Designing GUIs 101: From User Needs to Usable GUIs
TS-4968

Do you really know what your users want to do? How does that translate into a well-designed and easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI)? In this session, you'll learn from interaction design professionals how to discover the necessary user tasks, derive user requirements, and then design for your users.

The presentation starts with tasks defined by the users (possibly starting with an existing command-line interface) and then steps through how to design a Java technology-based GUI by applying interaction patterns, visual design guidelines, user feedback, and Swing components. You will participate by providing feedback on several design alternatives. The result will be a design that can be implemented on the Java platform and that meets both user and business requirements.

The session is geared to desktop GUI application implementers on the Java platform and designers, but anyone working on user interfaces in general will benefit from learning methods of user-centered design.