RE: Are there any global standards for User Interface Design?

["walden miller" <wmiller -at- vidiom -dot- com>]

Amelia wrote:
...
When I was studying hypertext usability in
grad school ten years ago, there was only one meta
analysis on hypertext usability (i.e. UI design) and
it was by Jacob Nielsen. He gently pointed out in this
analysis that of the researchers delving into the
subject, some (i.e. Schneiderman) were doing more to
promote themselves and their products than to add to
the body of knowledge.

...

Plus, the whole aspect of UI design is based on
usability which bases its conclusions on "noisy data."
There will be some givens, such as don't use red text
on a blue background, but most of those are obvious to
designers anyway.

....

Walden:
I agree that a lot of conclusions are based on noisy data, but there are
many many studies out there, they are just hard to find without a good
design library.  But the real issue is not the number of studies on UI; its
that there are few good books that have pulled all the research together.
Much of the research is contradictory (as are users). Much of the research
points to very very contextual UI patterns and behaviors.  That is the
nature of usability studies, however.

Horton and Tufte have certainly given it a very good go with their UI books,
and my advice is to read as much as possible on the subject of design.  This
will give you all of the background to discuss and understand issues of
symmetry/asymmetry, fonts, ground, readability, etc. There are some
excellent reading lists out there (usually compiled by a professor of design
and/or rhetoric -- or one of their grad students :) ).  AND then if you are
really wanting to understand UI, get into focus testing of UI's.

You learn an amazing amount of information very quickly about how people
react to UI design and how people interact with software/hardware in focus
tests.

Philips Media (sub of Philips, NV) had a very excellent (unpublished)
multimedia designers guide they wrote in the 90's.  I have a draft copy and
have been trying to run down the final version for the past 6 years to no
avail.  

walden


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