I am looking for suggestion and guideline for Web GUI design.
The requirement from the business needs dozens of field for reading and for data entry on the same screen.
In our previous design of our apps, we tried to - use almost every pixel of space [1] - keep fields logical, related fields close together - prevent scrolling - NO wizard - keep fields appear (and also tab sequence) in the order of their event in time, if possible
[1] We have policy to not make application 800 pixel width as there is always a docking application. [2] It will be running in Terminal Service environment, scrolling is not a good idea to reduce broad-width and to have fast user response time.
This time is more complex as we will have to show a list of child-record on the same page.
Dozens of fields do matter as we are tried to optimize the visible area, while user many still add/remove fields or change the size of them. And once a while they request o have highlighting / bold / dynamic annotation on the field name :(.
It really takes time to fight with the GUI.
How could we speed up the development time, keep it clean, easy to maintenance, user friendly/easy to use, and also designed for human body?