> -----Original Message----- > From: Ryan J. Heldt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 5:54 PM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Re: Application UI's > > http://cssremix.com is a favorite of mine. > > However, in my opinion, although a backend can look nice, at the end of > the day it should be about getting the job done, so avoid using lots of > graphics and other eye candy that can get in the way. People don't > necessarily remember something that's well designed, but they will > remember something that isn't.
Exactly - simple elegance generally always wins out over complexity. I would suggest: +) Keep it simple. Seriously consider when you should use graphics (words are better than icons in many cases) and fancy layouts (broad, simple layouts are better than complex, cramped layout in most cases). Whenever you're going to add something ask the question: do I need this? Keep your resource count LOW. Two, maybe three, fonts are all anybody needs. Choose a small number of "signature" colors that work together. Build basic assets (bullets, headers, etc) and use them over and over. Animation should be subtle - people pick up on more than you think and a common mistake is to beat them over the head with change. Edward Tufte talks about "Chart junk" - extraneous lines, elements, graphics, etc - which detracts from understanding. The same is true for applications. Any visual element that doesn't have a well-defined job should be dropped. +) Don't exceed your skills. You can lift all the professional icons and canned designs you like but they will ultimately have a strong tendency to fail when put together with other pieces you'll need to design yourself. If you can only do stick figures... then do stick figures. If you're design sense is stretched by a left nav bar and a content area... then do that. +) Be consistent. In color scheme, wording, grammar (address) and so forth. Most "bad" websites are "bad" primarily due to inconsistency. Determine (and enforce!) basic rules and variations in content and behavior (for example "bold items are active" or "all task links are on the left navigation"). +) Usability ALWAYS wins out over design. Don't use cramped, tiny text size because it "looks better" - it doesn't and it's difficult to use. Don't use complex graphics which blend into the background for buttons... use buttons. If you're looking for a GREAT, easy to read book on these principles you can't go wrong with Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think!". "The Invisible Computer" by Donald Norman is also amazingly good... neither talk specifically about design, but rather about what kind of designs are easiest to understand. And "easy" is more important than "pretty" every time. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300701 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
