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Large Screens
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Feel good about blank space on the window.
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Use blank space to group and organize your fields and data. Don't
feel obliged to completely fill the screen with only fields and
data. 70% white space is very acceptable. For strongly organized
data (e.g., tables) 30% white space is okay.
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Put a complete logical unit of work on the screen.
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Large screens allow the luxury of giving users the "big picture"
of their work. This is better than mentally piecing together the
work from different windows or pop-ups.
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High Speed
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Provide 1/2 second delay before displaying an error message.
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Most users get surprised and disoriented when an error message
appears instantaneously. Match expectations by adding a delay.
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Color
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Don't commit basic color errors like chromostereopsis (stereo "layers"
of color).
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Avoid letting one color, like red, "float" on another
color, like blue. Plus, these colors, in particular, can be hard
to read. Adjust the level of gray in the color to solve these problems.
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Use color to aid eye scan.
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When scanning across columns, if you can't skip every fifth or
sixth line, then use a subtle color change between groups of lines.
Or, use color to identify particular rows in a list that meets special
criteria.
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Unless you test users for color vision, design for monochrome,
then add color.
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8% of males and about one half a percent of females have some form
of color blindness. Ensure that your design is meaningful in black
and white, then add color to aid discovering relationships and aid
scanning for highlighted items.
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Don't expect users to notice subtle color differences.
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Even users who can see all the colors fail to remember subtle color
coding schemes that require memorization of more than 1 or 2 colors.
Do not use color as the sole code discriminator. Use color and shape
or color and location to reinforce the code.
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Use color for aesthetic appeal and to convey meaning.
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Users prefer color. Also, remember cultural associations for each
color: such as red for stop, green for go, and yellow for caution.
Don't fall prey to any unintended meanings. Special industries have
different codes. Red, green, and yellow have different meanings
in a nuclear power plant, for example.
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