Vikings Write Great Design Guidelines
June 19th, 2007
My excitement about ELMER 2: Simplified Form Design (PDF – 1 MB) may be due to my Scandinavian roots. But it is probably more likely attributable to the fact that I am a total geek when it comes to documentation. The Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry has written remarkable guidelines on designing simplified web forms. If I’d had something like this when I started out, it would have been my secret weapon.
This document is a very tight example of design documentation. *begin nerd voice* The guidelines are in a tabular format with cross references and clear examples. It also has a glossary of terms used in the document like “inline error” and “standardized text.”
*/end nerd voice*
And don’t forget, as the document footer says… “In case of discrepency, the Norwegian version prevails.” Yahr!
August 13th, 2007 at 7:56 am
As a member of the ELMER2 project group it’s very rewarding to get this kind of input from people who weren’t part of the group.
When new people read the guidelines and find them usable (both content and formatting), it’s sort of a usability test of the guidelines. It’s nice to see that you like the ELMER guidelines. I hope they’ll be of help, too.
If you have any input or suggestions for improvements, please contact me.
And again, thank you very much for the praise! :-)