Arranging Several Block Groups on a Screen 

Blank Lines Between Block Groups

There is no blank line before a group heading.

Aligning Field Names in Different Block Groups

The second or third block in block groups does not have to be aligned with the corresponding second or third block in an adjacent block group. You should first arrange the blocks optimally within each block group (see above, Arrangement of several blocks to form a block group), and only then define the spacing for the blocks in the two adjacent block groups. If the distance is less than five to seven characters, you can align the leftmost block with the right-hand block. Otherwise, leave the left block as it is.
  1. In schematic terms, the fully filled work area originally looks as follows:

    2. In this case, you should align the two right-hand blocks with each other to achieve a more harmonious overall arrangement. Result:

    Good and optimized:

  2. Schematically, the fully filled template looks as follows:

In this case, you should leave the lower right block close to the lower left block, rather than move it to the right to align it with the upper right block. As the following example shows, it is better to have the two groups close together:

Bad

This guideline is a question of compromise between the spatial proximity of related data and alignments in the work area which give a more relaxed look to the entire screen.

Aligning Input/Output Fields in Different Block Groups

The above suggestion also applies to the positioning of input/output fields of various block groups.

Priorities

The alignment of I/O fields has priority over the alignment of field names.

This applies particularly to the leftmost blocks in the various block groups.

Do still try, however, to align both field names and input fields of the blocks in different block groups with each other.

Good
  1. The left input fields in the three block groups are aligned vertically. The input fields of both right-hand blocks in the first and second block group are not vertically aligned with one another because the right-hand block of the first block group should be near to its left block.

  2. In contrast to the first example, the input fields of the right-hand blocks have also been aligned. The field names of the right blocks are not arranged one below another as one does not want to shorten the description in the upper block and the lower block cannot be shifted further to the left because of the long text field.

 

Bad

In this example, the groups of input field blocks and the field names are not vertically aligned.

It is the input fields rather than the field names that should be aligned with one another, because the user (especially an experienced user) will tend to orient himself or herself "optically" towards the input values instead of the field names (which he or she already knows and therefore hardly reads consciously at all).

Maximum Number of Block Groups

You should have not more than three or four block groups on a screen.