by Scott on June 28, 2007
Making of a Web App is Synap Software’s step-by-step look at designing and developing a web app. In this article I share one iteration of an evolution of web application design layouts for PlaybookIQ.
I set up a flickr photostream to show screenshots as they evolved. Read the rest of this blog entry first, and then go check it out.
Key points of visual design for web applications stated as expectations from people using your application:
- Proximity: items near each other are related to each other..
- Relative size: larger elements are more important.
- Relative position: elements to the top and left are more important. Elements to the bottom and right are subsets of ‘parent’ elements above and to the left of them.
- Consistency: consistent fonts and colors make an application feel more reliable and well constructed.
- Inconsistency: an occasional inconsistency should mean that something is important or needed to be called out for some reason (e.g. red text when all other is black).
- Persistent elements like ‘home’ or ‘search’ provide confidence to roam around knowing they can always get back to familiar territory.
- Sign posts: let people know where in the app they are.
- Alignment: an application in which elements line up neatly vertically and horizontally feels more professional, is more trustworthy, and easier to use.
- Whitespace is easily understood as way to separate elements that are not directly related, while a line, shading or other elements must be processed by people scanning a page.
- Context is critical. Metaphors like tabs, sign posts, and grouping help people understand what to expect at a given point in the app and helps people focus on one thing at a time.
- Choice is painful and slow. People simply want to get something done. People do not want to be asked to perform the work of making choices. Keep navigation and activity choices to a minimum.
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Posted in Make a Web App, Synap Software: Design Decisions, Making of a web app, Web Application Design
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by Scott on June 22, 2007
It’s an impressive speaker line up at the Business of Software Conference, October 29th and 30th in San Jose. Scheduled to speak: Guy Kawasaki, Joel Spolsky, Eric Sink, Rick Chapman, Bill Buxton, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Hugh MacLeod, Dan Nunan, Tim Lister, Jennifer Aaker and others to be announced.
In the words of organizer Neil Davidson:In October 1999 Simon Galbraith and I [Neil] set up Red Gate Software. Over the past 8 years we’ve grown from 2 people to almost 100. Although we have had our successes, we’ve also made plenty of mistakes. The people who I’ve invited to speak at Business of Software 2007 are world-class thinkers, doers, writers and speakers who I wish I’d heard of earlier, and listened to more. I’m hoping that by bringing them together in one place, over two days, we will all learn how to set up, grow and run our businesses better.
Sign up for their mailing list here and you’ll get a free 319 page e-book:Eric Sink’s ‘Business of Software’.
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by Scott on June 21, 2007
Making of a Web App is Synap Software’s step-by-step look at designing and developing a web app. In this article I share why, despite best attempts by the anti-paperwork crowd, I like written use cases.
Use cases:
- Contribute directly to the final, deployed app.
- Expose risks to simplicity.
- Expose the level of development work required.
- Are the easiest way to iterate, collaborate and communicate.
Use Cases
Briefly put: a use case can be anything that documents how a person will accomplish a task with your application and how the application will respond. In this article I use the term to mean written use cases (as opposed to diagrams or sketches).
Click here for an example.
Some developers do not write use cases because doing so feels too much like writing documentation and documentation is not the purpose of building a system. So, in an effort to work only on things that directly contribute to building the app, people skip over the use case step and jump right to visual design or sketches (or even just start hacking out code). I have to say that back in my developer-only days, I was that way too. I saw anything but code as wasted time. Now, I don’t. Here are four reasons why I don’t skip the use case step.
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Posted in Making of a web app, Programming, Web Application Design, Make a Web App
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by Scott on June 19, 2007
Money, get away.
Get a good job with good pay and you’re okay.
Money, its a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream, Think I’ll buy me a football team.
Everyone, sing it with me:
New box, database, VP daydream, Think I’ll buy me an IT team.
Money
In Making of a Web App I said that new software projects should simplify scope for increased likelyhood of success, greater end-user satisfaction, and key stakeholders who get what they need instead of a version diluted by dozens of others’ desires.
Yet, on large projects with dozens of stakeholders – such as is common on corporate IT efforts – it’s impossible to effectively reduce and simplify. There are decades of project management best practices and strategies for helping large, complex projects succeed. This post is a warning to those new to the industry and new to corporate IT efforts: don’t try reduce and simplify at your office. It won’t work. And here’s why.
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by Scott on June 18, 2007
Making of a Web App is Synap Software’s step-by-step look at designing and developing a web app. In this article we get a little bit ahead of ourselves and talk about styleguides.
Early PlaybookIQ Styleguide decisions:
- Use of the International Style
- Tab-based navigation
- Persistent search box
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Posted in Making of a web app, Synap Software: Design Decisions, Make a Web App | 7 trackbacks
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