Your customers develop their perceptions about the quality of your application primarily through the user interface (UI).
A bad UI can destroy a good application, but the converse is not necessarily true. (A good UI can save a bad application.)
If it looks good to the developer it will look good to the customer.
Good programmers are good UI designers.
Your customers will know a good UI when they see it.
Completely understanding the business problem your customer is trying to solve is the most important aspect of good UI design.
Base your UI paradigm on the customer's business.
Make the first 90 percent of the work the customer does in your UI easy and the last 10 percent possible.
Give the customers alternative ways to accomplish a task.
Make complex functions simple by hiding the work involved.
The strongest way people relate objects is through proximity.
Unaligned objects tend to make customers uneasy and confused.
The eye needs to be directed towards important objects on the screen.
Windows 95
VBA
Document-centric
The main applications in Office (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint) are designed to create documents.
An Office-based application should have the same focus.
Decision Support
Compound Report
Legal/Government Document/Permit/License
Select one Office application as the container.
Decision Support—Excel
Document Generation—Word
Compare the Form design tool in each Office application.
Discuss the nuances of each when it is used as the container for the application.
Compare the editing and display objects in each Office application.
Discuss when to use each object in the UI.
Excel—Worksheets, Pivot Tables
Word—Documents, Formatting
Powerpoint—Drawing, Animation Effects
Make appropriate use of these unique objects
Integrate the UI.