User Interface Design

RockLobster

RockLobster

RockLobster

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2 Sep 2007
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I remember studying this module in uni, although it went into the theory too much and didn't give you enough practical. What do I mean not enough practical? At the moment I'm developing VB.NET apps I would love a book which gave you guidance on the best colours to use, in terms of foreground and background. What font to use? Where is best to place buttons? How to design professional looking interfaces?

I find it takes me ages to decide what colours to use, etc. If I had a book like this I could design a cracking interface and use it for all of the apps I develop within reason. Does anyone know any book or net tutorials for designing user interfaces for Windows apps?
 
I know back in the VB6 days there were windows guidelines on how to design forms which comply to MicroSofts standard ie. what font to use, what width/height buttons should be, etc. - I'll have a dig around for you.
 
Microsoft used to publish a user interface guide (that I can't seem to find now) that detailed what they considered to be best practice for the layout of Windows applications, mainly to ensure some degree of consistency across the platform. Might be worth trying to look this up - I would think this has been updated recently to include coverage of Vista.

As for colours and such (assuming you wish to move beyond standard system colours) it might be worth picking up a book on graphic design.

About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design is worth a look too.


EDIT: found the Vista guidelines here, but none of the links I've found to the original guide seem to work.
 
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I'd highly recommend the gnome user guidelines, not only because they are good practice for platform, language, and accessibility, but also because they were developed at the University of Brighton ^^
 
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/System/platform/pcdesign/XPguidelines.mspx

That's what I've used in the past and has been an absolute God-send in retaining a consistent feel throughout all my applications.

Easy to understand, some good examples and a pretty handy little document to have.

And as for the "what colours to use", you don't. You should be using the system colours and let the user decide what they want - again, all within the link above.
 
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