Are we there yet?

Of all the elements of software development, I think it’s the UI that I spend the most time pondering. I don’t really care how pure my object model is, or normalized my database is, or whether curly braces are better or not. I kind of assume that that stuff is in order, and yes, it is very annoying working with dodgy software at any level (trust me I know dodgy software).

No, I’m most interested in the user. I get more of a kick when a user goes wow! than a fellow software developer, dunno why, just do. Perhaps it’s because users have higher expectations, or perhaps I just think it’s really hard to build a really good UI.

Interestingly, I don’t have an artistic bone in my body, so I’m no good at creating beautiful icons, or coordinating colours, but I’m getting to know what makes a good UI, mostly by studying others, either good or bad.

I’m a big fan of Inductive User Interfaces (IUIs) or Web Style navigation. Here’s just one example of this style of UI (not necessarily the best).

Of course, I’m stating the obvious when I say that this style is not appropriate for all occasions, and I’m not here to lecture anyone on when it isn’t appropriate, but I’ve had some success recently using this style of navigation in a couple of business applications that I’ve been involved in recently.

Interestingly, although many people criticise IUIs for being too ‘dumb’ for power users, my users who use the same single app day in and day out, seem to be really happy with the IUI approach compared to their previous app, which was basically document-centric.

I also think the IUI approach is great for anything that’s basically automating a workflow, e.g: loan approvals, sales automation, payroll processing etc. The IUI approach just seems to keep everything fairly simple.

 So, I’ll probably explore the UI a bit in the next post or two, see what we can come up with for kwips