I recently started thinking about quality factors for measuring a user interface, especially when comparing different technology platforms.

UI Quality Factors:

  • Richness
  • Efficiency
  • Cost
  • Usability
  • Flexibility
  • Scalability

Applications with Generated UIs

Examples: MOSS, Cognos, Pega

  • Pros: Cost
  • Cons: Richness, Flexibility, Scalability, Usability, Efficiency

Traditional Web Applications

Examples: ASP.NET, PHP

  • Pros: Scalability
  • Cons: Richness

Traditional Desktop Applications

  • Pros: Richness, Efficiency, Usability
  • Cons: Scalability, Cost

Rich Internet Applications (RIA)

  • Pros: Flexibility, Scalability, Usability, Richness, Efficiency
  • Cons: Cost