Figure: Good Example - Application with a standard title bar caption

Figure: Good Example - The company URL appearing in SSW SQL Auditor

Figure: Bad Example - Bad caption in SSW SQL Deploy

Figure: Bad Example - Plain menu

Figure: Good Example - Menu with icons

More information

Figure: the Menuitem has a simple image property

• Long process - there should be a sound at the end of every long process to notify the user that it has finished
• Deleting records
• Application opening / closing
• Copying and pasting text

Figure: Good Example - Turning on Feedback with sound in Outlook

        Dim Message As String = "You did not enter a server name. Cancel this operation?"
        Dim Caption As String = "No Server Name Specified"
        Dim Buttons As Integer = MessageBoxButtons.YesNo
        Beep()
        result = MessageBox.Show( Me, Message, Caption, Buttons)
                    

Figure: Bad example - The sound on the button is hardcoded in this code snippet

        Dim Message As String = "You did not enter a server name. Cancel this operation?"
        Dim Caption As String = "No Server Name Specified"
        Dim Buttons As Integer = MessageBoxButtons.YesNo
        result = MessageBox.Show( Me, Message, Caption, Buttons)
                    

Figure: The code is not present in this example as it is automatically done

Figure: Bad example – this progress bar looks like it is stuck at 99%. Ideally the progress bar should be hidden when completed and replaced by a green tick

Figure: Bad Example - The winform's title does not contain the progress status

Figure: Good Example - The winform's title contains the status of progress bar

Figure: Good Example - You can clearly see the progress status from taskbar when you have the windows minimized

Figure: Good Example - Windows 7 shows the progress in the taskbar (which is visible even when the application is minimized)

Figure: Good Example - Here the user can skip a long process and see the last results (from SSW Diagnostics)

Figure: Bad Example - Stop is an ambiguous term and can be momentarily confusing

Figure: Good Example - Cancel leaves little room for miscommunication

• Showing status description information above the progress bar
• Allowing the user to stop the process at any time by clicking "Cancel" (or as a minimum, prompt for confirmation before the long running process starts)

Figure: Good Example - Progress Bar with description and Cancel Button

Figure: Good Example - Progress Bar with description and status, and Cancel Button

Figure: Bad example - An unknown length of time. So let them know

Figure: Good example – The coffee cup tells the user that they will be here a while

• Playing a sound
• Hiding the progress bar
• Showing a message box at the end of the long process

Process completed.

Figure: Bad example – No detailed information

Figure: OK Example - A completed progress form

Manual extraction process completed.

Mailboxes scanned: 8
Mailboxes skipped: 2
Total mailboxes: 10
Time Taken: 10 minutes, 15 seconds

Figure: Good example – The user can see what has been processed

Good example – an application should never automatically delete a database, not even a sample database

Figure: Good Example - Standard warning before a program exits

        private void OnExit(object sender) 
             { 
                EventHandler handler = ExitRequest; 
                if (handler!= null ) 
                { 
                   handler(sender, EventArgs.Empty);
                   return;
                } 
                string closeTitle = string.Format("Exiting{0}", Application.ProductName);
                string closeMessage = string.Format("Are you sure you want to exit {0}", Application.ProductName);
                DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show(closeMessage,closeTitle, MessageBoxButtons.YesNo,MessageBoxIcon.Warning);
                if (result == DialogResult.Yes)
                { 
                   Application.Exit();
                } 
             }
                        

Figure: It's better to provide such a "Training Videos..." menu item

Figure: Bad Example - This "About" dialog does not provide enough information about the product and/or company

Figure: This "Help | About" form contains all 5 elements, but has room for aesthetic improvements (old SSW design)

Figure: Good Example - This "Help | About" has the 5 elements presented better,

1. Easier to keep up-to-date and maintain
2. Stats on usage
3. Allows community commenting

Figure: Good Example - "User Guide" link in the "Help" menu

Figure: Good Example - Telerik keeps their "User Guide" online

• For SQL Server we use vwValidateClient_MustHaveACategoryID, or procValidateClient_MustHaveACategoryID
• For Access we use qryValidateClient_MustHaveACategoryID

Figure: Good Example - This application, while not the prettiest, has a handy validation tool to check for incorrect data

Related Links

Figure: Bad Example - Example of a Help menu with only "About"

Figure: Good Example - Example of a Help menu with all 8 items