What constitutes a professional application?
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brianwelsch wrote:
If the interface is intuitive
brian, this term "intuitive" came up on a project of mine. There was some disparity as to the definition. What do you consider it to mean?
[oops - somehow submitted before I had a chance to type!] Intuitive means that the average user can get around and do what he needs easily without having to stop for a while and try to figure out how things work. A new user should be able to think a thought, like "insert chart", and be able to see within a second how he can do it. It can be tricky - you have to not show so much that the user is confused, and yet things should be available very quickly when the user needs them. Options and controls that are shown only within the context they are used in, and simple categorical groupings (I like to stick with 3 levels - for example: first level is labelled groups that may only be visible one at a time, second is a panel, third is clearly-defined groups of options on the panel) are key.
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Let's see if I can narrow this down a bit. I mean a WinForm app, not a web app. I'm not talking about documentation and help files and all that. What I mean more is, are things like MRU, customizable toolbars (or even toolbars themselves), shortcut remapping (if appropriate), etc. required? When you see an app for the first time, what makes you say "wow, some good work went into this" (only to be disappointed later, of course). Marc Pensieve Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
- A solid, no-hassle, no-"I Developer can't decide so put it on the user"-questions setup. Bonus: Checkbox for "run the program" at the end
- A friendly first-impression application: few options to pick from that exactly correlate to what I might want to do, not to many icons, not to many menu options. Avoid literally hundreds of toolbar icons, that all look alike and where the tooltips use an uninterpretable jargon. Avoid to many menu options that don't make sense to me.
- Avoid a "Wizard screen" that leverages complexity for first time use, but is useless thereafter.
- File based applications need MRU, Explorer Double Click / Command Line. Further control through command line is good
- Customization:
- Only if there are to many options and I am likely to use only a small subset
- Prefer functional groups toolbars that can be turned on/off over fully customizable (if suitable)
- allow me to lock my toolbars in place
- when toolbar / menu /key bindings are customizable, allow me to save the settings to a file and carry this to another PC / user account, and give me quick access to the standard configuration
- don't skip the hassle of a sensible standard configuration even though everything is customizable.
- For a fixed set of commands, customizable key bindings don't make much sense
- Explorative UI: allow me to play around, discover the features by usign the program. This usually requires undo, context sensitive UI and some thinking.
Some of us walk the memory lane, others plummet into a rabbit hole
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S Douglas wrote:
I tend to use what evers part of VS.
I was wondering if the icons in VS, SQL Server Enterprise Manager, etc., are actually copyrighted? Can MS sue you for using their icons? I sort of expect so. :~ Marc Pensieve Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
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What constitutes a professional application? Getting paid for it. :) A profession is something that you do for a living, so a professional app would therefore be written by professional programmers. Oh, sorry. Did you mean "What constitutes a quality application?" :-D Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Know someone who desperately needs to get a clue? Visit www.DownloadAClue.com and send them one!
Christopher Duncan wrote:
"What constitutes a quality application?
Actually, I don't think quality and professional are quite synonymous. Something can be quality but not meet the requirement (subjective as it is) of being "professional". Quality stands on its own, professional is more a peer comparison thing. Marc Pensieve Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
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What constitutes a professional application? Getting paid for it. :) A profession is something that you do for a living, so a professional app would therefore be written by professional programmers. Oh, sorry. Did you mean "What constitutes a quality application?" :-D Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Know someone who desperately needs to get a clue? Visit www.DownloadAClue.com and send them one!
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Hmm. Interesting question. I sort of went through this yesterday. I've been looking for software to create product "box-shots" so I downloaded and tried about eight different pieces of shareware before I found one that I consider professional. In retrospect these are the qualities that I was looking for: 1) The user interface was clean and modern (aka XP-like). 2) All of the controls I tried had the expected functionality (I define 'excpected' as what I would expect from the other shrink-wrap software I use on a daily basis). 3) Visually appealing - good, consistent colour scheme, consisten icons. 4) No half-baked features. It was clear that there was a feature set planned for the software and those features were fully implemented. 5) The text used throughout the software was clear and concise. 5) The supporting web site was equally professional. Basically the software I finally bought was leaps and bounds ahead of all the others. Oh, in case you're interested, it was True Box Shot[^] Cheers, Drew.
Drew Stainton wrote:
Oh, in case you're interested
yes! Thanks for the link, and the comments. Marc Pensieve Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
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led mike wrote:
brian, this term "intuitive" came up on a project of mine. There was some disparity as to the definition. What do you consider it to mean?
My defination would be that I don't need the manual (or a training session).
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[oops - somehow submitted before I had a chance to type!] Intuitive means that the average user can get around and do what he needs easily without having to stop for a while and try to figure out how things work. A new user should be able to think a thought, like "insert chart", and be able to see within a second how he can do it. It can be tricky - you have to not show so much that the user is confused, and yet things should be available very quickly when the user needs them. Options and controls that are shown only within the context they are used in, and simple categorical groupings (I like to stick with 3 levels - for example: first level is labelled groups that may only be visible one at a time, second is a panel, third is clearly-defined groups of options on the panel) are key.
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theRealCondor wrote:
If I click the icon and a pleasant, functional splash screen comes up that informs me of what is happening, great.
I despise splash screens.
If the app takes a while to load it is nice to have a splash screen that pops up immediately to let you now that the app is loading. Nothing worse than clicking an icon to start the app and then thinking "Is this working?".
You may be right
I may be crazy
-- Billy Joel --Within you lies the power for good, use it!!!
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S Douglas wrote:
I tend to use what evers part of VS.
I was wondering if the icons in VS, SQL Server Enterprise Manager, etc., are actually copyrighted? Can MS sue you for using their icons? I sort of expect so. :~ Marc Pensieve Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
In Visual Studio 2005 they are packaging a separate .zip file with a lot(possibly all) of the icons used within Visual Studio.
- Nick Parker Microsoft MVP - Visual C#
My Blog | My Articles -
led mike wrote:
What if you know nothing about the business domain the application is for?
Then why am I using the application? If I don't know anything about what it's supposed to be for, then I probably shouldn't be using it.
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I think again you have to take into account who your audience is. It should be clear to that audience how functionality is grouped and how to perform common tasks. Consistent use of on screen cues (tool tips, icons, logical grouping of menus/toolbars, well named menu items, etc) should allow the target user to get around the application with a minimum amount of frustration. BW
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
-- Steven Wrightbrianwelsch wrote:
I think again you have to take into account who your audience is.
I agree. Now what if your audience is diverse? I mean for the business domain. There are both long time heavily experienced employees, and brand new employees, and of course everything in between.
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Let's see if I can narrow this down a bit. I mean a WinForm app, not a web app. I'm not talking about documentation and help files and all that. What I mean more is, are things like MRU, customizable toolbars (or even toolbars themselves), shortcut remapping (if appropriate), etc. required? When you see an app for the first time, what makes you say "wow, some good work went into this" (only to be disappointed later, of course). Marc Pensieve Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
Shiny buttons? :) Seriously, many of the features you listed are more signs of an "aged" application where more details are added over the years. Profession to me means simply and application that fills the bill both in "features" (which apply to its intended target) and usability (nice GUI, intuitive) and does not appear hacked together. Huge holes such as a "hit F1 for help" and then when they do no help is available, things of that nature would not be considered professional. Rocky <>< Latest Post: Visual Studio 2005 Standard, whats missing? Blog: www.RockyMoore.com/TheCoder/[^]
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J. Dunlap wrote:
Intuitive means that the average user can get around and do what he needs easily
What if the user does not know what he needs to do?
I guess, he must then go and read the manual for more help. Think about it, how easy and obvious do you make any tasks ? Do you add button after button on the toolbar so that every task is covered?. From my experience, making it "to easy" for the user just cluters the toolbars etc. Face it, Take MS Excel as an example. Different people use it for different tasks. Now do I add a button for each and every task that can be performed. That includes a button for each possible formulae, or do I only add menu options for the "key" functions, like "sum". You guys know what, searching for a specific button, I actually came accross some "hidden" features in Excel, that I never would have known about. So there is advantage in sometimes "hiding" information. How deep you hide it, that is the question at hand. The detail should be described in a help file. But I guess, the way this thread is going, we will soon see the question "What if the user does not know how to use help screens"..... cheers, happy professional coding....
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I guess, he must then go and read the manual for more help. Think about it, how easy and obvious do you make any tasks ? Do you add button after button on the toolbar so that every task is covered?. From my experience, making it "to easy" for the user just cluters the toolbars etc. Face it, Take MS Excel as an example. Different people use it for different tasks. Now do I add a button for each and every task that can be performed. That includes a button for each possible formulae, or do I only add menu options for the "key" functions, like "sum". You guys know what, searching for a specific button, I actually came accross some "hidden" features in Excel, that I never would have known about. So there is advantage in sometimes "hiding" information. How deep you hide it, that is the question at hand. The detail should be described in a help file. But I guess, the way this thread is going, we will soon see the question "What if the user does not know how to use help screens"..... cheers, happy professional coding....
Flexyware wrote:
we will soon see the question "What if the user does not know how to use help screens".....
That is not where I am going with it, rather here: So the user must have business domain knowledge to "intuit" right? Therefore "intuitive" includes specific relevant business domain criteria. The definition of intuitive can not always be limited to industry standard User Interface guidelines.
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brianwelsch wrote:
I think again you have to take into account who your audience is.
I agree. Now what if your audience is diverse? I mean for the business domain. There are both long time heavily experienced employees, and brand new employees, and of course everything in between.
You may have a diverse audience, as you pointed out, and for those people who are truly clueless, I think the dancing paperclip isn't such a bad way to go. It can be easily turned off by the annoyed masses who don't need it, but also it provides some guidance, without cluttering the UI, for the poor untrained folks who've never typed up a letter before. Instead, you also offer "How do I perform task X?" type Help, for people who don't even know what terms to search for. While this tends to lean away from being intuitive for everyone, I think it's acceptable to be "intuitive" for the majority users and provide a crutch for those getting up to speed. I don't think it's good design to simplify the UI to accomodate the lowest common denominator, just to keep people from accessing help. BW
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
-- Steven Wright -
You may have a diverse audience, as you pointed out, and for those people who are truly clueless, I think the dancing paperclip isn't such a bad way to go. It can be easily turned off by the annoyed masses who don't need it, but also it provides some guidance, without cluttering the UI, for the poor untrained folks who've never typed up a letter before. Instead, you also offer "How do I perform task X?" type Help, for people who don't even know what terms to search for. While this tends to lean away from being intuitive for everyone, I think it's acceptable to be "intuitive" for the majority users and provide a crutch for those getting up to speed. I don't think it's good design to simplify the UI to accomodate the lowest common denominator, just to keep people from accessing help. BW
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
-- Steven Wright -
brianwelsch wrote:
I don't think it's good design to simplify the UI to accomodate the lowest common denominator, just to keep people from accessing help.
could you please buy out my company and take over the software development division? :)
:-O BW
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
-- Steven Wright -
brianwelsch wrote:
I think again you have to take into account who your audience is.
I agree. Now what if your audience is diverse? I mean for the business domain. There are both long time heavily experienced employees, and brand new employees, and of course everything in between.
Metacreations tried (IIRC with Kai's Power Goo, for example) to introduce to concept of the interface growing as the user progressed and became more knowledgable... actually hiding features at the onset and revealing them gradually as you progress. I, for one, HATED that aspect of the program! I suppose the idea looked good on the drawing board but didn't really pan out very well... it made using the app very frustrating from the beginning for me.