What’s an interface?

You might be an engineer, and that’s what you are good at. Your customer is not interested in what or how you do something. It only needs to see that “it” works, and it needs an interface to interact with what you created. For the client, the interface frequently is the only thing they see from a development. The engineering might be terrible, but if it works and the interface is great, you will likely have no complaints. However, if your engineering is fabulous, solid, and actually breathtaking, you might be stunned to see the client react to visual details he does not understand.

The interface is the central part you sell to any client. It answers questions like: Can I find what I look for? Is it intuitive? Is there enough information visible, or rather too much of it?

Struggling with design

I saw many developers struggle with the concept of design. Not surprisingly, engineers are good at engineering, while designers are good at design. Rarely do these two overlap in real life. Yet, in FileMaker, both sets of skills are needed, as FileMaker intrinsically links both. You cannot engineer anything in FileMaker without touching the interface. As FileMaker is a low-code platform, it might even attract people who are neither engineers nor designers and see themselves confronted with challenges they never considered before.

Often, the design of a solution gets a backseat during development. That is: Functionality is the first thing to look at. Yet, once the solution is in use, the design probably decides how well the application is received and implemented. If users are struggling with the implementation of the interface, it is just as bad as if something did not work as intended.

FileMaker themes are not design

FileMaker has several tools to implement a design. Specifically, the grid and some layout options, along with the style sheets called themes, are useful tools to create a design. These tools in themselves are not to be confused with a design. They are good helps to implement a design, but using them does not magically create great design.

In German, for example, the FileMaker themes are called “Designs”. That is utter nonsense. They are complex style sheets (“Stilvorlagen”), but nothing beyond that. Applying a theme to a layout does not magically create a fantastic design. That only enables you to style objects with the help of that style sheet. Useful, but using them does not emulate a design degree.

Generally speaking, the job of a designer is different from that of an engineer. To do both tasks requires some learning. Reading books about design, typography, colors, or following some courses might give your understanding a boost. While FileMaker by far does not have the tools of regular design software, it does give you quite usable tools to implement a design of your choice or of something an actual designer created for you.

Now here is the tricky part: creating a good design frequently needs both the engineer and designer. Not everything an engineer can think of will translate well into a design, and not every design choice can be adequately used in a software context.

A good design needs less support, smaller manuals, and frees both users and developers from numerous headaches. Steve Jobs famously said that “design is how it works”. That does not mean that users will think like engineers and are willing to learn to think like an engineer. It is rather the engineer, who not only has to create the functionality but also the user experience by a great design. If that doesn’t come naturally: learn.

FileMaker Design Basics

We just opened a new YouTube channel for FileMaker videos. The first video launched is about FileMaker Design Basics. It will introduce you to some basic thoughts and explain some basic tools in FileMaker to help you create better interfaces.

Learning about Design

There is no trick for good design, just as there is no trick to being a good engineer. Each has a wide array of skills needed for the job. If you want to create music, you need to learn to hear, even in between the notes. The same applies to software interfaces. It is not just about the buttons on a layout or the fields to fill in, but how they interact, knowing where they are useful and where distracting.

Interface design is like typography; it is probably best if not even noticed. Reading a book or using software is the goal. If the user stumbles over bad design, it will slow down reading, or the bad experience can even lead to resisting the book or software. A good design is most likely the critical part for user acceptance.

What makes up good design?

That is a similar question as «What is good music?» Many will point to their favorite artists. By doing that, they explain it is frequently about taste. But good design is not about taste or style but rather about how it performs, what it does to the user, and how it enables you to transport what you engineered for their experience.

What good design is not:

• It is not about taste
• It is not about being pretty
• It is not about excessive use of colors
• It is not applying a FileMaker theme (design and understanding come first).

Good design is relying on:

• Simplicity
• Consistency
• Guiding without explaining
• Location (Orientation in the application).

How do you want to improve your next FileMaker application?