Designing Forms, Reports, and
Screens
CMIS570
Week 11
Introduction
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Human factors in designing HCI
General design guidelines
Users’ bias
Design specifications
SDLC
Project Identification
& Selection
Project Initiation
& Planning
Analysis
Logical Design
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Physical Design
Implementation
Maintenance
We Are Designing for
Humans
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Faulty nature of human
knowledge and memory, so…
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General Guidelines Categories
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Layout
Text
Color
Highlighting
Navigation
Layout Guidelines
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1. Create a unique site identity and strive
for consistency
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2.
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Fonts
What is background, foreground
Graphics size, color, shape
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3
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4
Text Guidelines
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Avoid large blocks of text; reading is
25% less efficient online
Limit lines of text to 60 characters
Left justify text to improve readability
Avoid words in all upper case letters
Clear and specific titles describing
content and use
No hyphens, abbreviations, or acronyms
Revision date or date when data was
generated
Color Guidelines
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Only useful when information is most
effectively displayed (cannot improve
on garbage)
Limit browser-safe colors to 3 or 4
complimentary colors
Simplify background
Can be soothing, provide interest,
emphasize logical organization, and
draw attention to warnings
Can degrade resolution and fidelity
with different display units and can be
a problem for color blindness
Highlighting Guidelines
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Includes blinking, audible tones, color
differences, intensity differences,
size differences, font
differences, boxing, underlining,
ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, offsetting
positions, and reverse video
Use sparingly to draw user to or away
from certain information (errors,
warnings, keywords, high priority
messages, changed data, data outside
normal ranges
Use consistently
Navigation Guidelines
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1. Use consistent means of navigation
with visual cues.
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What Is Wrong With This?
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USE MIXED UPPER & LOWER CASE
AND --(CONVENTIONAL
PUNCTUATION)
 USE DOUBLE SPACING IF SPACE
PERMITS
 LEFT-JUSTIFY TEXT AND LEAVE
A RAGGED RIGHT MARGIN
 DO NOT HYPHENATE WORDS BETWEEN LINES
 UAAACOWU
 NO GRAPHIC EXPLANATION
Information Bias
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How you format information
influences how it is
perceived by the user
Bias includes providing
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Design Specifications for
Forms, Reports, & Screens
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Narrative Overview
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Who will use it?
What & when is the task performed?
Sample Design
Testing and usability assessment
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Can you complete the task efficiently?
(time to learn, speed of performance, rate
of errors, rate of retention)
Is the form/report accurate?
(expectations, confidence)
Do you like using the form/report?
(satisfaction)
Guidelines to Design
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Maintain consistency and standards
Allow shortcuts and accelerator keys
Provide feedback to user actions
Provide logical sequencing & closure
Report all errors & suggest solutions
Allow for reversals of actions
Make the user feel in control
Provide simplicity and ease of use
Related Web Sites
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www.websitesthatsuck.com
www.webreview.com
www.useit.com
www.killersites.com
www.lynda.com