Skip to main content

Difficulties in Using Style Guides for Designing User Interfaces

  • Conference paper
Tools for Working with Guidelines
  • 184 Accesses

Abstract

In [16] it was investigated how one can work with style guides called “UI guidelines” in this article when designing user interfaces in commercial software development. The document explained what aspects style guides deal with on an abstract and a specific level related to the development process and the software product. During this research various problems related to the use of style guides were encountered. These problems and possible solutions — or at least part solutions — shall be presented here.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Dufour, Y., Rensonnet, D.: Requirements Proposal for a Generic Tool for Working with Guidelines. M.Sc. thesis. Facult¨¦s Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, Namur (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Gale, S.: A Collaborative Approach to Developing Style Guides. In: Proc. of ACM Conf. on Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 96. Vol. 1 (1996) 362-367. Also accessible at URL: http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi96/proceedings/papers/Gale/srg/txt.htm

    Google Scholar 

  3. Harrison, J.: Designing the User Interface. Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane (September 1998). Accessible at URL: http://www.csee.uq.edu.au/¡ªcs116/slides/ui/html/index.htm

    Google Scholar 

  4. Human-Computer Interaction — UI Guidelines. IBM. Accessible at URL: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/HCl/guidelines/design/ui/design.html

    Google Scholar 

  5. Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines. Sun Microsystems. Addison-Wesley, New York (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Mac OS 8 Human Interface Guidelines. Apple Computer, Inc. Accessible at URL: http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/pdf/HIGOS8Guidelines.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  7. Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines. Apple Computer, Inc. Accessible at URL: http://developen/apple.com/techpubs/mac/pdf/H1/Guideli/nes.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  8. Myers, B.A.: Why are Human-Computer Interfaces Difficult to Design and Implement? Technical Report, no. CMU-CS-93-183. Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science (July 1993). Accessible at URL: http://reports-archive.adm.cs.cmu.edu/anon/1993/CMUCS-93-183.ps

    Google Scholar 

  9. Schumacher, R.M.: Ameritech Graphical User Interface Standards and Design Guidelines. Accessible at URL: http://www.ameritech.com/corporate/testtown/library/standard/std-guix.html

    Google Scholar 

  10. Stultz, D.C.: Programmer-responsibility. AskTog, Reader Mail. Accessible at URL: http://www.asktog.com/readerMail/1998-12ReaderMail.html

    Google Scholar 

  11. The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design: An Application Design Guide. Microsoft Corp. Microsoft Press, Redmond (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Tidwell, J.: Common ground: A Pattern Language for Human-Computer Interface Design. Accessible at URL: http://www.mitedui¡jtidwell/common/ground.html

    Google Scholar 

  13. Tidwell, J.: The Case for HCI Design Patterns. Accessible at URL: http://www.mit.edu/¡ªjtidwell/ui/patterns/essay.html

    Google Scholar 

  14. User-Interface Guidelines. NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center. Data Systems Technology Division/Code 520. Accessible at URL: http://groucho.gsfc.nasa.gov/Code/520/Code/522/Documents/UG/96/newfrontmatter.html

    Google Scholar 

  15. Vanderdonckt, J.: Development Milestones Towards a Tool for Working with Guidelines. Interacting with Computers 12, 2 (September 1999) 81-118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Vogt, T: The Use of Guidelines for Designing User Interfaces in Commercial Software Development. Department for Informatics, University of Hamburg (1999)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2001 Springer-Verlag London

About this paper

Cite this paper

Vogt, T. (2001). Difficulties in Using Style Guides for Designing User Interfaces. In: Vanderdonckt, J., Farenc, C. (eds) Tools for Working with Guidelines. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0279-3_19

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0279-3_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-85233-355-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-0279-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics