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This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)

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Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)

#21

Post by Goladus »

I don't think this one was designed by a programmer:

http://www.goladus.com/_.jpg

In I don't think it's fair to say the UI was actually designed at all. This is what's leftover from what committees and executives decided the application needed to do with no thought whatsoever to anyone who would actually be using it. Notice how the most relevant information for the technician is on the fourth tab over, in a tiny unsizeable window next to a massive expanse of empty space. Note that several of the tabs seem to be describing the same thing. Where do you go to find out what you have to do? 'description?' 'instructions?' 'sub-tasks?' 'change details?' Why not 'general?'

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. This thing was an enormous, slow, resource-hogging java applet that required internet explorer. It no offline mode yet booted you off every 15 minutes which sometimes made you close out of IE and clear the cache or else you couldn't log back in. The boot-off process involved the entire application leaping into the foreground interrupting anything else you might have been doing.

Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)

#23

Post by wanorris »

timcederman wrote: post #6

I don't think it's for want of design ability - as rantfoil said a standard CS education just doesn't educate an engineer about how to design better. I think the lack of UCD emphasis is pretty strange really, it's not like even just considering the user requires graphic design skills or anything...

The lack of emphasis on usability in a CS degree program isn't surprising at all. In a software engineering program, it would be entirely appropriate, but in computer science, the focus is intended to be, well, the science of computer software (and to a lesser degree, hardware), not how to develop real-world software projects effectively.

Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)

#24

Post by edw519 »

cousin_it wrote: post #4

The worst example I've ever seen: http://www.gisinfo.ru/images/map2005_desk.gif Count just the flashlight icons, there's 16 of them. And three Help icons next to each other. But the best part is the vertical sequence of icon mutations in the lower left center.

Thanks, cousin_it. Off to the optometrist tomorrow. My eyes still hurt.

Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)

#25

Post by LostInTheWoods »

PieSquared wrote: post #18

People who aren't specialists design interfaces they think they'd like. Programmers, therefore, design interfaces for programmers. This is going to suck for consumer apps, of course, because most people aren't programmers - but this is actually a good thing for other programmers. Take a look at Emacs or Vi - is there ANY way they can get more confusing and badly designed from a consumer-app point of view? Yet they're…

Its not so much that "programmers design for programmers". When designing a GUI we make assumptions about what the users knows, and how much we think they're comfortable figuring out on their own. Programmers I think, tend to err on people knowing too much, and being able to figure out too much.

Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)

#26

Post by rantfoil »

mixmax wrote: post #11
yters wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't KISS always the key?

Very often it is. But it's not as simple as that. Try to turn things around - there are a lot of designers (and kids and grandpas) that code something up. This usually ends up as a horrible mess, not following any programming paradigms, spaghetti code, non-existing security, etc. We've all seen it happen. But you only see this if you're a professional programmer. Non-professionals don't see the detail, the design dec…

Great comment, though people should take Jakob Nielsen's site with a grain of salt. He's a bit of a Web 2.0 luddite.

I gotta recommend reading "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. It is the best beginning user experience design book out there.

Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)

#27

Post by rantfoil »

Monkeyget wrote: post #19

The mother of all bad UI http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Enter_The_Matrix.aspx

Wow, at least the other one had some sense of grouping/visual hierarcdhy.

This one uses the same colors everywhere, so the user can barely recognize the logical groups on the page! Yikes.

Here's a tip -- the squint test. If when looking at your UI, you can't squint to see logical groupings (regions of activity that are related), then you don't have a good visual hierarchy.

Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)

#28

Post by yters »

mixmax wrote: post #11
yters wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't KISS always the key?

Very often it is. But it's not as simple as that. Try to turn things around - there are a lot of designers (and kids and grandpas) that code something up. This usually ends up as a horrible mess, not following any programming paradigms, spaghetti code, non-existing security, etc. We've all seen it happen. But you only see this if you're a professional programmer. Non-professionals don't see the detail, the design dec…

You're right, the shadow does give a sense of substance to their simple design, and the same idea is used in google maps. I can imagine how amateur the site would look without the shadow.

Are there more fundamental design principles, or is it more a matter of experimentation and experience?

Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)

#30

Post by rantfoil »

yters wrote: post #28
mixmax wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very often it is. But it's not as simple as that. Try to turn things around - there are a lot of designers (and kids and grandpas) that code something up. This usually ends up as a horrible mess, not following any programming paradigms, spaghetti code, non-existing security, etc. We've all seen it happen. But you only see this if you're a professional programmer. Non-professionals don't see the detail, the design dec…

You're right, the shadow does give a sense of substance to their simple design, and the same idea is used in google maps. I can imagine how amateur the site would look without the shadow. Are there more fundamental design principles, or is it more a matter of experimentation and experience?

If I had to expand my list, I would include:

"Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward Tufte "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug

Tufte will give you the vocabulary around visual concepts. Norman will give you the vocabulary around evaluating basic usability. Krug will apply both to the domain of the web.

Additional recommendations: About Face 3.0 -- written by the head of Cooper Design, it outlines in somewhat dry fashion the frontiers of user experience process. Buy this only if you're desperately interested in becoming an interaction designer, or you want to institute user-centered design in your organization. It's really the UCD bible.

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