1. User Interface Best Practices Scott Lines Web App Express

2. User Interface Best Practices

3. Four objectives for your app / system: 1)Easy to learn 2)Easy to use 3)Fast 4)Stable

4. Easy To Learn Know your audience – Who is your user? – What is their education level? – How will they be trained? – Are you using their “language”? – Where will they be using your app?

5. Easy To Learn Boeing 737 Computer

6. Easy To Learn Site Inspection App

7. Easy To Learn Keep it simple – Don’t do more than you need to do – Do what you need to do in an excellent way – Use it yourself – Simple 30 (20, 10) years ago is not simple today Users are much more computer savvy

8. Easy To Learn Keep it simple!

9. Easy To Learn Let users play with it – Have a test environment – Have a test mode

10. Easy To Learn Keep it consistent – Have a consistent look and feel – Keep logical actions and components grouped together – Use color consistently – Use the same button labels – Keep error messages consistent

11. Easy To Learn This! Not This! Be consistent and group logically

12. Easy To Use Understand the manual process users follow Use it yourself Instruct the user what to do

13. Easy To Use Tell the user what to do.

14. Easy To Use Not This! Error messages tell the user how to fix

15. Easy To Use Error messages tell the user how to fix This!

16. Easy To Use Easy on the eyes Provide feedback

17. Mock it up – Balsamiq Mockups Easy To Use

18. Fast Know the manual process…replicate in the app/system User interface speed vs. data retrieval/processing speed Save data at the appropriate time Consistency

19. Fast SQL + Alpha Anywhere – No excuse for slow data retrieval – No excuse for slow processing – Indices – Engine Configuration – Design – If slow -> get help! Tip: Put your webroot on an SSD

20. Stable Handling “bugs” – Log the error so you can fix it – Email the error to your support team – Get the user back up and running – Find the root cause of the error and fix it

21. Stable Example email of a database error

22. Stable Database error log example

23. Stable Test thoroughly What will the user do? – Data entry – Backspace key – F5 key – Close the app/browser

24. Stable Backup data – 6 backups per day – After 7 days delete all intraday backups except last one – Especially useful when systems go live Make your system fast – Provide proper server environment

25. Think!

26. More Information Google Blog.teamtreehouse.com/10-user-interface- design_fundamentals www.balsamiq.com slines@webappexpress.com