sims 213: user interface design & development marti hearst tues, march 7, 2006
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SIMS 213: User Interface Design & Development
Marti HearstTues, March 7, 2006
Today
Content Layout Technique: WireframingGraphic Design
Wireframing
What is the main idea?– Separate content from layout and display– Graphic Design:
• Use the page layout to signal the flow of interaction• Group conceptually related items together
– Nielsen: • What does the layout communicate?• Test if a page of content becomes more usable because of the layout• A template (for a home page) should contain what items?
From http://www.gotomedia.com/macromedia/monterey/architecture/
From http://www.gotomedia.com/macromedia/monterey/architecture/
How to Test A Layout
Study conducted by Thomas S. Tullis from Fidelity Investments in 1998Assessed the usability of five alternative template designs for their intranets. Method:– Show templates with “greeked” text– Draw labeled boxes around each page corresponding
to 9 elements– No overlapping allowed– Indicate if something appears not to be there
The Elements
1. Main content selections for this page 2. Page title 3. Person responsible for this page 4. Intranet-wide navigation (e.g., intranet home, search) 5. Last updated date 6. Intranet identifier/logo 7. Site navigation (e.g, major sections of this section of the
intranet) 8. Confidentiality/security (e.g, Public, Confidential, etc.) 9. Site news items
From http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980517.html
From http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980517.html
From http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980517.html
From http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980517.html
Wireframing Study
Different parts of the designs scored betterBest parts were taken from each design and combinedResulted in an overall better score
Results of Study
CorrectPage
Elements
Subjective Appeal
(-3 to +3)
Template 1 52% +1.3
Template 3 67% +0.9
Final Design 72% +2.1
Graphical Design in UI Design
Sources: – GUI Bloopers, Chapter 3
• Jeff Johnson– Principles of Effective Visual Communication for GUI design
• Marcus in Baecker, Grudin, Buxton and Greenberg, Readings in Human-Computer Interaction: Toward the Year 2000
– Designing Visual Interfaces• Mullet & Sano, Prentice Hall
– The Non-Designers Design Book• Robin Williams, Peachpit Press
– The Zen of CSS Design• Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag, New Riders• Really terrific! Design aesthetics plus how to code it.
– http://www.csszengarden.com/
Graphical Design in UI Design
Graphical Design must account for:– A comprehensible mental image– Appropriate organization of data, functions, tasks and roles– High-quality appearances
• The “look”
– Effective interaction sequencing• The “feel”
From http://www.warrenkramer.com/design/1/index.shtml
A Note on Tools
Many tools make it difficult to do layout correctly– Powerpoint especially!– As Maggie Law showed, can use Excel!
Layout Grids: A Design Staple
Organization– Use contrast to bring out dominant elements– Use grouping of elements by proximity– Use alignment for organization and aesthetics
ConsistencyNavigational CuesThe eye travels along the paths cut out for it in the work. – Paul Klee
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/98/28/index4a_page2.html?tw=design
Layout Grids
From http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/print/grids.html
Two Column Layout Grids
From http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/print/grids.html
Three Column Layout Grids
From http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/print/grids.html
Symmetry vs. Asymmetry
Beware of too much symmetry
From http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/print/grids.html
Four Column Layout Grids
Layout Grids
Window to widget
spacing
Widget to widget
spacing
No Ok
Message text in Arial 14, left adjusted
Standard icon set
Fixed components
Format of variable contents
No Ok
Message text in Arial 14, left adjusted
Standard icon set
No Ok
Do you really want to delete the file “myfile.doc” from the folder “junk”?
?
Apply
Cancel
The file was destroyed
BadLayout:
GoodLayout:
Slide fromSaul Greenberg
Visual Consistency
Internal consistency– Same conventions and rules for all elements of the GUI (unless strong reason to do
otherwise)– Enforced by a set of application-specific grids
External consistency– Follow platform and interface style conventions– Use platform and widget-specific grids– Deviate from conventions only when it provides a clear benefit to user
Two-level Hierarchy•indentation•contrast
Grouping by white space
Alignment connects visual elements in a sequence
Logic of organizationalflow
Slide fromSaul Greenberg
User grouping to show relationships between screen elements
Bad Good Good
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From http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/print/grids.html
Grid Layout Recommendations
Number of lines per page – # of lines you can fit on each page in your chosen font is
divisible by the number of grid sections you intend to have.
– Method: Flow some text on to a page and get a print-out in various column widths and different font sizes
From http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/print/grids.html
Grid Layout Recommendations
Margins: a function of how much you need to fit on to each page– (From paper layout, not on-screen)
• Foredge (also known as outside margin): – should be an average of head (top margin) and foot (bottom margin)
• Foot (also known as bottom margin): – Should always be bigger than the head (top margin), at least 50%
bigger than the bottom.– This is due an optical illusion called the optical centre -- we tend to see the
centre of a page as being slightly higher than the actual centre.
• Back (also known as inside or gutter margin): – the two back margins taken together should be roughly as wide as the
foredge
Navigational cuesProvide initial focusDirect attention to important, secondary, or peripheral items as appropriateAssist in navigation through materialOrder should follow a user’s conceptual model of sequences
bad good
IBM's Aptiva Communication Center
No regard fortask order; noorganization
Haphazard layoutfrom mullet & sano
Repairing a Haphazard layoutfrom mullet &sano
Bad alignment Poor choice of colors to distinguish labels from editable fields
Economy of visual elements
– Minimize number of controls
– Include only those that are necessary• eliminate, or relegate others to secondary windows• (but don’t want too many extra windows!)
– Minimize clutter • so information is not hidden
Overuse of 3-d effects makes the window unnecessarily cluttered
Slide adapted from Saul Greenberg
More Guidelines
From Chapter 3 of GUI Bloopers– Missing group boxes– Inconsistent group box style– Inconsistent separator style– Shoddy labeling and spacing
• Radiobutton spacing• Inconsistent property label alignment• Very long labels• Poor label placement• Unlabeld container components
– Inconsistent fonts– Tiny fonts
Web Page Layout
– Controversies about:• Should users scroll?• How much whitespace?
– Spool’s claims• Users scroll if the top part of the page contains useful information.
– (If it contains branding, ads, etc, they assume more of the same below.)• Whitespace negatively correlated with usefulness
– Viewing a page through a browser is like putting a small hole in a piece of paper and holding over the middle of a magazine page
– Layout design is different for the web than print
– Our studies suggest:• Text and link clustering is favored• Others claim this aids scannability
Related Issues
Text – legibility– typefaces and typesetting Color and Texture Iconography
–signs, icons, symbols; concrete to abstract Visual identity
–unique appearance Animation
–dynamics of display