This chapter is directed at application designers, rather than the people who write the algorithms of an application, although they are often one in the same. Application designers are the people who design the interface between the application algorithms and the user. In designing user interfaces, an application designer chooses the proper controls or groups of controls, or components, to pass data between the base application and the user, lays out those components naturally, and ensures that user interaction with the components and the layout are easy to use.
This chapter describes the three elements of application user interface design, as well as the principles for designing new user interface components. The four major sections of this chapter are as follows: