Simple User Interfaces

One aspect of software development that is unfortunately often overlooked in the rush to get the application released on time is the user interface. Simple user interfaces take up more time to design than a complicated looking user interface. An analogy exists in writing: it is sometimes easier to write a couple of pages on a particular topic than a brief and concise one pager.

At Charonite we particularly like clean interfaces such as those on Google's homepage and products, the Apple iPhone app home screen, Microsoft's ribbon in the Office suite of products, 37 Signals' web-based applications, the Netherland's train kiosk user interface and many others. Our software needs to run in a variety of different environments and hardware platforms including web-based applications running inside a normal Internet browser, specialised PDAs such as the SmarTerminal or the Motorola MC75, and indoor / outdoor touchscreen based kiosk interfaces such as the Park and Go terminals.

The Charonite User Interface design process has been refined over the years and generally consists of the following steps:

• Initial meetings with the client to identify the different features and functions together with the context in which the applications will be used
• Reusing existing screens and user interface solutions that may exist in our products, while ensuring that the resulting interface conforms to the Charonite User Interface guidelines
• Sketching the initial set of screens and use cases and getting rapid feedback from the client
• At this stage the actual intended deployment platform of the application needs to be considered:
• Web-based Obulue Platform applications need to load fast and have as much interactivity as possible using Ajax techniques and Flash based interactive graphs and charts
• PDA applications need to fit in information in a very constrained space on devices that may have different capabilities (for example, finding a solution to neatly display a form that has 80 fields mandated by law, in a tiny rugged PDA screen)
• Touchscreen kiosk based applications need to be simple and easy to use in a highly modal manner (our quick evaluation method is to see if you can use the kiosk application while wearing gloves)
• Vehicle based user interfaces for our future IDITES technology and law enforcement applications require special considerations in mind, especially when information needs to be displayed to a driver in a manner that does not distract drivers when the vehicle is in motion or in pursuit of another vehicle
• Refining the sketches and creating more polished mockups using rapid diagramming tools such as Visio or SmartDraw
• Creating initial prototypes and designs that the end clients can play around with and give feedback
• Iteratively refining the screens of the initial prototypes to get at the final application screens

And then repeating the above for the next version!

We recommend the following resources on UI design and usability:

- Jakob Nielsen's Web Usability Website
- Alan Cooper's About Face
- Bill Buxton's Sketching User Experiences

Are you passionate about user interface design and want to work on a variety of different platforms and interesting new projects? Charonite's hiring - drop us a mail on jobs@charonite.com.