Usability Central—Best Practices:
Web Interface Standards Module

Reusable page design templates and rules for creating user-centered Web sites, intranets, and Web-based applications.

The Challenge

Companies are challenged to ensure consistent interface design across their Web sites, intranets, and Web-based applications. Consistent design and site architecture help end-users accomplish their tasks, while streamlining development and maintenance.

User interface design standards address this need, yet many companies struggle to create and deploy a successful standard. HFI has found that a typical corporate standards project takes over one year to complete – and often never gets implemented.

HFI's Solution

HFI offers a consensus-building approach to develop and rollout a successful Web design standard:

• Define the type of standards you need
• Form a committee of your key opinion leaders to drive the process and gain internal buy-in
• Interview business stakeholders
• Conduct end-user data gathering
• Create a customized set of 8-12 reusable design templates to standardize your most frequent page types (based on templates from Usability Central—Best Practices)
• Iterate and validate standards draft by testing with end-users

Most importantly, HFI completes standards projects just 6-10 weeks and helps you choose a showcase project to put them into action immediately.

Usability Central Web interface standards module:

HFI's Usability Central—Best Practices contains off-the-shelf page design templates in the Web Interface Standards module. These serve as HFI's starting point when creating customized standards for Web sites, intranets, and applications, but can also be purchased standalone (i.e. not customized). These templates capture effective layout, task flow, and visual design – based on extensive research and experience. Module contents include:

• Twenty-nine reusable page design templates (e.g. homepage, menus, wizards, data entry forms, etc.)
• PowerPoint® and Visio® prototyping tools
• General guidelines for presentation, operation, and interaction
• Reusable HTML prototype code (constructed using nested table layout, plus CSS elements)