Software Expressions

Buttons on Windows applications have been around since the first version of Windows. One would think that the patterns for using buttons would have been firmly established by now. In particular rules for disabling and enabling buttons.
Concerning visibility:

Concerning enable and disable:

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It’s probably very obvious, but one of the most important things to consider in application design is the typical usage patterns. I here very frequently the argument, that the average user of our software is well below an average user, so the natural outcome of this argument is to design an application that’s really easy to use and links and every step along the way is very clear. Which would probably work well, except if the application is being used all day by the user. If you’re designing a website that sells a product and you expect users to visit your site every few months, it makes sense to make things really easy even if it takes a few extra clicks and the user is expected to read a little more. Training such services is also not an option. However, if the site is to be used every day, it would be worth designing for efficiency and offering training. Microsoft has tried to bridge this gap by offering Task Panes, Wizards for guiding users through some of the more complex processes, but honestly users only really become product on applications such as MS Word or Excel if they’re seasoned computer users, or they receive some training.

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The Microsoft article, “Top 10 Ways to Light Up Your Windows Vista Apps” describes using a page navigation paradigm in Windows applications. This is further described in “Top Rules for the Windows Vista User Experience”, in particular, rule #7, Use Explorer-hosted, navigation-based user interfaces, provide a Back button. “Navigation-based user interface—characterized by staying in a single window and having a Back button in the upper-left corner—allows users to navigate easily, efficiently, and confidently; they can always ‘go back’. Even traditional applications that don’t inherently ‘navigate’ can often benefit from providing in-frame navigation.” This doesn’t mean that applications need to follow a wizard, sequential navigation approach, the article describes resvering the wizard technique for sequential, infrequently used tasks.

If the task can be performed in parallel with other tasks, it should probably not use inframe navigation, but rather open up in a new window (according to the article).

Treeviews are a great bridge between page navigation and the classic windows approach of opening up yet another window.  The treeview allows you to always know where you’re at and how the various screens are related without opening new window.  The problem with treeviews, is that users don’t seem to like them (at least inexperienced users anyway).

It is possible to provide both solutions and allow the user to choose.  The implementation is easier than one would think.  Implement the user interface using a treeview, then implement a set of navigation controls that allow treeview navigation (up, goto…, next, previous, etc.)  With the navigation controls in place, the treeview can be hidden.  You can also add a breadcrumb (treeview path) to the address area allow the user to quickly navigate to a higher node.

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This article located on MSDN offers some good insight into user interface development. Explaining how implementation of UI should vary depending on primarily frequency of use (for a particular module), but also complexityy and user experience. This article also references other useful articles also concerning user interface development.
IUI’s and Web-Style navigation in Windows Forms
Other articles:
Microsoft Inductive User Interface Guidlines
Picking the Right Degree of Control for User Interfaces

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With Windows Longhorn around the corner (okay maybe not that soon), it looks like programmers are going to have to add Adobe Illustrator to the set of developer tools.
Chris Sells writes LonghornSolitaire: http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnfoghorn/html/foghorn02112004.asp
Since the Avalon presentation layer is vector based, providing any visual enhancements to the standard set of components will require vector based drawing tools such as Illustrator.

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