Specifications

Intelligent Building Series C-Touch Programming Reference

10.0 Good Design Practices

Good projects have a number of common features regardless of the design of the

projects. The number of fonts and components is held to the minimum, memory

utilisation is carefully controlled, the ergonomics of the pages and their navigation is

natural and intuitive and finally, good documentation and a user training session

complete a successful project.

10.1 Fonts

The number of fonts should be held to minimum to avoid visual confusion.

Another good reason to use the smallest number of fonts possible is to reduce

memory requirements since each font used must be stored in the C-Touch

memory even if it is only used in one place in the project. In general, larger fonts

are easier to read (although large fonts take up more space than smaller ones,

the gains in readibility are worth it.)

10.2 Components

Components provide a convenient combination of functionality and ease of use

from the programming point of view but the “price” of the component

architecture used in C-Touch is the relatively large amount of memory used by

these same components. If a component aids in comprehension, provides

essential functionality, or creates an impressive visual effect then it should be

used, but it is worth bearing in mind the cost in terms of memory utilization.

Having decided to use certain components then large, “friendly” buttons and

large icons should be used.

10.3 Page Layout

The guidelines for page layout are recommendations rather than “hard and fast

rules” and should be kept in mind where possible. The pages in a project should

have a similar look or style. The Back Buttons and any other navigation buttons

should be in the same place on each page. The overall design should be

uncluttered.

10.4 Project Structure and Navigation

The most common graphical interface similar to C-Touch for the average user

would be that presented by internet browsers. These tend to feature a “Back”

button to return to previously visited pages. Although this scheme can be used

to navigate through any project, other schemes such as the example project

illustrated throughout this Guide may be used (where a page can have buttons

to return to intermediate levels in the project.) Virtually any logical system can

be used to navigate and once a user is familiar with a particular scheme the

exact details are unimportant. The key is to make the scheme logical and

consistent.

Another idea worth enforcing is that of a limit on the number of levels of menus

supported. A project should have no more than three levels of depth for

comprehensibility. If a greater depth is chosen, the user can become

disoriented and frustrated at being unable to find a particular page. If the “three

deep” rule is adhered to this is most unlikely.