book

GUI Bloopers 2.0, 2nd Edition

October 2007

Beginner to intermediate

424 pages

12h 7m

English

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Why was this book updated?Why is this book needed?What is a GUI blooper?How were the bloopers compiled?How is the book organized?Who should read GUI Bloopers 2.0 and how should they use it?GUI-Bloopers2.com
IntroductionBasic Principle 1: Focus on the users and their tasks, not on the technologyBasic Principle 2: Consider function first, presentation laterBasic Principle 3: Conform to the users’ view of the taskBasic Principle 4: Design for the common caseBasic Principle 5: Don’t distract users from their goalsBasic Principle 6: Facilitate learningBasic Principle 7: Deliver information, not just dataBasic Principle 8: Design for responsivenessBasic Principle 9: Try it out on users, then fix it!
IntroductionUsing the wrong controlUsing controls wrongly
IntroductionNot showing users where they areLeading users astray and not showing the wayPoor search navigation
IntroductionUncommunicative textDeveloper-centric textMisleading text

IntroductionBad layout and window placementTroublesome typography
IntroductionDeviating from task focusRequiring unnecessary stepsBurdening users’ memoryTaking control away from users
IntroductionCommon responsiveness bloopersReasons for poor responsivenessAvoiding responsiveness bloopers: Design principlesAvoiding responsiveness bloopers: TechniquesConclusion
IntroductionCounterproductive attitudeCounterproductive process
Appendix A: GlossaryAppendix B: How this book was usability testedAppendix C: Task analysis of creating slide presentations—questionsAppendix D: Illustrating simplicity—the object/action matrixAppendix E: Usability tests for every time and purpose
Blooper 71: Text hard to read on backgroundBlooper 72: Relying on subtle color differences

Textual Bloopers

One irony of graphical user interfaces is that most aren’t very graphical. The typical GUI contains a lot of text:

■ The labels for commands in menus or on buttons are mostly text.
■ Instructions are almost always text.
■ Most user input consists of typing or selecting words and numbers.
■ The labels on most controls and form fields are text.
■ The names users assign to data files and other data objects are always tex tual.
■ Error and warning messages are mainly textual, even if highlighted with a color or a symbol.