The GUI Curmudgeon

by Wynn Inney

Comments and design guidelines on user-interface design and GUI systems

In discussions with clients and colleagues we've found these common-sense guidelines to be non-controversial. Nevertheless many web applications and other forms-driven input software violate them, often all of them!

• Make Those Text Boxes the Right Size! -- (Technical Issue of the Month for December, 1999
  a simple way of making data entry easier and less error-prone

• Let's Stamp Out Horizontal Scrolling -- (Technical Issue of the Month for April, 2000)
  the case against every user's pet peeve.

• Scrollable List Boxes Aren't User-Friendly -- A common data-entry technique may be irritating, slow, and error-prone.

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Last modified May, 2005