Unfortunately, I was just notified of this thread and haven't had much time to read through all of Alan's poignant ramblings. Though, since my name was thrown out there, "Or better yet, let Anthony loose to speak his mind given the excellence of his work.", I thought I'd chime in.
I first need to wonder if anyone has mentioned the word ERGONOMICS. More over, take a look at Engineering Psychology.
[Link: en.wikipedia.org]Somewhere in the mad scientist mind of Alan, there is a good point. I'm pretty sure he's trying to emphasize the melding of design and function above and beyond aesthetics. I'd like to make some alterations though.
In fact, an excellent graphic user interface requires no colors or textures at all. A superb graphic user interface is one that achieves the goal of allowing the user to navigate and successfully operate a system with minimal physical or mental effort. It should be well devised and (in a perfect world) meet certain ergonomic criteria laid out by the IEA (International Ergonomics Association). This in and of itself does not require more than a monochromatic design to indicate active and inactive controls with some dynamic feedback.
The most perfect example of a user interface is the rocker style light switch. Can you do any better?
The general idea is to start with pencil and paper and develop a wireframe study that simply illustrates navigational theory. If you can visualize simple and ergonomic system control from a pencil and paper drawing, then you can pat yourself on the back. Build upon this with all your fancy colors and art work, etc. When I look around though, I see some really harsh and painful looking touch panels. Some of you would be better off just using square B&W buttons. The ergonomics are laid out just fine, it's the choice of colors and overuse of graphic elements (shading, bevels, drop shadows) that make them confusing and painful to look at. Know your personal limitations with the software and work within those limitations. If your GUI looks like something Liberace would approve of, you might want to start over.
We like to use our touch panel designs as a branding device for our company. We feel that when you have more than one interface out in the world you've lost your brand identity. Even if you purchase a template from one of the many fine GUi developers we have to choose from, pick ONE and stick with it. Don't forget that, at the end of the day, the only thing the client remembers about you is what you've shoved in front of their face every single day. Don't you want their friends to come in and say I want THAT in my house? From my perspective, YOUR GUI IS YOUR COMPANY. But I'm the graphics guy, it's my job to think that way.
So when you look at the video that EJ linked to, you'll notice that it isn't too fancy. I like to think of it as elegant and uncluttered. Simple enough for most people to use without instruction. And I love big buttons. The bigger the better. I used to install car stereos for many years. The biggest complaint of the 50+ crowd was that the buttons on their new car stereo were too small. They loved the big buttons on their factory stereo. And AM, gawd they loved Am.
Is it perfect? Of course not. I know I've failed at some general aspects of user interface design. There are always compromises that limit what you can do and how much time you can spend on the design. The boss thinks they know what a UI should look like because of what everyone else on RC and IP love. The client wants VCR+ to work even though they haven't used the thing in 7 years. The programmer says all clients love X feature even though it makes no sense to you and requires that you completely redesign the source page. You know what else sucks, a million different screen resolutions to work with. Just when you finalize you're gorgeous new TPMC17 GUI they throw a V15 AND a V12 at you. REALLY?!
Oh yeah, gestures and screen rotation, etc. This stuff does not make for an especially ergonomic interface. Start from the beginning and if it makes sense to add some special effects then use them. Not all of our iPad pages rotate, only the ones that can benefit from a portrait layout. Doesn't it make more sense to develop an interface in landscape mode since all the other Crestron touch panels in the house are also landscape?? Consistency. Oh, that's a huge one. Consistency! Thanks Crestron Mobile Pro G.
Gestures definitely add to the wow-factor and really set the iPad (and Crestron VPanels I suppose, 'barf') apart from any other control system on the market today (your selling point). With more and more iPhones and Androids in peoples hands these days, users expect things to swipe and scroll. Just yesterday, EJ tried to swipe to the next page on his MX-600.
For anyone serious about the psychology of human and machine interaction, there are a ton of books out there to start with. Perhaps this one,
[Link: amazon.com]
