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You demonstrate the point I believe. The issue isn't one of "prettiness" as much as it is an issue of work flow and user interaction. As Trevor said earlier, we were taught that the screen is 24 x 80: Use it! However that is not the case with gui design. Instead of cramming everything on one screen and then processing it once its all filled in, we can better do it a bit at a time. For instance, get the name: OK, what addresses does that name have? Pick one. Ship to different? Does the name & address need repair/maintenance? If so, do it (whatever "it" is). Credit OK? Contact names? OK, move on. what to order? (Side window showing related items to uptick the sale), side window showing previous orders, all with drill down. Order complete? Shipping suggestions, choices, and costs. Ok to ship? Thank you. etc. Same ideas, applied to green screen design, would move green screens to the unproductive side of the ledger, in my opinion.




Wilt, Charles wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Trevor Perry
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 3:33 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Thin Clients

<snip>
And yes, we need to learn more about GUI, UI, Human Interaction Guidelines, graphic design, and so on. This is not the world of the usual programmer.
And not the world of most people selling green to GUI tools. The GUI produced by some just makes people want to go back to ugly green. Therein lies the problem...


I'm not so sure WE need to or even should learn all that.

While I can put together a functional web site, it won't be really "pretty". I'm a Software Engineer
not a Graphics Designer or Graphics Artist.

IMHO, one of the biggest problems with GUI applications, is that you have one (or more) software guys
trying to do all that you mention above. Granted in small shops, you might not have much choice. But
for critical projects, you really need a team. There is after all a reason there's a separate degree
for each of the disciplines you mention above.

Sure, there needs to be some cross over. The software guy should know a little about UI design and
Human Factors Engineering. Depending on the project, he may know enough.
When you've got a software guy doing everything, you'll (probably :-) end up with a 100% functional
app. But I bet you'll be able to tell it's not a usable or a visually impressive as it could have
been.

One of the best experiences I had was with a Extranet web site. Consulting for a small prior
employer, I worked with outside web consulting firm on the site. I handled writing the stored
procedures on the iSeries that handled the data being passed in and return the data required. Worked
with the web guy to determine just what was needed where, which he then put together using Coldfusion
and his graphics designer handled the actual look.

It was a very successful project which was well received by the customers using it.

Just my .02

Charles


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