| Today's applications - either for the Web
or standalone - are starting to focus more and more on the user interface. The time when
you had to write lines and lines of commands or go through several menus to execute a
certain task has passed. Developers have now implemented simple wizards, with on-screen
help near each important element of the application, which will make even the most
complicated task look like a walk in the park. And the easiest and most efficient way to
create user-friendly interfaces is to add self-explanatory icons. These small images that
take a couple dozens of pixels will most of the times have more meaning than a full
paragraph of text. It's more comfortable and efficient to insert an icon than it is to
write some text explaining a certain function. Icons are very important to the
user-interface. People want to use an application's features to the maximum, and don't
like to it when they can't find how to complete a specific task. This is why developers
should always create shortcuts to the main tasks that can be accomplished using their
application. These shortcut items must catch the user's attention, so adding icons will do
the trick in most of the cases. The icons must be related to that certain task, so, for
example, a disk icon would be a great visual enhancement for a "Save" button, as
a printer icon would fit perfectly inside a "Print" button. A good set of icons
in the interface will greatly improve the communication between the user and the
application. Icons are colorful and, in most cases, larger than the description text of
the application feature they relate to; this way, they are a lot easier to be spotted.
Most of today's applications use icons, even though pretty
much all developers don't bother to implement custom designed icons into their
applications. Actually, settling with the operating system's default stock icons is not
such a bad thing as some people might think. Computer users might sometimes have some
problems adapting to new applications, especially if they have different interfaces than
the applications already installed on the users' computers. What happens if you want to
save and you're looking for a disk icon, but you can't find it because the developer
decided to use a star icon? If so, there will be a poor communication between the user and
the application, because the interface's icons are different from the ones the user is
used to. Application developers should not fall into this trap just because they like some
other icons and they don't want to use the same old default system icons, because it would
do more bad than good. The default system icons are preferred because most applications
use them, so users will learn to use your application a lot faster. The functions and
commands will be easier to understand, because users will be able to faster identify the
iconic symbols.
If a developer wants to give their application a distinct
look, they should use professional, custom-made icons, especially designed for their
application. Today, such services are affordable, and you will be able to tell the
designer how you want the icons to look like. In most cases, you shouldn't go with a
completely different look than the system's icons (for the reasons described above), but
you should try to give them a unique, personal touch; the application will stand out from
the crowd and will look a lot better than the other ones, thus attracting more users.
Changing colors, for example, is the easiest way to get new, yet similar icons.
To have a good communication between the user and the
application, developers must predict all the possible problems that the interface could
cause its users. Are the buttons too small? Are they too big? Can the toolbars be moved
around the screen? How about the menus, can users add new items to them? Also, can they
replace the icons and other graphics with some of their own? How about users with special
needs?
Unfortunately, there are a lot of developers that disregard
such problems, and create rigid interfaces, which cannot be changed by the users to better
suit them. A simple answer to this problem is to create multiple skins, with different
colors and different icons. The application should have a "standard" skin to
start with, and then a few different skins, for example a minimalist skin with only a few
main buttons and large icons, or an "expanded" skin with many toolbars and
buttons, each with their own small icon. Also, a skin with high contrast colors and icons
will be very appreciated by the users with eye problems. Apart from all these, developers
should also allow users to create their own custom skin and use different icons.
There are multiple benefits from using icons in an
application interface. No matter whether an application uses the operating system's
default icons or has custom-made icons designed especially for it, there must be some form
of graphics in it, otherwise people might find it harder to use. This may happen because
most of today's application use icons to ease the learning of the application. Because
most applications use similar icons in certain tasks - for example a printer icon for
printing or a disk button for saving files - it's a lot faster for users to click on those
buttons, therefore they will remember it next time they use that application, or any other
application for that matter. Even if later on advanced users will choose to use shortcut
keys on the keyboard instead of clicking with the mouse on buttons in the toolbars, it's
really important that for starters they will use the toolbar, so icons will be very
important in the communication with the application. |
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