OLE UI & UX

Purpose

These pages present a guidebook to the design of user interfaces for Kuali OLE.

Assumptions: we are still a young project, and interface designs will evolve throughout our release of OLE 1.0 and future products. In post 1.0 development, focused efforts will attempt to resolve accessibility, user experience, and UI integration (look-and-feel) across the application.

Acquisitions and financial functions will rely on Kuali Financial Systems and will not depart from the template or integrated processing until post KFS 5.0 upgrades in 2012.

(link to Google Docs)

“User interface design (UI) or user interface engineering is the design of software applications, and websites with the focus on the user's experience and interaction. The goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction as simple and efficient as possible, in terms of accomplishing user goals---what is often called user-centered design. Good user interface design facilitates finishing the task at hand without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Graphic design may be utilized to support its usability. The design process must balance technical functionality and visual elements (e.g., mental model) to create a system that is not only operational but also usable and adaptable to changing user needs.” Source: Wikipedia.

“User experience (UX) is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency of the system.”  Source: Wikipedia.