better user experience with .net
DESCRIPTION
User Experience (UX)Tips and Techniques, Best practicesWindows Forms Capabilities and Demo’sTools to better UX & codeUX ResourcesTRANSCRIPT
Developing Windows and Web Applications using Visual Studio.NET
Peter Gfader
Senior Software Architect
Homework?
„Add New“ disabled
Problems with Lab / homework?
Unused methods, after removing UI controls
Tip
C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5
LINQ
Data with LINQ
Session 2: Last week?
User Experience (UX)
Tips and Techniques, Best practices
Windows Forms Capabilities and Demo’s
Tools to better UX & code
UX Resources
Agenda
Business applications
Enter data
Find data
Show data
Every business app does
Professional Feel
Enter data
Validation
Find data
Filter data Rich data query
Show data
Different Views Reports (nice printing) Authorization?
Every business app
User Experience
User experience
3 pillars
UX - Look
UX - Usability
Make site feel alive
React fast
Interact with user
“Joy of use”
UX - Feel
How can we improve UX
Developers
Need a UI to test their software as they build UI increases in complexity as software is built Application grows but the UI isn’t consistent Know how the controls work (or they should!!)
Designers
May design the UI but not realize WHAT is possible May understand a Visual Consistency but not how
its built
Who designs the UI?
The user
Who uses the UI?
„User driven“
Do testing with the user
Prototyping
Usability testing
Let user solve a task and see (measure) what he does
User
Why choose Windows Forms?
Bandwidth – Presentation layer
Cache / persistent state
Faster Server Because of less requests and less work… thanks to processing power
being used on client
Richer interface No buggy DHTML/JavaScript
More responsive
Faster to develop
No cross-browser issues
Build complex controls quickly
Why Windows Forms?
Not allowed in Standard Operating Environment
Cross-platform requirements (Linux, PC, Mac)
Deployment of the Application is harder / Centralised
logic
Requires an always-connected data service
Why NOT Windows Forms?
Network Admins
Developers
End Users
Accounts
Who Do I Please?
Browser Based Solution
Rich Client Solution
Who uses prototypes?
Sketchflow Balsamiq
Do you design a mockup UI first?
Avoid the thought of a “throw away” prototype.
Use as the first step to start a project (or get a project) - WYSIWYG
Get great initial feedback
Better than 100 page document
Get designer involved if need be (Developers can’t design)
Tip: Always add client logo + colours. They are easily impressed!
Designing a Mockup UI
Would you design Database first or UI?
Database schema should be designed before the UI is started
If you are doing fixed price work, signed-off mockups serve as a great way to stop goal posts moving.
Any changes to the mockups thereafter will result in additional work.
Designing a Mockup UI
Windows Forms – Best practices
Visual Inheritance
Composition and Containment (Panels, Usercontrols)
Databinding
ToolTips
Error Provider and Validators
Appsettings
Winform Architecture
The constructor of each form/control class contains a call of a private method "InitializeComponent()". If B is derived from A, then the constructor of A is called first
1. A()
2. A.InitializedComponent()
3. B()
4. B.InitialzeComponent()
Visual Inheritance
Controls on the Base Form are BY DEFAULT “private” and cannot be edited in the inherited form
Solution: Change the modifer to “Protected”
Visual Inheritance
Common Behaviour
Company Icon Remembering its size and location Adding itself to a global forms collection (to find
forms that are already open, or to close all open forms) ** Application.OpenForms
Logging usage frequency and performance of forms (load time)
No Controls!
Inherited Forms – For Every Form
1. CenterParent only for modal dialogs (to prevent multi-monitor confusion)
2. CenterScreen only for the main form (MainForm), or a splash screen
3. WindowsDefaultLocation for everything else (99% of forms) - prevents windows from appearing on top of one another
StartPosition
FixedDialog only for modal dialog boxes
FixedSingle only for the the main form (MainForm) - FixedSingle has an icon whereas FixedDialog doesn't
None for splash screen
Sizable for any form that has multi-line textbox, grid, listbox or such
FormBorderStyle
Base Data Entry Form
1
2
3
4
Do you encapsulate (aka lock) values of forms?
Hiding Values
Developers fiddle!
Browsable: whether a property or event should be displayed in a Properties window. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.browsableattribute.aspx
EditorBrowsable: whether a property or method is viewable in an editor. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.editorbrowsableattribute.aspx
Hiding Values
Hiding Valuesusing System.ComponentModel;
[Browsable(false), EditorBrowsable(false)]public new Font Font{ get { return base.Font; } set { base.Font = value; }}
Imports System.ComponentModel
<Browsable(False), EditorBrowsable(false)> _ Public Shadows Property Font() As Font Get Return MyBase.Font End Get Set(ByVal Value As Font) 'MyBase.Font = Value 'normal property syntax MyBase.Font = New Font(Me.Font.FontFamily, 20)
End SetEnd Property
Do you know when to use User Controls?
You lose the AcceptButton and CancelButton properties from the Designer
e.g. OK, Cancel, Apply
Therefore the OK, Cancel and Apply buttons cannot be on User Controls.
User Controls
You can use a user control more than once on the same form e.g. Mailing Address, Billing Address
You can reuse logic in the code behind the controls e.g. Search control
User controls are less prone to visual inheritance errors
User Controls
Controls only used once
Bad! »
User Controls
Only for reuse
Good! »
User Controls
Exception! »
User Controls – TabPages
Possible Exception:
When a form has multiple tabs, and each tab has numerous controls – it can be easier to use User Control in this case
Smaller designer generated code More than one person can be working on a different
‘tab’
User Controls – TabPages
Code intensive
Must manually handle the Validating event of each control you want to validate
Must be manually running the validation methods when the OK or Apply button is clicked
Error Provider
Controls that “attach” themselves to existing
Do you use validator controls?
Good
No code, all in the designer (integrates with the ErrorProvider)
Validator Controls
Windows Forms – Validation
Validation logic is in the Model
Validation with Entity Framework
public partial class Employee{ partial void OnLastNameChanging(string value) { if (string.Compare(value, "Gfader", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) == 0) { throw new ArgumentException("No GFADER allowed"); } }}
Validation logic is in the Model
Validation with Entity Framework
public partial class Employee{
partial void OnLastNameChanging(string value) {
if (string.Compare(value, "Gfader", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) == 0) { throw new ArgumentException("No GFADER allowed"); }
}
}
Partial class holds validation logic
Partial class
Hook up ErrorProvider
Happens in model
Different UI layers can react to validation differently
Web page Windows Form Silverlight WPF ...
Validation
Monitor Performance better
Good user feedback
Easy to do
AdamE thinks“general user’s don’t care about technical details, a progress bar is better”
Do you use a status bar to show load time?
Don't use splash screens for branding. Avoid using splash screens because they may cause users to associate your program with poor performance. Use them only to give feedback and reduce the perception of time for programs that have unusually long load times.
Don't use animated splash screens. Users often assume that the animated splash screen is the reason for a long load time. Too often, that assumption is correct.
Splash Screens
Two-way binding means that the object/data structure is bound to the UI Element/Control
The setting/getting and the positioning of elements in a collection is handled by the databinding mechansisms
Databinding is VASTLY superior in WPF
Do you always use the Visual Studio designer for data binding where possible?
Bad – write your own boring code
Private Sub OnLoad() OrderDetailsService.Instance.GetAll(Me.OrderDetailsDataSet1) Dim row As OrderDetailsDataSet.OrderDetailsRow = Me.OrderDetailsDataSet1.OrderDetails(0) Me.TextBox1.Text = row.UnitPrice.ToString("c") End Sub
Private Sub Save() Dim row As OrderDetailsDataSet.OrderDetailsRow = Me.OrderDetailsDataSet1.OrderDetails(0) row.UnitPrice = Decimal.Parse(Me.TextBox1.Text, System.Globalization.NumberStyles.Currency) End Sub
SimpleBinding to a single property
ComplexBinding to a list
Using the Designer
MDI Forms
Hangover from Access 2.0
and Windows 3.1
Clutter the application
Only one window on
the taskbar
No multiple monitor support
MDI Forms
Do you make common control with certain width?
Bad/Good Example #1
Bad/Good Example #2
TestingDon‘t trust anyone
Part of Visual Studio 2010 "Ultimate" edition
Microsoft Test Manager
Microsoft Test Manager
Generate Coded UI test
Use existing recording
Generated coded UI test
[TestMethod]public void CodedUITestMethod1(){
this.UIMap.StartApplication(); this.UIMap.LoginToApplication(); this.UIMap.SeeDetailsform(); this.UIMap.ClickOnnextRecord(); this.UIMap.SeetheNextRecord();
}
Automated recording
IntelliTrace (drill through to Visual Studio)
Bug in TFS
Video.wmv
Detailed steps
Lots of details (you don’t need if you get intelliTrace)
Stack traceSystem info
Microsoft Test Manager
Book "User Interface Design for Programmers“
Blog
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
UX patterns
http://quince.infragistics.com/
Resources
http://www.windowforms.net
http://www.ssw.com.au/ssw/Standards/Rules/RulesToBetterInterfaces.aspx
Windows UX Guidelines
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511258.aspx
Designing Interfaces
http://designinginterfaces.com/
Automate UI - VS2010 Test Manager
Resources
Covers Windows UI reference guidelines
This should be your main ‘Bible’ when designing Windows Forms (not Web) if you’re not a designer as it provides a consistent standard
Windows UX Guidelines
What's next?
Thank You!
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