USER INTERFACE DESIGN Not just about the arrangement of media on a screen It’s designing an entire experience for people, hence a “look and feel” User interfaces should be designed to match the skills, experience and expectations of its anticipated users. System users often judge a system by its interface rather than its functionality A poorly designed interface can cause a user to make catastrophic errors Poor user interface design is the reason why so many software systems are never used The Design of Everyday Things - Donald Norman (Doubleday, 1988) “In England I visited a home with a fancy new Italian washer-drier combination, with super-duper multi-symbol controls, to do everything you ever wanted to do with the washing and drying of clothes. The husband (an engineering psychologist) said he refused to go near it. The wife (a physician) said she had simply memorized one setting and tried to ignore the rest.” Norman’s Principles of Usability: 1. Visibility Frequently used functions should be obvious and easy. 2. Mapping Relate interface to mental model 3. Feedback Has an intended action to be done Human Factors in Interface Design 1. Limited short-term memory People can instantaneously remember about 7 items of information. If you present more than this, they are more liable to make mistakes. 2. People makes mistakes When people make mistakes and systems go wrong, inappropriate alarms and messages can increase stress and hence the likelihood of more mistakes. 3. People are different / People have different interaction preferences People have a wide range of physical capabilities. Designers should not just design for their own capabilities. UI Design Principles 1. User familiarity The interface should use terms and concepts which are drawn from the experience of the people who will make most use of the system. 2. Consistency The interface should be consistent in that, wherever possible, comparable operations should be activated in the same way. 3. Minimal surprise Users should never be surprised by the behaviour of a system. 4. Recoverability The interface should include mechanisms to allow users to recover from errors. 5. User guidance The interface should provide meaningful feedback when errors occur and provide context-sensitive user help facilities.
USER INTERFACE DESIGN
Oct 26, 2014
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USER INTERFACE DESIGN
Not just about the arrangement of media on a screen It’s designing an entire experience for people, hence a “look and feel” User interfaces should be designed to match the skills, experience and expectations of its anticipated users. System users often judge a system by its interface rather than its functionality A poorly designed interface can cause a user to make catastrophic errors Poor user interface design is the reason why so many software systems are never used
The Design of Everyday Things - Donald Norman (Doubleday, 1988)“In England I visited a home with a fancy new Italian washer-drier combination, with super-duper multi-symbol controls, to
do everything you ever wanted to do with the washing and drying of clothes. The husband (an engineering psychologist) said he refused to go near it. The wife (a physician) said she had simply memorized one setting and tried to ignore the rest.”
Norman’s Principles of Usability: 1. Visibility
Frequently used functions should be obvious and easy.2. Mapping
Relate interface to mental model3. Feedback
Has an intended action to be done
Human Factors in Interface Design1. Limited short-term memory
People can instantaneously remember about 7 items of information. If you present more than this, they are more liable to make mistakes.
2. People makes mistakes When people make mistakes and systems go wrong, inappropriate alarms and messages can increase stress
and hence the likelihood of more mistakes.3. People are different / People have different interaction preferences
People have a wide range of physical capabilities. Designers should not just design for their own capabilities.
UI Design Principles1. User familiarity
The interface should use terms and concepts which are drawn from the experience of the people who will make most use of the system.
2. Consistency The interface should be consistent in that, wherever possible, comparable operations should be activated in
the same way.3. Minimal surprise
Users should never be surprised by the behaviour of a system.4. Recoverability
The interface should include mechanisms to allow users to recover from errors.5. User guidance
The interface should provide meaningful feedback when errors occur and provide context-sensitive user help facilities.
6. User diversity The interface should provide appropriate interaction facilities for different types of system user.
Two Approaches to UI Design:1. Lisa Lopuck’s 3 Steps to UI Design
a. Identify your audience and messageb. Determine the setting
c. Create an experience
2. Tay Vaughan’s Approach to UI Designa. Determine all the functionality that a UI should provideb. Design UI that provides this functionality
Prototyping“You can’t evaluate or improve a design until it’s been implemented, but changes are hard to make after it’s implemented.”
an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from
Interaction Styles1. Direct manipulation
a. Easiest to grasp with immediate feedbackb. Difficult to program
2. Menu selectionsa. User effort and errors minimizedb. Large numbers and combinations of choices of problems
3. Form fill-ina. Ease of use, simple data entryb. Tedious, takes a lot of screen space
4. Command languagea. Easy to program and processb. Difficult to master for casual users
5. Natural languagea. Great for casual usersb. Tedious for expert users
GUI: User-system interactionTwo Problems
1. How should information from the user be provided to the computer system?a. Direct manipulationb. Menu selectionc. Form fill-in
d. Command languagee. Natural language
2. How should information from the computer system be presented to the user?
a. Information display factorsb. Alternative information presentations (bar chart)c. Information display (dial w. needle, pie chart, thermometer and horizontal bar)d. Displaying relative valuese. Text highlightingf. Data visualization
Techniques for displaying large amounts of informationg. Color Displays
Color adds an extra dimension to an interface and can help the user understand complex information structures.
h. Can be used to highlight exceptional events
Common Mistakes Too much color will kill you\
Error Messages Error message design is critically important Poor error messages can mean that a user rejects rather than accepts a system Messages should be polite, concise, consistent and constructive The background and experience of users should be the determining factor in message design
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