GiftWorks gets a lot of praise for our user interface design. We spend a lot of time making sure the way it works can be easily figured out without having to jump into the documentation. There is actually a term for this: Affordance. At Mission Research we refer to this as Usability.
In GiftWorks, we try to break down tasks to individual screens so that the user can concentrate on a single task for a single screen. For example, in the mailing section we use minimum of 5 screens to prepare a mailing. That may seem to be a lot, but screen navigation is very simple (using tabs) and each screen focuses on one part of the mailing. See the screenshot to the right.
On a single screen we try to limit input to only those that are necessary. Non-necessary input is moved to the background; maybe to another screen or or collapsed behind a link. The final screen of the Add A Donor popup can be seen to the right. The primary task for this popup is to confirm the addition of a new donor, but we do give the user an easy way to fill in additional (non-necessary) information for the new donor. The link takes them to another screen that shows all possible fields for a donor.
It's never easy to make a screen obvious to use. At some point we have to make an assumption about our user base. For example, we have to assume a user understands what to do when they see a text box, a checkbox, or a dropdown menu. We assume that if a user is running our software they understand these basic input fields (called user controls in Windows terminology). Problems arise when the standard suite of Windows controls do not offer enough control. We have to invent our own controls and try to design them in a way that is obvious to the user. One example of this is Drag and Drop. From a functional perspective drag and drop is very powerful, but it is an advanced concept that is difficult to make obvious. We haven't used drag and drop in GiftWorks yet.
An important part of usability is getting feedback and revising designs. We are not likely to get a user interface right the first time out, but through user feedback we can get there. Let me ask you this: what area of GiftWorks is hard for you to figure out or understand?