Rules to Better Interfaces (WinForms Controls)

ComboBoxes are often used for filtering data. It is best to have an '-All-' option to give your user chances to select all data.

It is important to understand the idea of visual text . In a list you could see either:

• -None- or
• No activity assigned

They both have the same meaning, but the first one is immediately visible whereas the second one must be read.

When designing your form, you should try to help your user whenever it's possible. So it's a good idea to include the number of results in ComboBoxes.

In Web we have:

• Grids E.g. http://demos.kendoui.com/web/grid/selection.html

In Windows Forms we have a CheckedListBox. With a CheckedListBox you cannot:

• Sort data - always useful when there are more than about 20 rows
• Contain much information - can only show one field
• DataBind - always costs heaps of code

A GridView provides much richer features than ListBox, you can easily add a checkbox onto the header to allow "check all" functionality, which is impossible for ListBox.

Yes a ListView looks nicer than a DataGrid, but a Datagrid is better because it has more functionality (out of the box that is). With a ListView you cannot:

• Copy and paste - although you can select a row of data in both controls, you can't copy and paste a whole row from the ListView
• Sort data - always useful when there are more than about 20 rows
• DataBind - always saves heaps of code

Group box should only be used when you want to notify the user the controls within it are really related, such as radio buttons.

When you can't see all the text for an item in a ListView you need to expose the full text via a ToolTip.

Many times you allow a multiple selection in a grid by using a checkbox. When you do this make it easy to see the distinction of a row that is selected and one that is not. Make it subtle by dimming the unselected text.

When designing your form, it's a good idea to help your user whenever it's possible. So it's a good idea to extend your ComboBoxes to show as many results as possible to save your user from scrolling. Also, you should extend the width of the dropdown in order to show the longest items.

Use Label controls to display static text of the application. Eg. "Customer ID:" Use Text Box controls to display data (results of calculations, information, records from a database, etc.).

Why do people always invent ways of getting the same old server name and a database name? Look at this image from Speed Ferret - one of my favorite SQL Server utilities.

A mnemonic for a button is the letter which has an underscore, and the user can press the button using Alt-<char>.

When you are not able to edit a field the field should be greyed out. This visually indicates to the user that the field cannot be changed.

If you use the DataGridView control which is read only, you had better set row select mode as "FullRowSelect". If the data cannot be modified we can let users select the whole row instead of one column.

When visitors are navigating through your site and they need to make a selection from a control with fixed values, it is best to have the control automatically post back. This makes navigating your site quicker as the user does not have to click other buttons to see the changes which they have made. It is also important to remember that controls which do not have set values, such as text boxes, should have a "Show" button available to click once the visitor is finished entering their data.