Elsevier: Johnson: Gui Bloopers Table of Contents

The Table of Contents is also available as a PDF.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 First Principles

Introduction

Basic Principle 1: Focus on the users and their tasks, not on the technology

Basic Principle 2: Consider function first, presentation later

Basic Principle 3: Conform to the users’ view of the task

Basic Principle 4: Design for the common case

Basic Principle 5: Don’t distract users from their goals

Basic Principle 6: Facilitate learning

Basic Principle 7: Deliver information, not just data

Basic Principle 8: Design for responsiveness

Basic Principle 9: Try it out on users, then fix it!

Chapter 2 GUI Control Bloopers

Introduction

Using the wrong control

Blooper 1: Confusing checkboxes and radio buttons

Blooper 2: Using a checkbox for a non-ON/OFF setting

Blooper 3: Using command buttons as toggles

Blooper 4: Using tabs as radio buttons

Blooper 5: Too many tabs

Blooper 6: Using input controls for display-only data

Blooper 7: Overusing text fields for constrained input

Using controls wrongly

Blooper 8: Dynamic menus

Blooper 9: Intolerant data fields

Blooper 10: Input fields and controls with no default

Blooper 11: Poor defaults

Blooper 12: Negative checkboxes

Chapter 3 Navigation Bloopers

Introduction

Not showing users where they are

Blooper 13: Window or page not identified

Blooper 14: Same title on different windows

Blooper 15: Window title doesn’t match command or link

Leading users astray and not showing the way

Blooper 16: Distracting off-path buttons and links

Blooper 17: Self-links

Blooper 18: Too many levels of dialog boxes

Poor search navigation

Blooper 19: Competing search boxes

Blooper 20: Poor search results browsing

Blooper 21: Noisy search results

Chapter 4 Textual Bloopers

Download the Chapter 4 PDF

Introduction

Uncommunicative text

Blooper 22: Inconsistent terminology

Blooper 23: Unclear terminology

Blooper 24: Bad writing

Blooper 25: Too much text

Developer-centric text

Blooper 26: Speaking Geek

Blooper 27: Calling users "user" to their face

Blooper 28: Vague error messages

Misleading text

Blooper 29: Erroneous messages

Blooper 30: Text makes sense in isolation but is misleading in the GUI

Blooper 31: Misuse (or nonuse) of "..." on command labels

Chapter 5 Graphic Design and Layout Bloopers

Introduction

Bad layout and window placement

Blooper 32: Easily missed information

Blooper 33: Mixing dialog box control buttons with content control buttons

Blooper 34: Misusing group boxes

Blooper 35: Radio buttons too far apart

Blooper 36: Labels too far from data fields

Blooper 37: Inconsistent label alignment

Blooper 38: Bad initial window location

Troublesome typography

Blooper 39: Tiny fonts

Chapter 6 Interaction Bloopers

Introduction

Deviating from task focus

Blooper 40: Exposing the implementation to users

Blooper 41: Needless restrictions

Blooper 42: Confusable concepts

Requiring unnecessary steps

Blooper 43: Asking users for unneeded data

Blooper 44: Asking users for random seeds

Blooper 45: Pointless choice

Burdening users’ memory

Blooper 46: Hard to remember ID

Blooper 47: Long instructions that go away too soon

Blooper 48: Unnecessary or poorly marked modes

Taking control away from users

Blooper 49: Automatic rearrangement of display

Blooper 50: Dialog boxes that trap users

Blooper 51: "Cancel" doesn’t cancel

Chapter 7 Responsiveness Bloopers

Introduction

Common responsiveness bloopers

Blooper 52: Cursor doesn’t keep up

Blooper 53: On-screen buttons acknowledge clicks too late

Blooper 54: Menus, sliders, and scrollbars lag behind

Blooper 55: Moving and sizing operations don’t keep up

Blooper 56: Application doesn’t indicate that it is busy

Blooper 57: Application is unresponsive during internal housekeeping

Blooper 58: Long operations don’t display progress

Blooper 59: Long operations provide no way to cancel

Blooper 60: Application wastes idle time

Blooper 61: Application gives no feedback when it hangs

Blooper 62: Web site has huge images and animations

Blooper 63: Web site always reloads whole pages in response to small edits

Reasons for poor responsiveness

Reason 1: The facts about responsiveness are not widely known

Reason 2: UI designers rarely consider responsiveness during design

Reason 3: Programmers equate responsiveness with performance

Reason 4: Programmers treat user input like machine input

Reason 5: Developers use simple implementations

Reason 6: GUI software tools, components, and platforms are inadequate

Reason 7: Managers hire GUI programmers who lack the required skill

Avoiding responsiveness bloopers: Design principles

Responsiveness Principle 1: Responsiveness is not the same as performance

Responsiveness Principle 2: Processing resources are always limited

Responsiveness Principle 3: The user interface is a real-time interface

Responsiveness Principle 4: All delays are not equal: software need not do everything immediately

Responsiveness Principle 5: Software need not do tasks in the order in which they were requested

Responsiveness Principle 6: Software need not do everything it was asked to do

Responsiveness Principle 7: Human users are not computer programs

Avoiding responsiveness bloopers: Techniques

Timely feedback

Parallel problem solution

Queue optimization

Dynamic time management

Summary of responsiveness techniques

Chapter 8 Management Bloopers

Introduction

Counterproductive attitude

Blooper 64: Treating UI as low priority

Blooper 65: Misunderstanding what user interface professionals do

Blooper 66: Discounting the value of testing and iterative design

Counterproductive process

Blooper 67: Anarchic development

Blooper 68: No task expertise on the team

Blooper 69: Using poor tools and building blocks

Blooper 70: Giving programmers the fastest computers

Appendices

Appendix A: Glossary

Appendix B: How this book was usability tested

Appendix C: Task analysis of creating slide presentations—questions

Appendix D: Illustrating simplicity—the object/action matrix

Appendix E: Usability tests for every time and purpose

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Web Appendix: Color Bloopers

Download the Web Appendix pdf

Blooper 71: Text hard to read on background

Blooper 72: Relying on subtle color differences

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