Software, Tools, Or Techniques For UI Review?

Comatose51 writes "Does the Slashdot crowd know of any software, tools, or even techniques for reviewing the UI of an application? Right now at our company this is a long and arduous task of looking at slide after slide of pages and menus from our UI, and taking notes and arguing over what should go where or how the UI elements should behave and interact with the user. It takes many, many hours to do this and with all our UI developers involved, it adds up. This has to be a common and recurring problem so there must be a better way to do this. If there is open source software to help, great, but any helpful suggestion would be appreciated."

Comments

Apple Human Interface Guidelines

[Foofoobar]

Perhaps the most comprehensive guide out there. Not a GUI but if you want a GUI, use Xcode. http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGIntro/chapter_1_section_1.html

CUA/CUI specs

[RobertM1968]

There are CUA guidelines for various operating systems. You can check out that documentation to determine where what components/options you have should be placed. They are pretty thorough.

IBM's was written in 1987, and updated since (and followed for the most part in the Windows and OS/2 world).

Microsoft's has of course recently changed with the advent of Vista and related v2007 programs.

For broadest use, I would choose the specs used in later versions of Windows for Windows based apps... for Linux, I am not sure where you would check - but am sure some sort of guidelines should exist someplace.

A place with links and references to IBM's CUA can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_User_Access

From there, or with similar searches, you can find references for related Windows CUA stuff

Re:CUA/CUI specs

[RobertM1968]

For broadest use, I would choose the specs used in later versions of Windows for Windows based apps...

Should have read (changes in bold):

For broadest use under Windows, I would choose the specs used in later non-Vista versions of Windows (such as XP) for Windows based apps...

and (added)...

The CUA references should have everything including such things as keyboard shortcuts, etc (as well as main menu placement... ie: always starts with File, Edit, View - and ends with Help).

Guerilla user testing

[matrix mechanic]

Umm... the only way to know if one way of doing this is better or worse in UI is to try it. Look up the term Guerilla User Testing or read Don't Make Me Think and follow his approach. This is pretty standard practice on the web. Woe to rich client GUI if what you described is standard in that area.

Re:Guerilla user testing

[Tragek]

And an app designed to help: http://silverbackapp.com/

Joel Spolsky's writings

[Stormwave0]

While it's not a tool, Joel Spolsky has written a long and detailed series of articles on how to correctly design a user interface. It's worth your time to check it out, even if it doesn't speed things up.

Here's the first chapter

Re:Just Use It

[sm62704]

useit.com, Jacob Nielson's site. Everyone having anything to do with interface design should read the whole thing.

Director

[lax-goalie]

A ton of commercial (and in-house) applications have had their UIs prototyped with Macromedia (now Adobe) Director. Especially with a third-party "xtra" called OSControl (which gives you access to OS-specific, well, controls like menus, tabs, etc.), Director makes building a UI prototype quick and easy.

Director's a little long in the tooth for real desktop application development. Still, I'm not sure that there's another tool that lets you build "quick and dirty prototypes" (with enough functionality to actually test with users) as rapidly as Director.

Avoid the latest version (Director 11) like the plague, though. It's an abomination.

BTW, as a process issue, a "look and feel prototype" is always one of the earliest milestones in our development cycle. The client has to sign off on the interface, and write a check for a progress payment, before we proceed into actual code-slinging. Saves a boat load of headaches to do it this way.

Usability Engineering anyone?

[Light303]

i habe been reading /. for quite a time now and never read the word "usability" ever. (i think most FOSS guys also never heard of it)

Interface Usability is a whole science. There are plenty of books describing exactly what you are trying to reinvent!

For a start you might want to check out Jakob Nielsen's Alterbox Website, which is full of small articles regarding common usability problems.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ ... and if you like his style of writing you might also want to buy his book "Usability Engineering" (which is a must-have when you work in the field of usability IMHO)

Re:Well, there's your problem.

[matrix mechanic]

Also, for all your developers, do you have a designer? UI development = graphic design + industrial/interaction design. Read Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface

Simple is often best

[viking80]

1. Define what the software should do
2. Make the UI, even a mockup will do
3. Invite users to test drive the UI while video taping
(See (1) and ask the user to do each one(with no help))
4. Measure the users success (clicks, wrong clicks etc)
5. Score each screen with the predefined metric from (1) filled inn in (4)

Done.

Often the real problem is that nobody really knows (1): what the software should do. Marketing thinks it is "one click purchase" and engineering thinks it is "fully configurable shopping view". So agree on 1 first, and maybe your problems go away.

Re:Well, there's your problem.

[WGR]

Of course, that is what Apple does with its software. If Steve Jobs doesn't like the user interface, it gets changed.
Doing this has helped Apple be the leader in user interface design and the stock remark recognized ths when news of his possible illness dropped Apple shares considerably.