Chapter 3: Laying Out Your Windows and Dialog Boxes


Overview

In this chapter you get to make a mess.

Or, if you follow the techniques I describe in this chapter, you can prevent a mess. In this chapter I show you several ways to make your windows cleaner. Having clean windows makes for useable software. What do I mean by clean windows other than all shiny and clear? A window is clean if:

  • The controls on the window follow the standard idioms and are, therefore, easy to use.

  • The layout of the window makes sense.

  • The user doesn’t have to jump through hoops to get to certain parts of the window.

  • The window doesn’t have extra information and extra controls.

  • The window serves a clearly defined and easily identifiable purpose.

In this chapter, I show you some easy ways to lay out your windows so that these items are all covered. I also discuss several related issues that will come up when you’re designing your windows.

Note

Most of the tips in this chapter apply to both windows and dialog boxes. However, I make it clear in the text when a tip refers to only a window or only a dialog box.

Now for a thought-provoking tidbit to get your gears spinning

REAL WORLD SCENARIO: “I Deleted the Icon, but the Program Is Still There!” (She Lamented).

start example

In the earlier versions of Windows, users often ran into a bit of a problem when they decided they didn’t want a program on their computer anymore. You can see where this is going: They would just delete the icon from the desktop. Of course, the software wasn’t gone, but some software was so smart that it would replace the icon the next time the computer booted up. To the less-savvy users, this was like bringing an angry old neighbor back from the dead and was a frightening experience. (Remember, these people were afraid of computers!)

Why did this happen? Well, the obvious answer to us programmers is that the icon was a separate entity from the software. But why did it really happen?

The problem is in the mindset. Put yourself in the place of the beginning user for a moment: To such users, that icon is the program. They don’t have much of a concept of the hard drive and the files on the hard drive, much less the software consisting of a set of files buried somewhere. Microsoft has tried to help solve this problem: When you delete an icon from your desktop that is a shortcut (or a link, really) to an executable, Windows XP will warn you that you’re removing only the icon and that doing so will not uninstall the software. On the little message box that appears is also a suggestion to go to the Add Or Remove Programs section of the Control Panel. (We could probably debate whether this is really an effective solution; wouldn’t it be easier to ask the question, “Would you also like to uninstall the software?”)

When you are designing your software, put yourself in the shoes of the users. Remember that while you know that there’s a whole lot of activity going on under the hood, and that the software may consist of numerous files, to the user, the user interface (along with, apparently, the icon) is the program. And that’s true not for just beginning users; in addition to being a programmer, I’m quite an advanced user, and to me, this window I’m looking at that says Microsoft Word at the top is Microsoft Word. While I’m using it, I don’t really care about the MSO9.DLL file that’s down inside the directory somewhere, or what it does.

But let me take this a step further: Not only is the window the program, but if the controls in the window are complicated or hard to use, then that’s going to make me dislike the program. I don’t really care if the underlying code uses the latest technology and is highly optimized. None of that matters to me if the user interface stinks.

end example




Designing Highly Useable Software
Designing Highly Useable Software
ISBN: 0782143016
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 114

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