Very trivial GUI design error on PocketPC

When I developed my first applications for the PocketPC I made a lot of design errors resulting in very hard-to-use tools.

This is one example. Watch the following image:


Do you find the mistake ? It should be obvious for expert developers, but is not very easy to find. So, try to imagine to be the user. Go on the lower edit control and change the selected text with the keyboard. The result will be like the following image:


Ouch ! Where the £%&$ is my edit control ? You will probably have something to teach to that stupid programmer ...

It just happened that the control was placed in the area that is normally reserved for in-screen keyboards, so that when the user edits some text, the control is hidden. This is not a real bug: the text can still be changed and nothing crashes. Though, the user experience is not the best, and probably this dialog will not be candidated to usability design awards. This is bad user interface design. Things work, but the user is not happy.

So, this is the first trivial hint on PocketPC GUI design that I want to share :

- Don't place edit controls in the keyboard area. -

In the following post(s) I will describe other hints, some very basic and others more subtle. I would have liked to read for these hints when I made my first mistakes ..

User interface design is particularly important if you plan to port an application from the PC platform to the PocketPC.
A lot of people will say: - Well, if your code is standard and well designed, you just have to build it with the a new compiler, fix some bugs, stretch some dialogues and you are done. -
Don't believe them. You will probably be able to compile, fix and run a lot of code, but in my opinion most of your time will be spent in redesigning an existing GUI.

Bye.