Client Application Design Accessibility
Let me said you about something that you might agreed with me.
"Usable applications are used applications, the key to a successful application is user adoption, if your user is excited about using your application, then adoption will increase, training time will decrease, and greater productivity will be had by all"
If you see take a look outside (I mean your client), today's workforce is a diverse group of people with different skill and talents. So you might ask how to make my application easy for them...the answer is "designing them to be accessible"
Accessible application start form design phase. Try to follow this principles when design the accessibility applications.
- Flexibility (i.e. users must be able to customize the user interface to suit their specific needs, like its font or color)
- Intuitive Input and Output methods (i.e. the ability to use keyboards shortcut, mouse click, and visual clues like sound notifications)
- Consistency (interact with the user with consistent manner i.e. use message box and sound in every notification)
- Compatibility with accessibility aids (i.e. try to follow accessibility aids such as the windows accessibility utility)
Ok you said enough for the theory now let implement it in .NET framework
.NET provides control and components that provide wide range of functionality when designing your user interface. Below are some controls that help you to achieve client application design accessibility.
- PropertyGrid Control (user configurable version of the properties window in visual studio)
- ProgressBar Control (visually indicate progress for a time consuming operation)
- StatusStrip (display status information about the application)
- ToolTip (allows you to set a tips when user hover to a control)
- ErrorProvider (feedback to the user when an error condition is occur)
- HelpProvider (allow you to make context sensitive help available for your application)
- Timer (schedule applications to call method in a predefined interval)
- HscrollBar and VscrollBar (provide easy navigation for long information within application)
- Application Settings (store and retrieve accessibility and other options)
Since I can't explain technical stuff now, you can ask me about "How to use <name of control> in my application to make my app accessibility increase"...
TTFN, in the next occasion I will share about Client Application Design Accessibility in .NET framework 3.5
Regards,
ridife (Ridi Ferdiana)