Best Practices

Three Keys to Good User Interface (UI) Design

Three of the most common characteristics that differentiate successful user interface (UI) design (including web design) from poor design are proper consideration of:

• Design tradeoffs
• Design interactions
• Hidden or subtle design assumptions

Coding Conventions for C++ and Java

At Macadamian we've always believed the path to enlightenment starts with a solid set of Coding Conventions. We decided to make ours public, so that other development teams can use them as a starting point to creating their own.

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Web Apps vs. MS Windows Apps

There is a significant amount of information becoming available on browser application UI design in terms of what works for users and what doesn't, what can readily be replicated and what can't or even potentially, what shouldn't. In other words, what a user has come to accept as 'standard' in one environment, may not be considered 'standard' or even 'meaningful' in another environment.

“Usability” Myths

..it's too much, it's "airy fairy", it's going to lengthen my deadline.. and other input from the development team.   In our experience, across a variety of companies and organizations, we've found that there exist some common misconceptions about how to design a product with a good user experience and why it’s important. Part of the problem is that “usability” without a business context or a rigorous scientific basis is difficult to understand and value. Let’s look at some of the associated myths and explode the well-worn impediments to giving your customers a compelling user experience.

GUI and UI Principles

User interface design is not an exact science. There is no UI design equivalent to a Universal Law of Gravitation or Maxwell's equations (for those who may be unfamiliar the latter, they govern the physics of electricity and magnetism). While there are actually a few laws, such as Fitz's Law, that can be applied to successful UI design, for the most part a UI designer uses a toolbox approach to help him/her make correct UI design decisions. This toolbox includes items such as particular qualitative data and quantitative data gathered during the UI design process via techniques such as stakeholder interviews or user interaction testing.

Follow-Through Is Critical to a Great User Experience

It's not uncommon for new organizations in the initial stages of adopting a focus on user interaction and a compelling user experience to "lose" (or compromise) some of the user interface design enhancements and their corresponding business benefits along the path from development to deployment.

Focus Groups vs. Usability Testing

There is a common misconception that focus groups are an appropriate method for assessing the quality of the user experience of a product or a website.

While focus groups are a useful research tool, like all research methods they have their limitations in terms of the kind of information provided for decision making purposes. The choice of research method depends on the kind of decisions which need to be made.

Code Review Checklist

We’ve made the checklist public for the use of software development teams implementing code review as part of their process.