakenly believe that the important thing is to make the code clever or to use a really interesting color scheme. Constantine points out that the reality is that a good user interface allows people who understand the problem domain to work with the application without having to read the manuals or receive training.

User interface design important for several reasons.  First of all the more intuitive the user interface the easier it is to use, and the easier it is to use and the less expensive to use it.  The better the user interface the easier it is to train people to use it, reducing your training costs.  The better your user interface the less help people will need to use it, reducing your support costs.  The better your user interface the more your users will like to use it, increasing their satisfaction with the work that you have done.  In this article I discuss:

1. Tips and Techniques
2. UI Design Principles
3. Concluding Remarks

1. Tips and Techniques

The following tips and techniques that I have learned over the years should prove valuable:

A U.S. Army infantryman is lowered into a Viet Cong tunnel to perform an underground search and destroy mission during the Vietnam War . These soldiers, known as tunnel rats , were equipped usually only with a handgun and flashlight , and besides enemy forces, faced booby traps and natural dangers such as snakes , scorpions , spiders and insects .