
Principles of UI design - tomazstolfa
http://bokardo.com/principles-of-user-interface-design/
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droithomme
No examples and prose combining platitudes with vague, hand waving grandiose
manifesto language is a big red flag.

It's got some horrible advice from the get-go: "One hundred clear screens is
preferable to a single cluttered one." is terrible advice. One hundred screens
for a task is an absolute disaster.

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RivieraKid
I think you are being too critical. Yes, examples would be nice but all of
these principles seem very reasonable. Also the design is beautiful.

Of course "One hundred clear screens is preferable to a single cluttered one."
should not be taken literally. The point is that clear screen is much better
than cluttered screen.

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ender7
1\. Respect your users

2\. Respect their time

3\. Respect that they are different from you

If you find yourself thinking "now I have to change it so stupid people can
use it" then you will never make a UI worth a damn.

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ralphleon
Whenever I read an article like this, I immediately check out the designer's
work afterwards.

<http://www.hubspot.com/pricing/>

This page, does not really follow "Conserve attention at all costs" when
there's a 4x7 pricing grid with confusing information scattered about it. The
rest of hubspot's design is equally banal, perhaps the author has some other
role in the company than design?

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gyardley
Joshua Porter works at HubSpot because they bought his previous startup,
Performable. That pricing page design may have preceded him.

A Google image search for 'Performable' turns up lots of screenshots.

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dshah
Indeed, Josh works at HubSpot and the pricing page on our website preceded his
joining. So, he shouldn't be blamed for it.

Having said that, HubSpot has spent a lot of time on designing our pricing
model (vs. the pricing page).

For our first 2 years, HubSpot had a single price ($250/month). We've since
run many, many pricing experiments and though the complexity bugs me
sometimes, it's working.

But now that this thread is going, I think there are things we can do the
improve the pricing page (even if we leave the pricing model the same).

~~~
dhyasama
This is a great reminder that it is important to run experiments to test your
hypothesis. It's easy to fall into the simple, simple, simple mindset when
designing but sometimes that doesn't drive the most sales. If a more complex
design makes more money then that is the "right" design. After all, at the end
of the day HubSpot is a business.

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barking
I found this article a tough read.

I like Jef Raskins 2 principles :

First Law: A computer shall not harm your work or, through inactivity, allow
your work to come to harm.

Second Law: A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more
work than is strictly necessary.

IMO everything else follows from these

~~~
andrewflnr
But it doesn't always follow obviously. All of math follows from set theory,
but we still teach most of it explicitly. You don't always want to be deriving
details from broad principles like "don't waste the users' time".

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munaf
This is a decent list, but visual examples would help.

If anyone's interested, many of these ideas are derived from Nielsen's
heuristics [1] as well as Tognazzini's [2].

[1] <http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html>

[2] <http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html>

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saint-loup
Yet another loose collection of vague "principles" for UI design who are, in
fact, just rules of thumb.

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ricardobeat
While most items are sound in principle, this is very much focused on _web
interfaces_ , not user interface design as a whole, and even then on
_websites_ and not _webapps_.

There are different kinds of UIs, some focus on productivity, some on specific
goals, some on fleeting interactions; some for a general audience, others for
people with very specific domain knowledge. These principles are far from
general, naming it a more casual "20 rules for web design" would be more
appropriate.

For all we know, despite not pretty this could be a very efficient interface:
<http://www.apcconsultants.com/TCAR%20Control%20Screen25.JPG>

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_pius
I'm seeing a lot of criticism (mostly unfair IMO) of these principles, but
I'll say that Josh Porter's book "Designing for the Social Web" is a must-
read. Easily one of the most accessible, practical, and insightful design
books I've read.

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mitjak
This could enjoy some concrete examples. I tend to stay away from articles and
books that make me feel like I've learnt something, but unless examples follow
closely, I've just fooled myself into thinking that I've acquired new
knowledge.

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the_cat_kittles
The "axiomatic" approach to design (and art) is usually backward. Even if you
arrive at some sort of basic principles after a while, someone else cannot
read them and know what it means to apply them until they have tried to design
many things. There is a rich context to what everyone says about design, and
you cannot learn it without repeatedly trying to design and improve things.

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tb303
principles of being a good ui designer: stop trying to make a name for
yourself

these sorts of lists drive me nuts because they merely serve to direct
attention to the author instead of allowing the audience to find much more
reputable and proven information (e.g., the raskin rules mentioned below)

i am happy to see the comments here indicating others agree.

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Falling3
I'm always a bit disappointed by these kinds of UIX posts. As droithomme
pointed out it's vague, but still in a way too specific.

I've found that pretty much all of these guides are extremely specific to
blogs and the web in general (with good reason I realize). It would be nice to
see more information about generalized interface design. For example, I work
in home automation and a GUI can make or break the system. I know there have
been books written on the subject. I'd really like to see contributions from
contemporary designers that are useful enough to be employed in a variety of
settings.

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dreamdu5t
I think this should be the #1 principle: "Define success in terms of your UI."
Before you set out to design an interface you must decide what actions that
interface should expose and facilitate, and which of those actions constitute
success.

First you decide what the user should do - then you design around that. I know
it sounds obvious and practical, but 9/10 companies I've worked for started
designing the interface before they decided on what the interface should
accomplish.

~~~
andrewflnr
Mightn't that be better phrased "define your UI in terms of user success"?

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sshillo
It seems like the same principles apply all over the place. Keeping things
clear and simple whether you are designing a web page, an algorithm or some
module is always the best way to go. In what situation would making something
convoluted and overly complex be a good idea.

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michaelpinto
Here's a rule that was broken: Try to not present more than 7 to 10 choices or
items at one time (and yes a list of 20 bullet points that scrolls under the
fold breaks that rule)

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tdrgabi
why is FixThisPOSSite comment so downvoted?

I feel like he contributed to the discussions.

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arocks
TLDR: User interfaces should follow the principle of least surprise.

