Designing a User Interface

UI design can be divided into three essential elements : functionality, aesthetics, and performance.

The following are some design phase tasks that can contribute to a successful UI for a Windows application.

User Analysis

The simplest and most informal approach is talking to the intended users of the product.

Remember, do not to ask leading or biased questions as this will directly affect the quality and validity of the user feedback. Keep the following in mind when composing questions during this phase:

• Who are our users? What skills and knowledge do they have?
• What different sources of data can we use to understand their experience?
• What goals and tasks will they use our product to complete?
• What assumptions are we making and how can we verify them?
• What sources of data do we have? (Usability studies and heuristic evaluations are good places to start.)

Priorities

Setting priorities requires the ability to evaluate on at least three criteria: schedule, team, and business. 

Is there a designer or usability engineer on the team? What skills with Web or UI design does the team have? Last, and most important, are business considerations. What are the revenue goals for this project? Who are the competitors? What are the advantages of solving certain problems? What partnerships can be forged? Any other considerations should also be identified before prioritizing the list.

 

Logical Design

The logical design phase is when the initial prototypes that support the conceptual design are developed.

In addition to the development tools, the various hardware requirements and form factors that are to be targeted by the application should be identified.