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Usable GUI Design: A Quick Guide for F/OSS Developers

Submitted by Eugenia on Thu, 2004-11-18 16:15. Usability
Usability

Free and open source software is often criticised for being less usable than its commercial equivalent. Good user interface design isn't some magical thing that FOSS developers can't do for themselves, however. Benjamin Roe has written a short article describing five key points of good interface design that any developer can use in their projects. (Note: hosted on a slow connection, please use the Coral Cache if possible). Gnome's usability is discussed there among Firefox and Konqueror.

Re:Fitt's law

Submitted by Anonymous George on Fri, 2004-11-19 13:38.

The edge of the window and the edge of the screen coincide for the vast majority of the time using a computer. Who browses the web or uses a word processor or text editor in a non-maximised window? The vast majority of man-hours spent using computers are spent with one application maximised on the screen.

Why would anyone want to put a scrollbar one pixel from the edge of the screen in a maximised window? What purpose does it serve other than to annoy the user?

It says right in the article that the points are nothing new or complex. Yet, there are hundreds of examples where these 'common-sense' rules are violated.

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