Designing Screens › Screen Design Guidelines

Screen Design Guidelines

You can customize screens by specifying the location and characteristics (color, light, and intensity) of any field. The colors you define in the system defaults or override when you define screen objects locally will be the colors the user sees in the generated system. However, the display properties in the generated system will vary with the software and hardware used for development and display.

As a consequence, use the following guidelines as you design screens and templates.

• If you plan to use templates, build them first. Then build the screens in which you plan to use them.
• Since the Screen Design tool does not permit overlapping fields, add templates to the screen before adding fields. If you add a template and then determine you want to delete one or more literals or special fields the template provides, use the Delete command.
• Use field properties to highlight important information. Do not overuse highlighting as it might confuse the user.
• Arrange fields on the screen in the same order that the user is likely to use them. When both mandatory and optional fields appear, place the mandatory fields before the optional fields.
• Ensure that the order of fields on the screen reflects the reading order of the user; for example, in English, left to right and top to bottom.
• Be consistent across screens and screen types in format and sequence of fields.
• Use display properties to differentiate data fields from prompts and literals. Use discretion in color selection. Do not overuse color as tt makes screens difficult to read.
• Make literals consistent in text, color, and placement across screens in the business system.
• Use simple screen formats that convey information clearly and concisely. Do not crowd the screen; use additional screens when necessary.

At any stage in the design process, you can preview screens to see how they will appear to the end user.

More information:

Change Screens and Templates

Prototyping