Designing Maps › Attributes of Successful Maps › Determining Success of an Application

Determining Success of an Application

Maps displayed during the execution of the application interface directly with the user and, therefore, can influence the success of an application. Consequently, the designer must consider the appearance of the menu screens and the layout of the dialog maps.

A successful map design should exhibit the following attributes:

• Consistency — Entities (for example, fields, headings, labels, responses, messages, and control keys) should have the same meaning or effect throughout the application. The meaning or effect need not be identical for every map, but should be consistent within the broader confines of the system. In general, there are two special fields on any screen: a message field and a response code field. These areas should appear in a constant location on the screen throughout any application; for maximum effectiveness, they should remain standard for all applications at a site.
• Convenience — Features of the system should be designed to associate related entities by using similar constructs, positioning, and responses to produce similar reactions from the system. For example, assign one particular control key to initiate the update function in all the dialogs of a given application.
• Supportiveness — The reactions of the system should enable the user to handle normal contingencies conveniently. Tutorial aids should be available when needed. Displayed informational and/or error messages should be meaningful.

The remainder of this chapter discusses the following aspects of map design:

• Standards to consider when designing maps
• Mapping procedures that can be adopted by an installation
• Choices available in the design of menu maps
• Suggestions for designing dialog maps