Graphic Design For Developers

Frank La Vigne Applied Information Sciences Microsoft MVP: Tablet PC www.FranksWorld.com [email_address]

15 years of professional experience
Started career writing Microsoft Visual Basic 3 applications
Microsoft MVP: Tablet PC
User Group & Code Camp speaker
CoDE Magazine Author
President Emeritus of Richmond.NET User Group
Lead Designer @ Applied Information Sciences
Blog: http://www.franksworld.com
Corporate: http://www.appliedis.com

“ I’m not an artist.” No one is asking you to be one.
“ UI is just fluff anyways.” Have you ever been frustrated by one?
“ Good UI is subjective.” Not Really. It is measurable.
“ I don’t own any turtlenecks.” That’s OK.

UI = User Interface
UX = User Experience

Graphic design is a process
Just like designing software: There are rules, patterns and conventions
There are even acronyms
User Interface (UI)
User Experience (UX)
What’s the difference between UI and UX?
It’s easy actually.
* Or how I stopped worrying and embraced my creative side.

User Interface is
What the user sees
Controls
Layout
User Experience is
What the user feels
Steps in a process
Wait times
Shifts in attention & eye focus

Yogi Berra
Examples of good (and bad) design are all around us.

Q: Why are screens like this still common sights at retail stores, hospitals, etc in 2008?
A: It’s actually usable.
Keystroke navigation
Consistent
High contrast

But how?

Look at the application through a user’s eyes:
Are the text boxes lined up?
Neatness counts you know.
A lot of folks rarely use the mouse.
Do the tab orders line up?
Do keyboard shortcuts make sense?
Are frequent tasks easy?
Count the number of clicks/keystrokes/context shifts it takes to perform a task.

Is a given screen’s purpose obvious?
To you?
To everyone else?
To your target customers?
Placement of information
In Western Cultures, users read from Top Left to Bottom Right
“ Above the fold”

Which site is likely to get repeat visitors?
Which site is more likely to generate revenue?
Does UX design matter?

Yogi Berra
What good is data if decision makers can’t understand its meaning?

What good is data if decision makers can’t understand its meaning? Edward R. Tufte, Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative (1992)

Can users readily identify important data?
Colors and Contrast
Font size
Can users see text clearly?
If they have to squint or hunt, then the answer is no.

Relevance and frequency are immediately obvious

Colors
Draw our attention
Excite the mind
Have significance and meaning
Inspire emotions
Can make us hungry, nervous or calm

Red
Red is also considered an intense, or even angry, color that creates feelings of excitement or intensity
Yellow
Yellow can also create feelings of frustration & anger
Yellow can also increase the metabolism.
Green
symbolizes nature and the natural world.
represents tranquility, good luck, health, and jealousy.

Yogi Berra
the predominance of the colors red & yellow in many restaurants is there only to make customers hungry

Yogi Berra
Blue conveys importance and confidence without being somber or sinister, hence the blue power suit of the corporate world

The Tools to Build a Better User Experience

Expression is a suite of products for building UX’s
--Much like Office is a suite of business tools
Demos
Expression Design
Expression Blend

Frank La Vigne www.FranksWorld.com [email_address]

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Graphic Design For Developers

by Frank La Vigne on Jun 05, 2008

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Graphic Design For Developers — Presentation Transcript