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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

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.

"If Firefox would actually ha

Submitted by Anonymous George on Fri, 2004-11-19 20:24.

"If Firefox would actually have a Back button that looked as silly as the one in the example given in this article, it certainly wouldn't be a threat to IE."

You'd think that we'd have heard more about that plague that killed every graphic designer on Earth. I mean, at the least you'd think a 30-second segment on CNN Headline News would be in order. But here we are, stuck in a world where we can dismiss a two-second mockup to illustrate a UI principle, because that's exactly how the final product will look.

"Almost everyone can hit a button the size of Firefox's Back button w/o risking to hit the button next to it."

Oh, I see: if you can do something, then that's good enough.

No, wait, I'm mistaken. You actually said that if almost everybody can do something, that's good enough. Who are these people you think don't deserve to use a computer that runs free software? Do they get to pay for Windows, where Longhorn will have a larger Back than Forward button (99% Firefox market share, here we come!) or should we just bar them from owning any electronics ever?

"The buttons should be on a fixed grid and all icons should be of the same size."

If your sense of aesthetics is offended when a button that is used two hundred times a day is slightly easier to hit than one that is used three times a day, it is time to take your sense of aesthetics and drown it in the bathtub. Be sure to not look too closely at the bathtub, though; I hear that bathroom designers have this new thing where the hot and cold water controls are larger and easier to grasp than the switch that toggles between shower and faucet.

"it would make it difficult to understand the toolbar metapher"

Oh God will this be hilarious. Go ahead and relate the interior monologue of the poor, confused user who is stunned into inactivity and incomprehension by the Back button being larger than the Forward button. Be sure to explain how they even got the computer in the first place, of course; every Best Buy I've ever been to has large handles on all the doors to facilitate pushing and pulling on them at the correct location. They say it makes things easier, but me, I just think it ruins the door's platonic ideal of gridness....

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