280 likes | 603 Views
Designing Forms, Reports, and Screens. CMIS570 Week 11. Introduction. Human factors in designing HCI General design guidelines Users’ bias Design specifications. Project Identification & Selection. Project Initiation & Planning. Analysis. Logical Design ***. Physical Design.
E N D
Designing Forms, Reports, and Screens CMIS570 Week 11
Introduction • Human factors in designing HCI • General design guidelines • Users’ bias • Design specifications
Project Identification & Selection Project Initiation & Planning Analysis Logical Design *** Physical Design Implementation Maintenance SDLC
We Are Designing for Humans • Faulty nature of human knowledge and memory, so… • 1. • 2. • 3.
General Guidelines Categories • Layout • Text • Color • Highlighting • Navigation
Layout Guidelines • 1. Create a unique site identity and strive for consistency • Fonts • What is background, foreground • Graphics size, color, shape • 2. • 3. • 4. • 5. • 6.
1 2 3 4
Text Guidelines • Avoid large blocks of text; reading is 25% less efficient online • Limit lines of text to 60 characters • Left justify text to improve readability • Avoid words in all upper case letters • Clear and specific titles describing content and use • No hyphens, abbreviations, or acronyms • Revision date or date when data was generated
Color Guidelines • Only useful when information is most effectively displayed (cannot improve on garbage) • Limit browser-safe colors to 3 or 4 complimentary colors • Simplify background • Can be soothing, provide interest, emphasize logical organization, and draw attention to warnings • Can degrade resolution and fidelity with different display units and can be a problem for color blindness
Highlighting Guidelines • Includes blinking, audible tones, color differences, intensity differences, size differences, font differences, boxing, underlining, ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, offsetting positions, and • Use sparingly to draw user to or away from certain information (errors, warnings, keywords, high priority messages, changed data, data outside normal ranges • Use consistently reverse video
Navigation Guidelines • 1. Use consistent means of navigation with visual cues. • 2. • 3. • 4.
What Is Wrong With This? • USE MIXED UPPER & LOWER CASE AND --(CONVENTIONAL PUNCTUATION) • USE DOUBLE SPACING IF SPACE PERMITS • LEFT-JUSTIFY TEXT AND LEAVE A RAGGED RIGHT MARGIN • DO NOT HY- PHENATE WORDS BE- TWEEN LINES • UAAACOWU • NO GRAPHIC EXPLANATION
Information Bias • How you format information influences how it is perceived by the user • Bias includes providing • 1. • 2. • 3. • 4.
Design Specifications for Forms, Reports, & Screens • Narrative Overview • Who will use it? • What & when is the task performed? • Sample Design • Testing and usability assessment • Can you complete the task efficiently? (time to learn, speed of performance, rate of errors, rate of retention) • Is the form/report accurate? (expectations, confidence) • Do you like using the form/report? (satisfaction)
Guidelines to Design • Maintain consistency and standards • Allow shortcuts and accelerator keys • Provide feedback to user actions • Provide logical sequencing & closure • Report all errors & suggest solutions • Allow for reversals of actions • Make the user feel in control • Provide simplicity and ease of use
Related Web Sites • www.websitesthatsuck.com • www.webreview.com • www.useit.com • www.killersites.com • www.lynda.com