August 31, 2000 (INB) -- What have companies like catalog retailer Lands' End and Progressive Insurance done to create more effective graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for their Intranet and client/server applications? They're using GUIguide™, a powerful new tool created and recently released by Classic System Solutions, Inc. Now found at www.guiguide.com, GUIguide™ provides these organizations and others with enterprise design guidelines for web and client/server development.

"GUIguide™ will save organizations a great deal of money," says Jim Hobart of Classic System Solutions. "The number one reason people call the help desk for corporate Intranet sites is poor navigation. People are wandering aimlessly around the new 'virtual hallways' looking for their benefits, vacation policies, or even where to order supplies," explains Hobart. "The result of this is millions of dollars in lost productivity for every poorly designed corporate Intranet." GUIguide™ solves this problem by providing everyone in the company with easy-to-use guidelines for designing web and client/server applications.

GUIguide™ offers development tool independent guidelines, tools, and resources, delivered as a highly scalable web application deployed on corporate Intranets.

Some key features of GUIguide™ include:

• Robust, secure authoring environment
• Quality assurance checklists
• Recommendations and examples that are easy to apply
• A glossary of GUI design terminology
• Repository for GUI and web components
• Case studies that add contextual meaning
• Visual examples and templates
• Comprehensive, customizable administration tools
• Security to ensure the quality of the content

GUIguide™ is:

• Development tool independent
• Developed for both client/server and web design
• Delivered and administered in a dynamic data-driven web application
• Compatible with major web browsers
• Stored in an ODBC-compliant database for instant updates and maintenance
• Immediately deployed to the entire corporate Intranet

GUIguide's database of guidelines uses 'best practice' GUI standards and 'real-world' examples of GUI interface designs. Unlike other standards publications and guides, GUIguide™ offers recommendations and examples over and above the most-accepted GUI standards in the industry. Software applications developed using GUIguide's 'best practices' allow for future reusability and offer high end-user acceptance. GUIguide is the culmination of over eight years of consulting on hundreds of client/server and web projects, combined with industry standards and client recommendations, to produce the best GUIguidelines available.

GUIguide™ can help organizations develop consistent, user-friendly graphical user interfaces, keeping productivity up and costs down, without the headaches of developing or researching guidelines in-house. For more information about GUIguide™, visit www.guiguide.com or contact Jim Hobart at jimh@classicsys.com.