Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Good Style Guide Under the Creative Commons?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the build-something-that-doesn't-suck dept.

eldavojohn writes "I've been charged with making a specific user interface style guide for a suite of software by my employer. I'm not quite sure where to start. So I turned to my favorite search engine only to be brutally disappointed with what is out there to help me. I'm a software developer but have not had any formal training in UI design or look and feel. I'm looking for something more than just "keep it simple, stupid." I'm looking more for something that is specific but not technologically dependent. This doesn't have to be a global standard, merely a document that illustrates how one would effectively describe look and feel. Does anyone know of such a guide either created by an organization, government or company for their own uses — possibly one even released under the creative common license?" In addition to just documentation, what other UI advice can Slashdot readers offer in order to ensure quality development?

13 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Apple Human Interface Guidelines by Foofoobar · · Score: 5, Informative

    Macintosh develop site has several well put together style guides for software development that you should look at. Check out the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. Apple may not be your cup of tea but they always have good ideas and have a well put together interface and this will DEFINITELY give you a good idea where and how to start.

    --
    This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
    1. Re:Apple Human Interface Guidelines by JustinOpinion · · Score: 5, Informative

      Since the original poster seems to prefer permissive licensing, he should also check out the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines 2.0. It's an extensive set of best-practices and guidelines, licensed under the GFDL. Thus he can tailor the guidelines to his needs and redistribute them without worrying about copyright issues (another poster suggested setting-up a wiki for his users, which could also work).

      The KDE Usability Guide also has some good material, although at this time it looks much less mature than the GNOME docs.

    2. Re:Apple Human Interface Guidelines by try_anything · · Score: 5, Informative
      OSX, GNOME, and KDE are all very usable environments, but style guides mostly tell you how to achieve consistency with other applications on the platform. If the OP is really asking for a style guide of this kind, he needs to tell us what platform he is developing on. Using an Apple style guide to create a Windows program will result in a less usable design, even if the Apple guidelines are superior to the Windows ones.

      For an introduction to UI design, here are some good resources:

  2. Not really sure what you're looking for, but... by ruyon · · Score: 5, Informative
    How about taking a look at these well-known samples?

    GNOME HIG

    http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/

    Apple's HIG

    http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGIntro/chapter_1_section_1.html

    1. Re:Not really sure what you're looking for, but... by trolltalk.com · · Score: 2, Informative

      Gnome is consistent and very usable

      Only with itself ... the order of buttons on dialog boxes is f*cked up. For example, in the GIMP : Create a New Image, the order is [Help] [Reset] [Cancel] [Okay]. Last I looked, this was an LTR (left-to-right) locale. The default action in EVERY other environment is on the left in LTR locales.

      Their rationale for doing it different was 90% ego bloat, 90% stupid (with an 80% overlap).

      --
      Kevin Smith on Prince
    2. Re:Not really sure what you're looking for, but... by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 5, Informative

      For example, in the GIMP : Create a New Image, the order is [Help] [Reset] [Cancel] [Okay]. Last I looked, this was an LTR (left-to-right) locale. The default action in EVERY other environment is on the left in LTR locales.

      Except Windows, where the default action is in the middle (i.e. the hardest to find possible choice):
      Windows Dialog

      Or Mac OS Classic, where it works just like in Gnome:
      Mac Classic Dialog

      Or In Mac OS X, where it works just like in Gnome:
      OS X Dialog

      I can't find a screenshot, but KDE seems to work like Windows.

      I still don't see what the problem is here. There are two common ways of doing it. Mac and Gnome do it one way, Windows and KDE do it the other. *shrug*

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
  3. Some suggestions by RobBebop · · Score: 4, Informative

    Know the author Ed Tufte.

    Know what HCI stands for.

    Know your audience and let them evaluate Throwaway Prototypes.

    If you are looking for a book to teach you UI design, you are misguided. If you are looking for a Creative Commons and/or Open approach to UI design, register a domain called "Principles of UI Design" and launch a Wiki on it, then license it with the license you desire (but I would recommend CC0).

    If all goes well, this thread will serve as a good starting point for getting ideas/content to populate your new Wiki with.

    --
    Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
  4. Just Get An Interaction Design Textbook by Tech+Librarian · · Score: 2, Informative

    I would suggest going out an getting a book on Interaction Design, such as that by Sharp, Rogers, and Preece. If you look over the diagrams and the chapters you should get the gist of it. This book is used in introductory graduate Human-Computer Interaction courses.

  5. A Pattern Library for Interaction Design by rRaAnNiI · · Score: 2, Informative

    I strongly recommend this link: http://www.welie.com/

    This is a collection of design patterns for creating UI.

    I was extremely impressed by this work already 8 years ago when it was presented in PLoP2K http://jerry.cs.uiuc.edu/~plop/plop2k/proceedings/proceedings.html but since then it became much much bigger.

  6. Usability Guide by kcurtis · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is not directly a style guide, but a Federal (US) usability guide. http://usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines_book.pdf

    Hopefully this helps.

  7. Sun web spec by phfeenikz · · Score: 2, Informative

    My employer recently adopted Sun's standards. They posted them here: http://developers.sun.com/docs/web-app-guidelines/uispec4_0/

  8. I'm not a UI Designer but I play one on TV by sconeu · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm a software developer but have not had any formal training in UI design or look and feel. I'm looking for something more than just "keep it simple, stupid."

    Then your proper response is, "Are you sure you want me to do this? I have no training in this area."

    And put it in writing as a CYA.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  9. Web Design from Scratch by swanton · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is the best website on design that I've found: http://webdesignfromscratch.com/

    For searches like this, don't use Google or other search engines like it. Search people's bookmarks. http://del.icio.us/search/?fr=del_icio_us&p=design&type=all