(The sample screens below were taken from "Macintosh Fundamentals and Beyond," an award-winning training course from Apple Computer, Inc. developed in 1989.)
Rule 1 - Show consideration for users by designing for "user friendliness."
A critical factor of "user friendliness" is making your IMM program as clear and elegant as possible. Although your program may include other media, text will continue to play a major role in most IMM programs. Therefore considerable design effort should be made to assure that text is an effective and efficient component of the overall program.
Rule 2 - Use balance and symmetry.
Balance a menu or portion of text with graphics to focus the learners attention. In the "Macintosh Fundamentals and Beyond" (MFB) course, each of the module menus employs a consistent menu structure and graphical layout.
Rule 3 - Keep displays predictable and regular.
Once a display structure is established, use it consistently. There will be times when varying display structure will be appropriate, but any modification should be based upon instructional requirements rather than change for its own sake. An easily understandable structure is one of the most important components of a IMM course. In MFB, all modules contained the same five basic sections, and these were displayed using a consistent textual and graphical display.
Rule 4 - Use the appropriate display rate.
Produce visually pleasing arrangements of graphics and text that permit students to focus on the important points without strain or confusion. Keep the length of text sections to relatively brief paragraphs that convey one main idea. Generally, it is better to display all the text that will appear on a single screen at the same time. In this way, the learner can decide what they want to read, skim, review, etc. in order to synthesize the content.
Rule 5 - Avoid the "electronic page-turner."
Rather than provide all the content in a long linear stream, permit learners to direct their own learning. This can be done by using menus that allow learners to select the order in which to consider topics. Provide cues as to what has been completed and what remains to be done. A "fresh" menu of options in the MFB course is represented by unfilled "diamonds" next to the choices. The diamonds are filled in as the learner progresses through the material.
Rule 6 - Maintain unity and simplicity.
There is research that supports "low density" as opposed to "high density" text in IMM. Researchers eliminated more than 40% of the text in normal IMM displays, and student performance was held constant while the time for training was shortened! Subject matter experts and especially instructional designers sometimes include too much detail when displaying content on the screen. Provide the main ideas and a means of getting more information for those who might need or desire it.
Rule 7 - Create sensible groupings.
Here are some guidelines for formatting groupings:
Rule 8 - Place primary material at the upper left corner of the screen.
In Western cultures, people tend to read from left to right and from top to bottom. Place the title of a screen in the upper left hand corner so that learners perceive the main thrust of a screen right away. (Note that in a series of screens, it is a good idea to provide learners with an idea of how many screens there are and where they are in the sequence.)
Rule 9 - Place prompts and locators consistently on screens.
Navigation is a major challenge in any IMM program. Place control options in consistent areas of the screen. In MFB, the main control options are displayed in a black bar displayed on the right hand side of the screen. Unique controls for specific screens are displayed in a prominent manner. After an orientation and a little experience with a well-designed IMM program, the "cognitive demands" of the interface are reduced, and learners can focus on the content.
Rule 10 - Limit line length to 40 to 60 characters
Text lines longer than 60 characters are hard to read because the eye has to shift too wide a distance to read from line to line without losing place. In MFB, text sometimes averaged 60 characters, but more often narrower lines of text were displayed, as illustrated on this screen.
Rule 11 - Provide generous use of open space.
Research has demonstrated that improvements in the use of white space increase ease of reading more than improvements in style. Leaving blank lines between paragraphs helps. Of course, it is important that screens contain important "chunks" of content . Generally, research supports a screen density of 25 to 40 percent.
Rule 12 - Left-justify text, but do not right-justify it.
When you right-justify text, the spaces interrupt eye movement and slow down reading. Left-justification, however, supports the general tendencies of how Western learners read.
Rule 13 - Use mixed type sizes and styles to emphasize certain materials and provide variety.
Here are some guidelines for fonts:
Rule 14 - Organize complex information into tables.
Just as a picture can be worth a thousand words, a table can summarize complex information in a manner that supports learning. However, good tables are difficult to create. It is generally not a good idea to display very complex tables in IMM, but simple tables can be quite effective.
Rule 15 - Emphasize with text attributes.
Here are some guidelines for text attributes: Use highlighting or boldface to draw attention to the main points. Underlining rarely looks good on a IMM screen. Blinking should only be used in critical situations. It is distracting. Vary the size and rotation of text to attract attention. Scrolling text is generally not sound practice in IMM. Multiple fonts should rarely be used. Pick a good font and work with its different styles.
Blattner, M. M., & Dannenberg, R. B. (Eds.). (1992). Multimedia interface design. New York: ACM Press.
Laurel, B. (Ed.). (1990). The art of human-computer interface design. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Mayhew, D. J. (1992). Principles and guidelines in software user interface design. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Shneiderman, B. (1987). Designing the user interface: Strategies for effective human-computer interaction. Reading: Addison-Wesley.