Graphical Screen Design Grids are an essential tool

Graphical Screen Design Grids are an essential tool for graphical design Important graphical design concepts include visual consistency visual organization navigational cues familiar idioms visual relationships legibility and readability appropriate imagery Saul Greenberg

Graphical Design Must account for: • a comprehensible mental image - metaphor • appropriate organization of data, functions, tasks and roles - cognitive model • quality appearance characteristics - the “look” • effective interaction sequencing - the “feel” Sources: - Principle of Effective Visual Communication for GUI design Marcus in Baecker, Grudin, Buxton and Greenberg - Designing Visual Interfaces Mullet & Sano, Prentice Hall Saul Greenberg

Components of Visible Language Layout • formats, proportions, and grids scarves: 10. 75 hats: 5. 43 Typography • typefaces and typesetting bold serif fixed italic sans-serif variable Imagery • signs, icons, symbols; concrete to abstract Sequencing • how the interface unfolds Visual identity • unique appearance Animation • dynamics of display Color and Texture • convey complex information and pictorial reality Saul Greenberg

Grids Horizontal and vertical lines to locate window components • aligns related components Organization • contrast to bring out dominant elements • grouping of elements by proximity • show organizational structure • alignment Consistency • location • format • repetition • organization Widget to widget spacing Window to widget spacing Standard icon set Format of variable contents Message text in Arial 14, left adjusted No Ok Fixed components Saul Greenberg

Grids Standard icon set Message text in Arial 14, left adjusted ? No Ok Do you really want to delete the file “myfile. doc” from the folder “junk”? No Apply The file was destroyed Cancel ! Ok Cannot move the file “myfile. doc” to the folder “junk” because the disc is full. Ok û ü Saul Greenberg

Another grid Two-level Hierarchy • indentation • contrast Alignment connects visual elements in a sequence Logic of organizational flow Grouping by white space Saul Greenberg

Visual Consistency • internal consistency - same conventions and rules for all elements of the GUI unless strong reason - set of application-specific grids enforce this • 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 Warning Help ? mmmm mmm Okay ! mmmm mmm Okay ü Tip of the day: Monday, Mar 12 mmmm mmm Dismiss û Saul Greenberg

Relationships between screen elements Link related elements, disassociate unrelated elements • proxemic clusters • white (negative) space Saul Greenberg

Relationship between screen elements (continued) • alignment Saul Greenberg

Relationships between screen elements (continued) • explicit structure (e. g. , the use of frames) Mmmm: Mmmm: Mmmm: û Mmmm: ü Saul Greenberg

Webforms Bad alignment Poor choice of colors to distinguish labels from editable fields Saul Greenberg

No regard for order and organization IBM's Aptiva Communication Center Saul Greenberg

Haphazard layout from Mullet & Sano page 105 Saul Greenberg

Repairing a Haphazard layout from Mullet & Sano page 105 Saul Greenberg

Spatial Tension from Mullet & Sano page 72 Saul Greenberg

Using explicit structure as a crutch from Mullet & Sano page 31 Saul Greenberg

Web. Forms Overuse of 3 -d effects makes the window unnecessarily cluttered Saul Greenberg

Relationships between screen elements How do you chose when you cannot discriminate screen elements from each other? GIF Construction Set WS-FTP Saul Greenberg

Navigational cues • provide initial focus • direct attention to important, secondary, or peripheral items as appropriate • assist in navigation through material û ü ü Saul Greenberg

Redesigning a layout using alignment and factoring from Mullet & Sano Page 119 Saul Greenberg

The importance of negative space from Mullet & Sano page 129 Saul Greenberg

Economy of visual elements • minimize number of controls • include only those that are necessary - eliminate, or relegate others to secondary windows • minimize clutter - so information is not hidden Repairing excessive display density from Mullet & Sano Page 111 Saul Greenberg

Economy of visual elements (tabs) Excellent means for factoring related items But can be overdone Saul Greenberg

Legibility and readability Popkin Software's System Architect Saul Greenberg

Legibility and readability Time & Chaos These choices must be really important, or are they? Saul Greenberg

Upper case text Saul Greenberg

Legibility and readability • Characters, symbols, graphical elements should be easily noticable and distinguishable Text set in Helvetica Text set in Times Roman ü TEXT SET IN CAPITOLS Text set in Braggadocio Text set in Courier û Saul Greenberg

Legibility and readability Proper use of typography • 1 -2 typefaces (3 max) • normal, italics, bold • 1 -3 sizes max Large Medium Small Readable Unreadable Design components to be inviting and attractive ü û Saul Greenberg

Legibility and readability • typesetting - point size word and line spacing line length Indentation color Readable Design components to be inviting and attractive ü Unreadable: Design components to be easy to interpret and understand. Design components to be inviting and attractive û Saul Greenberg

Legibility and readability Grayed-out example text hard to read. Why not make it black? Regional Preferences applet in Windows 95 Text orientation makes it difficult to read Saul Greenberg

Imagery Signs, icons, symbols • right choice within spectrum from concrete to abstract Icon design very hard • except for most familiar, always label them Saul Greenberg

An example of why icon design is hard Novell Group. Wise 5. 1: What do these images mean? • No tool tips included • One of the tabs is a glossary explaining these images! Which one? Saul Greenberg

Imagery (Continued) Image position and type should be related • image “family” • don’t mix metaphors Consistent and relevant image use • not gratuitous • identifies situations, offerings. . . Saul Greenberg

û û ü ü û Choosing levels of abstraction from Mullet & Sano Page 174 Saul Greenberg

ü û Refined vs excessive literal metaphors from Mullet & Sano page 25 Saul Greenberg

Idioms Familiar ways of using GUI components • appropriate for casual to expert users • builds upon computer literacy • must be applied carefully in walk up and use systems Some examples Window manipulation Files Standard Typographic controls Toolbars and tooltips What you see is what you get displays Pulldown menus Dialog box item Cascading menu Saul Greenberg

How to choose between widgets 1 What components must be in the display • necessary visual affordances • frequent actions - direct manipulation for core activities buttons/forms/toolbar/special tools for frequent/immediate actions menus/property window for less frequent actions secondary windows for rare actions Saul Greenberg

How to choose between widgets (continued) 2 How are components related? • organize related items as “chunks” 3 What are familiar and expected idioms? • cross application look and feel MS-Power. Point MS-Word Saul Greenberg

Widgets and complexity • how can window navigation be reduced? - avoid long paths - avoid deep hierarchies ü û Saul Greenberg

What you now know Grids are an essential tool for graphical design Important visual concepts include • visual consistency - repetition • visual organization - contrast, alignment and navigational cues • visual relationships - proximity and white space • familiar idioms • legibility and readability - typography • appropriate imagery Saul Greenberg

Interface Design and Usability Engineering Goals: Articulate: • who users are • their key tasks Task centered system design Methods: Participatory design Evaluate tasks Usercentered design Brainstorm designs Psychology of everyday things Participatory interaction User involvement Task scenario Representation & walkmetaphors through low fidelity prototyping methods Products: User and task descriptions Throw-away paper prototypes Refined designs Graphical screen design Interface guidelines Style guides Completed designs Usability testing Field testing Heuristic evaluation high fidelity prototyping methods Testable prototypes Alpha/beta systems or complete specification Saul Greenberg