ortunately, designing user interfaces doesn’t have to be so complicated. Here are some tips to make it work for you.
Start with the End in Mind: After you get the determine the specifications but before you start coding and building the database, throw together some activity diagrams that will describe how the user will navigate through the application. Check them for sanity. Then start throwing together some rough sketches of the screens that would result.
Think Sequentially: When designing an interface, picture the optimal case in which you would like a user to do the data entry. You should be able to describe succinctly to your users the order of events.
Don’t Get Cute: There has recently been a proliferation of neat AJAX-y and Web Service-oriented widgets you can add to your website. Before introducing them to your environment, ask if it really helps the end user’s comprehension of what they need to do. For example, I have seen Google Maps mashups that have you click on a location in order to get to the next screen in a form. Most users won’t understand what to do here without needing to read some documentation, and nobody reads documentation. Speaking of that…
Don’t Count on Documentation: Generally nobody reads introductory text or anything else on a form (aside from the field names) before they start to fill it out. If your application counts on written descriptions to guide users from one step to the next, you should probably re-evaluate your flow and make the forms more obvious.
Group Things: There are some underutilized HTML elements that can be used to make your forms cleaner: FIELDSET and LEGEND. FIELDSET draws a nice box around your form or subform and LEGEND gives it a title. Using these elements lets your group logical form fields and give users a clue as to how to approach your form.
Web Apps Aren’t Database Interfaces: If your web app looks a lot like phpMyAdmin, you may want to change it. Your application should provide more value than that. Come up with abstractions that hide some of the “rawness” of the database. I once worked at (another) place that had a field labelled “TPL Provider” because that was what they called the column in Oracle with its no-digits-in-column-names policy, rather than the term “3PL Provider,” which is, you know, a real thing. (3PL stands for third party logistics) Don’t let this happen to you.
Follow these tips and you should be well on your way to a good user experience.
