Learn Principles of UI Design

Last month, Stephen Lewis at Experience Internet (and purveyor of fine EE add-ons) posted a survey asking what you wanted to know about add-on development. Stephen, you see, was planning a series of articles covering this nebulous topic.

The second post in his series is up and it covers the principles of UI design when doing add-on development. And just in case you were looking for a copy-and-paste article down the easy road to the EE Add-on Hall of Fame, you’ll be disappointed. Stephen has a higher goal:

The goal of this series is to give you the tools necessary to create shimmering add-on edifices of your own imagining, not simply to walk you through the creation of some ropey Twitter module. With that in mind, it makes sense to cover a few basic principles of good UI design, prior to doggy-paddling through the murky waters of my hoary-old design mind.

He walks through the principals of simplify, disambiguate, differentiate, prioritize, embrace conventions and be alert. It’s a nice read with information from people who have had success designing UIs for add-ons.

Give it a read: ExpressionEngine 2 Add-on Development : UI Design Principles