Travel costs extra. Prices higher outside the United States.

Outline

The basics of any application are the screen elements that users interact with to make the application do their bidding. Graphical user interfaces have a rich vocabulary, with design components for many different situations. Each of these building blocks may seem simple, but using them correctly is not that easy and has profound implications for the usability of the overall user experience. There are also many borderline cases where it's difficult to determine how to use the controls correctly.

The first day covers the behavior of each component of an application screen (widgets), describing both the standard behaviors that users expect and also novel interface components designed for specific interactions. Attendees will learn when to use and how to properly display each building block of the user interface.

The second day moves beyond understanding UI components, and shows you how to apply UI components to create more effective flows for different tasks. Learn methods for integrating flows into applications, drawing on examples from diverse product types — from collaborative workflows to data-intensive applications. You will also gain an understanding of internationalization issues, accessibility concerns, and receive guidance on helping users simply enjoy working with the applications you design.

Workshop Outline

• Design primitives: when to use what widgets, and how to use them
• Selection
• menus
• hierarchies
• choices from long lists
• tabs
• Data entry
• form fields
• label placement
• in-line descriptions and assistance
• Buttons
• button behavior
• radio buttons and checkboxes
• tool bars
• command links
• Manipulation
• scroll bars and sliders
• multimedia controls
• item manipulation controls (handles, frames, rotators)
• Editing
• standard edit controls
• selection behaviors
• Progressive disclosure
• expandable areas on the screen
• scrolling areas within the screen
• Grouping
• group boxes
• white space
• Hybrid controls
• menu and split buttons
• choosing exactly n options
• linked controls
• timeline controls
• image maps as selectors
• Notifications
• tool tips
• balloons
• system notifications
• Variations of the standard controls
• How to handle borderline cases
• When is it appropriate to “roll your own” controls?
• Window types: which type to use, and when
• Kiosk-style, full-screen windows
• Primary windows
• Secondary windows
• dialogs
• alerts
• Communicating with users
• Progress indication
• Communicating errors
• Design patterns: layout guidelines for common tasks
• Structuring and navigating commands and features
• grouping principles
• cognitive principles
• layout basics
• Managing and selecting from lists of objects
• Form-filling
• Working with tables
• Searching
• Editing
• Printing
• Saving
• Dialog boxes
• Error messages
• User assistance
• User-centered application design
• Tasks versus technology
• Techniques for determining how users work
• users aren’t designers, but they can help
• what users say, versus what they do
• Task analysis
• Turning user tasks into applications
• Workflow: behavior guidelines for common task flows
• Workflow concepts
• progressive disclosure
• smart defaults
• user-controlled, versus being led
• Different flow structures
• task-driven
• document-driven
• user-driven
• client/customer/caller-driven
• event-driven
• Installation/loading process
• Dashboards and application “homepages” to centralize task access
• Wizards
• Forms-based applications
• Secondary windows
• Application usability guidance
• Making the UI seem fast and responsive
• Error handling
• Archiving
• Shortcuts and accelerators, including keyboard commands, versus mouse use
• Specific guidelines by application type
• Native applications
• Hosted (client/server, Web) applications
• Customizing off-the-shelf products
• Personal applications (e.g. photo management)
• E-commerce applications
• Collaborative workflow
• Complex problem solving
• Mini applications (applets), and ephemeral applications
• Integrating a website and an associated application, and maintaining continuity
• For example, a home-banking application linked to online financial services information
• International and multi-language considerations
• Accessibility concerns
• Buzzwords — AJAX, XML, Web 2.0 — and what they mean for Web applications
• Designing for user experience
• Design is everyone’s responsibility
• How to differentiate your application
• Voice
• Delighting users

Who Should Attend

Designers, program managers, usability engineers, and developers can all benefit from this guidance, as the class covers interaction design and task analysis along with the guidelines. No prior knowledge of usability methods is assumed, and the day is intended to appeal to all disciplines. The focus is on the user experience of applications, so no code samples will be discussed; a programming background is not required.

How to Order

Please contact Nielsen Norman Group at info@nngroup.com if you are interested in more information or would like to request this workshop. Note that availability of our senior staff is highly variable: usually we need at least one month's notice. If you need the workshop on a specific date or if international travel is involved, two to three months' notice would be preferable.

The listed price is for workshops within the United States. Events in other countries have a higher cost.