title: Best Practices & Principles for GUI design
body: <p>What is your best practical user-friendly user-interface design or principle? </p>
  
  <p>Please submit those practices that you find actually makes things really useful - no matter  what - if it works for your users, share it!</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Summary/Collation</p>
  
  <p>Principles</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>KISS.</li>
  <li>Be clear and specific in what an option will achieve: for example, use verbs that indicate the action that will follow on a choice (see: Impl. 1).</li>
  <li>Use obvious default actions appropriate to what the user needs/wants to achieve.</li>
  <li>Fit the appearance and behavior of the UI to the environment/process/audience: stand-alone application, web-page, portable, scientific analysis, flash-game, professionals/children, ...</li>
  <li>Reduce the learning curve of a new user.</li>
  <li>Rather than disabling or hiding options, consider giving a helpful message where the user can have alternatives, but only where those alternatives exist. If no alternatives are available, its better to disable the option - which visually then states that the option is not available - do not hide the unavailable options, rather explain in a mouse-over popup why it is disabled.</li>
  <li>Stay consistent and conform to practices, and placement of controls, as is implemented in widely-used successful applications.</li>
  <li>Lead the expectations of the user and let your program behave according to those expectations.</li>
  <li>Stick to the vocabulary and knowledge of the user and do not use programmer/implementation terminology.</li>
  <li>Follow basic design principles: contrast (obviousness), repetition (consistency), alignment (appearance), and proximity (grouping).</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Implementation</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>(See answer by paiNie) "Try to use verbs in your dialog boxes."</li>
  <li>Allow/implement undo and redo.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>References</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Windows Vista User Experience Guidelines [<a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511258.aspx]" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511258.aspx]</a></li>
  <li>Dutch websites - "Drempelvrij" guidelines [<a href="http://www.drempelvrij.nl/richtlijnen]" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.drempelvrij.nl/richtlijnen]</a></li>
  <li>Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) [<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/]" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/]</a></li>
  <li>Consistence [<a href="https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/0385267746" rel="nofollow noreferrer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0385267746]</a></li>
  <li>Don't make me Think [<a href="https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/0321344758" rel="nofollow noreferrer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758/ref=pdbbssr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1221726383&amp;sr=8-1]</a></li>
  <li>Be powerful and simple [<a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511332.aspx]" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511332.aspx]</a></li>
  <li>Gestalt design laws [<a href="http://www.squidoo.com/gestaltlaws]" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.squidoo.com/gestaltlaws]</a></li>
  </ol>