SIMS 213: User Interface Design & Development Marti Hearst Thurs, Feb 27, 2003

Graphical Design in UI Design Sources: GUI Bloopers, Chapter 3 –Jeff Johnson Principle of Effective Visual Communication for GUI design –Marcus in Baecker, Grudin, Buxton and Greenberg Designing Visual Interfaces –Mullet & Sano, Prentice Hall The Non-Designers Design Book –Robin Williams, Peachpit Press

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

A Note on Tools Most tools make it difficult to do layout correctly Powerpoint especially!!

Layout Grids: A Design Staple Organization –contrast to bring out dominant elements –grouping of elements by proximity –alignment Consistency Navigational Cues The eye travels along the paths cut out for it in the work. –Paul Klee

w=design Layout Grids

From Two Column Layout Grids

From Three Column Layout Grids

From Symmetry vs. Asymmetry Beware of too much symmetry

From Four Column Layout Grids

Layout Grids Window to widget spacing Widget to widget spacing NoOk Message text in Arial 14, left adjusted Standard icon set Fixed components Format of variable contents

NoOk Message text in Arial 14, left adjusted Standard icon set NoOk Do you really want to delete the file “myfile.doc” from the folder “junk”? ?   Apply Cancel The file was destroyed Bad: Good: Slide from Saul 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 organizational flow Slide from Saul Greenberg

User grouping to show relationships between screen elements Bad Good Good Mmmm:

From 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 ('printer's Latin' for example) on to a page and get a print-out in various column widths and different font sizes Facing pages –when setting up the pages, always consider what two facing pages will look like together.

From Grid Layout Recommendations Margins: a function of how much you need to fit on to each page 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 –(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. Thus, if elements are situated exactly equally on either side of the optical centre, we tend to see them as too low down. For that reason, when setting up a page, we normally set up the bottom margin around 50% bigger than the top margin) back (also known as inside or gutter margin): the two back margins taken together should be roughly as wide as the foredge

Navigational cues Provide initial focus Direct attention to important, secondary, or peripheral items as appropriate Assist in navigation through material Order should follow a user’s conceptual model of sequences badgood

IBM's Aptiva Communication Center No regard for task order; no organization

Haphazard layout from mullet & sano

Repairing a Haphazard layout from 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