Nielsen Full day training course offered at Usability Week Toronto
Application Usability: Day 1
Principles of desktop and laptop application usability, with an analysis of application screen components
Graphical user interfaces have a rich vocabulary with screen components for many different situations. Poor design and implementation of these screen components have profound implications on the overall user experience.
In this seminar, we’ll explore the behavior of application screen components, or widgets, including both standard behaviors that users expect and unique interface
components designed for specific interactions.
Please note: This course does not cover mobile apps. If you’re designing for mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android, or iPad, consider our course on Apps for touchscreen devices.
Topics
- Discuss and practice ways user research can best inform application design
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Design patterns
- How patterns come together in a UI to convey meaning
- Explore the design patterns that users expect for common tasks and how they interpret these patterns
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Creating new apps
- Process
- Researching users
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Learn which screen element (widget) to use in which circumstance and when to deviate from standards and style guides
- Selection
- Data entry
- Buttons
- Manipulation
- Editing
- Grouping
- Chronology
- Hybrid controls
- Error messages, notifications, and help
- How to choose between different widgets that perform similar functions
- Layout and priority
- Variations of standard controls
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Communicating with users
- Progress indicators
- Communicating errors
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Layout guidelines for common tasks
- Structuring and navigating commands and features
- Managing and selecting from object lists
- Form-filling
- Editing
- User assistance
Format
The basis of the course is a lecture format with a couple of group exercises to reinforce the learned principles and guidelines.
The course also includes:
- Findings from our own usability studies
- Videos from usability testing showing people's behavior in response to a design
- Screenshots of designs that work and don’t work, and why
- Opportunities to ask questions and get answers
Companion Course
Application Usability: Day 2 is a companion course to Application Usability: Day 1. Each course can be taken independently. Application Usability: Day 2 covers:
- Methods for choosing and integrating the right workflows into your applications
- Internationalization issues and accessibility concerns
- Big applications, little applications, and everything in-between
- User-centered application development lifecycle
Instructor
Garrett Goldfield
Garrett Goldfield is a User Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group with 20 years of practical experience. At Nielsen Norman Group, Goldfield has consulted for clients in a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, automotive, health care, financial, media, telecommunications, education, art and non-profits, as well as highly specialized B2B sites. Read more about Garrett
Garrett Goldfield is a User Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group with 20 years of practical experience. At Nielsen Norman Group, Goldfield has consulted for clients in a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, automotive, health care, financial, media, telecommunications, education, art and non-profits, as well as highly specialized B2B sites. Read more about Garrett