Add to My Yahoo! | Google Reader or Homepage | Add to Windows Live | Add to Windows Live Alerts

Wictor Wilén

SharePoint Server MVP / Author / MCT / MCTS / MCP / MSc writing about SharePoint and other interesting Microsoft technologies

Concerned about the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation and the new UI looks

Posted at 2006-03-30 04:32 by Wictor Wilén in Windows XP , Microsoft Office with 8 comments.
I'm a bit concerned about all the new user interfaces and layouts that will appear when application developers starts taking use of the Windows® Presentation Foundation (formerly code named "Avalon"). This "tecnology" is awesome but it has it's drawbacks. With the WPF you can create applications that are really neat looking and have high usability, just take a look at Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer. I saw a really nice demo, on a Microsoft Partner event, of a medical journal application looking like a "medical journal" - not the old fashioned MDI interface with a File, Edit... menu. And I guess most of you have seen the Microsoft Max application and the new Office 2007 interface.

But what will happen to the usability between applications? As of today almost all Windows applications has a user interface with a menu bar with the File, Edit etc menus, a toolbar with icons and either one document (SDI) or multiple documents (MDI) in the window area. This is very good when adapting to new applications, you know where to find the functionality you want, not in all cases but the most vital functions are easily found. You know how to save a document or to paste something in to your application.

Windows Presentation Foundation does not prohibit this usage but it allows developers to create really cool looking applications with a nice user interface. But when it comes to recognizing functions and behaviours I think this will cause a lot of trouble.

Let's take an example of a hospital, where I have seen similar troubles, having several applications from several vendors; they have Microsoft Office 2007, some kind of medical journal system, a financial report system, an intranet etc. Most of the employees use more than one application. It will be very problematic if these applications doesn't share the same user interface guidelines. This is the point of my entry! Where is the guidelines for these new awesome user interfaces?

Do you have the same opinion or experience as I do?
Where can I find information on how to make these new applications run smoothly togheter using common guidelines?

Comments and trackbacks

#  re: Concerned about the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation and the new UI looks by Randolpho
Screenshot from websnpr Check out Microsoft's Inductive User Interface guidelines:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwui/html/iuiguidelines.asp
Although their examples still have File/Edit/etc. menus, they are pushing towards a more "Web-like" interface, in that the instructions for use are embedded in the GUI, or are otherwise obvious from context. The idea behind WPF is that it makes real inductive user interfaces (I'll call them IUIs) easier, to the point that, yes, perhaps even menus are unnecessary.
I'm not necessarily saying this is a Good Thing (tm) from the user's standpoint... I think you're right that users might get confused when switching programs if the interface doesn't conform to an existing standard. However, I think the idea behind WPF and IUIs is that a good IUI doesn't *need* menus.
In a way, that may make things easier for interface programmers and designers. I know that with menus and toolbars you often need to keep track of which menus and toolbars are appropriate for a given context and you need to disable those items which should not be used -- for example: in Word, table-related buttons are greyed out when your cursor is not focused on a table object. Keeping track of this gets increasingly difficult the more commands and operations you have available in your program. Not having to deal with this and instead offering different pages to view based on the context may make UI development and the underlying programming all the easier.
Or it may make it more difficult. To be honest, I haven’t done much more than play with WPF, so I can’t tell comment there.
#  re: Concerned about the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation and the new UI looks by Randolpho
Screenshot from websnpr Ignore the bad grammar in the last sentence, please. I had a different sentence and changed it, but forgot to delete a word.

It should read: "To be honest, I haven’t done much more than play with WPF, so I can’t comment there."
#  re: Concerned about the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation and the new UI looks by Wictor
Screenshot from websnpr Randolpho,
thanks for the IUI guidelines. I strongly agree with you that menus, toolbars have been "obsolete" and not usable in meny applications (just look att the Office 2003 applications with all the toolbars and deep menus). I don't say that these new applications will be less usable than the current, I think they will be more usable in it's own context. What concerns me is that every software vendor will/can have their own IUI interpretation.
For example let's say when you need to save something, someone will have an icon with the blue floppy disk another vendor their own icon etc - those small things will make a big difference. Just look at all the web applications of today, you work differently in all of them.
/WW
#  re: Concerned about the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation and the new UI looks by Randolpho
Screenshot from websnpr Yes, I agree.

This could become a serious issue. Hopefully, when it does, some standard will arise to deal with it. Until then, I suppose we will just have to deal with a hodgepodge of user interfaces.

By the way, I just found this link that you might also find useful:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/UxGuide/UXGuide/Home.asp

It's Vista-oriented, but probably applies to WPF in general, even though it's available on XP.
#  re: Concerned about the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation and the new UI looks by Wictor
Screenshot from websnpr Those are great guidlines, I browsed through them a few months ago, and there are still missing parts in the current release.

Btw, here are the healthcare demo I watched a few months ago: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=109413

I must say that it is impressive and it will be an improvemnt for all applications with WPF...
#  Internet Explorer Anti-Phising feature by Trackback
Screenshot from websnpr I have been using Microsof Internet Explorer 7 beta for a while and I have noticed that some sites a
#  Thank You by Thank You
Screenshot from websnpr Thank You
#  citroen recall by Ivan
Screenshot from websnpr Nice
Make a comment on this post:
Subject:  

Your name:  
Your Url:  
Note: submissions may have to be approved before being visible, so don't submit your comment multiple times.
Real Time Web Analytics