If you sell software without using sales reps, you need to make sure that the short time between downloading a trial and making a decision to proceed or not is as rewarding as possible. Even if you have a sales force, it's very difficult to change someone's mind if they have decided your software is broken or hard to use.
- The installer matters. The installer for your demo is the first thing the customer sees. I've seen installers that fail with cryptic error messages. Often the user is presented with configuration options that can’t possibly be understood by anyone who isn't a developer on the team. Even worse is when the installer simply doesn't work - the software doesn't start and the user has no idea why not.
Working on the installer is always a drag at the end of a development cycle, but don't treat it like a punishment and don't give it to the most junior member of the team. - Be consistent. Use the same control wherever the same input is required. Use the same terminology throughout. If your target market uses particular terms or units, ensure that you use them. Allow the user to specify how times and dates are displayed - using the system default can lead to your software providing an interface in English with dates in French.
- Don't break things in upgrades. Microsoft broke this rule with the introduction of the frustrating ribbon in Office 2007. If you make a major change to the software that improves usability, don't forget that your existing users already know the old UI. Provide a switch to enable the improvement and turn it on in fresh installs.
- Learn from others. The more software that uses a particular application layout or control the more it becomes understood. Keep a record of the applications you find that have interfaces you liked and let yourself be influenced by them.
- Unplug your mouse. More people than you might think have a disability, and one of the common effects of a physical disability is difficulty using a mouse. Many other people simply like using the keyboard. Make sure the tab order of your controls makes sense (a very valuable tip for this is that setting a tab index of -1 on a HTML element removes it from the tab order entirely; use this to disable controls underneath a modal popup window in a web application), and don't create controls that can't be used without a mouse unless there is an alternative way to accomplish the same task.
Finally, something not so easy - test your designs on real people. If you can, create mock-ups using pen and paper or specialised software and fake the interaction by moving parts around. When you have anything that works left people loose on it without giving them any hints and watch what they do.
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