Design Concepts for Developers

Billy Hollis (http://www.billyhollis.com)

Some of the design concepts of today are based on the medical concepts of human nature.  Pretty != Good Design.  The Aesthetic Usability Effect.  Pretty does have value though.  Anthromorophatizing is another way to put it.  Picks on the fact that the AT&T Web Site is the worst web site in the world.  The Savannah effect (not enough white space).  Need to make screens not cramped.  Using whitespace to space things out which are not related.

Should use better design to get away from grids / rectangles.  it’s tough to impress this on the bean counters.  He recommends using right justified labels to allow for more whitespace.  Another example is how his sticky notes app has random angles of rotation so the notes do not line up.

The 80 / 20 rule.  80% of the data provides the most value.  Migrate the other 20% to other places they can get to rather than clutter up your screen.  Progressive disclosure (give users the data they need at the time they need it).  His example shows a tooltip as a whole popup panel.  Kind of cool. 

Principal of layers need to be applied now that we have the tools to do them.  Proper use of animation is to project natural flow.

Confirmation principal.  Be careful to only use it when totally necessary.  Confirmations become rote when it is asked for all the time.

Fonts – read 25 classic fonts.  Spoongraphics.co.uk   Adding complexity to your UI causes user productivity issues because of the additional amount of time required to make a decision.  nextver.com