Coordinating User Interfaces for Consistency (eBook)

Jakob Nielsen (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2014 | 1. Auflage
152 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-08-050315-8 (ISBN)

Infos

In the years since Jakob Nielsen's classic collection on interface consistency first appeared, much has changed, and much has stayed the same. On the one hand, there's been exponential growth in the opportunities for following or disregarding the principles of interface consistency-more computers, more applications, more users, and of course the vast expanse of the Web. On the other, there are the principles themselves, as persistent and as valuable as ever. In these contributed chapters, you'll find details on many methods for seeking and enforcing consistency, along with bottom-line analyses of its benefits and some warnings about its possible dangers. Most of what you'll learn applies equally to hardware and software development, and all of it holds real benefits for both your organization and your users. - Begins with a new preface by the collection's distinguished editor - Details a variety of methods for attaining interface consistency, including central control, user definitions, exemplary applications, shared code, and model analysis - Presents a cost-benefits analysis of organizational efforts to promote and achieve consistency - Examines and appraises the dimensions of consistency-consistency within an application, across a family of applications, and beyond - Makes the case for some unexpected benefits of interface consistency while helping you avoid the risks it can sometimes entail - Considers the consistency of interface elements other than screen design - Includes case studies of major corporations that have instituted programs to ensure the consistency of their products

Called the world's leading expert on Web usability by US News and World Report, Jakob Nielsen today serves as user advocate and principal of the Nielsen Norman Group. In the course of a career in which he held influential positions at Sun Microsystems, Bellcore, and IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center, Nielsen founded the 'discount usability engineering' movement for fast and cheap improvements of user interfaces and invented several usability methods, including heuristic evaluation. He holds 58 US patents, many of which focus on ways to make the Internet easier to use. He has written the Alertbox column on Web usability since 1995 and is the author of Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity and Usability Engineering, plus eight other books.

Inhalt

Front Cover 1
Coordinating User Interfaces for Consistency 4
Copyright Page 5
Table of Contents 6
Preface 8
Preface to the First Printing 10
Contributors 11
Chapter 1. Executive Summary: Coordinating User Interfaces for Consistency 12
Advantages of Consistency 13
The Dangers of Consistency 15
Dimensions of Consistency 16
Methods for Consistency 17
Conclusion 18
Acknowledgement 18
Chapter 2. The Dimensions of Consistency 20
Introduction 20
The Many Faces of Consistency 21
Implications for creating consistency through CUIs 29
Acknowledgements 31
Chapter 3. A COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS FOR CORPORATE USER INTERFACE STANDARDS: What price to pay for a consistent "look and feel"? 32
INTRODUCTION 32
THE SCOPE OF A CORPORATE USER INTERFACE LOOK AND FEEL 33
THE BENEFITS AND THE COSTS 36
MARKETPLACE VARIABLES 41
TECHNICAL FACTORS 42
LEGAL ISSUES 44
CONCLUSION 45
Chapter 4. Coordinating Consistency of User Interfaces, Code, Online Help, and Documentation With MultUingual/Multitarget Software Specification 46
Overview 46
Experimental Design Specißcation 48
Data Bases of Bibliographic References 49
Data Analysis System Interface 50
Command-Line-Option Parser-Generator 53
Electronic Survey System 55
Properties of Multilingual/Multitarget Programs 61
Summary and Conclusions 65
Chapter 5. Achieving Consistency for the Macintosh 68
Introduction 68
Corporate Commitment 69
Developer Community Commitment 70
Guidelines 70
Key Applications 72
Flexibility 73
Promotion 74
The Users 75
The Dealers 76
The Press 77
Full Hardware Support 78
Full Software Support 79
Expansion 81
Quality-Assurance 82
User Testing 82
Summary and conclusion 83
Chapter 6. Developing the XUI Style 86
Introduction 86
User Interface Style Guide 88
Toolkit 88
Consulting and Design 89
Electronic Communication 90
Developing a New Interface Style 93
Conclusion 97
Acknowledgments 99
Chapter 7. Consistency as Process 100
Aspects of consistency 100
Conflicts 101
Chapter 8. New Ways to Consistent Interfaces 104
Defining A More Consistent Interface 106
Tools for Defining A Consistent Interface 109
Political Support 112
Incorporating it in the Culture 114
Summary 116
Chapter 9 Tools for generating consistent user interfaces 118
Introduction 118
Overview of ITS tools 119
How the ITS architecture promotes interface consistency 123
Tools for the application expert and programmer 125
Tools for the style expert and programmer 133
Design issues in the ITS architecture 136
Extending toolkits to support consistency 140
Experience to date 141
Acknowledgements 141
Bibliography: Literature onConsistency 142
Index 150

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.6.2014
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Informatik ► Software Entwicklung ► User Interfaces (HCI)
• ISBN-10: 0-08-050315-2 / 0080503152
• ISBN-13: 978-0-08-050315-8 / 9780080503158