Introduction

You have written an extremely good application. It’s stable, cross-platform, and it fills a need that needs to be filled. There’s just one problem. Your user interface stinks. Are people going to use it?

Well, it depends on the application. An application targeted at professionals (animation, video editing, etc.) will have users that are technically-comfortable and won’t mind having to get used to a difficult-to-use interface if they get the ability to use a powerful application in return.

An application targeted towards anybody, such as an email client, will have to be easy to use. Here are some things that might cause loud people to shout “FAIL!” at your user interface.

Things to avoid

1) Dialog boxes

Dialog boxes are annoying for the following reasons.

• They steal focus from other windows.
• They interrupt workflow.
• You can get a bunch of dialog boxes at once, and then you’re busy clicking away (or using keyboard shortcuts).
• The bunch of dialog boxes effect mentioned above also messes with your task bar
• Sometimes, they refuse to return focus to other applications until an option is selected.

Another reason that dialog boxes stink is that their functionality can be entirely replaced by other things. Messages in a status bar, splash screens in a window, and so forth can easily replace what dialog boxes are used for.

2) Important (mouse-activated) controls next to frequently used (mouse-activated) controls

Let’s say you have a “Delete your hard drive” button next to a “Start Firefox” button on a desktop. You know that’s bound for absolute failure.

The above example is rather extreme with a really important control next to a really frequently used control. Things that are irreversible, like deleting a blog post, should not be controlled with a button next to a button that open a window for editing the same blog post.

3) Hard to find stuff

You’ve worked really hard on including a lot of powerful features in your application, and making those features bug-free. Your users, for some reason, are not impressed with your application. Why?

Maybe because your totally awesome features are hidden somewhere your users cannot find them. If your users cannot find your feature, there was no point in making it. That’s why it is important

4) Something totally different

Don’t stray out of a user’s comfort zone. Make your application look and feel like other applications. Have keyboard shortcuts that follow other applications (You should also allow your keyboard shortcuts and toolbar organization to be editable so users can customize your application to their comfort zone).

5) Not much contrast

You have a dark gray background and some slightly lighter gray text. How are users supposed to read things in your interface if there’s low contrast? Not being able to read things clearly is a definite sign that your user interface is going to fail badly.

For additional reading, you can check out Debbi Campbell’s “5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Website’s Legibility.” Although the article was written for web developers, the tips apply to anywhere you see text.