What does a good user interface consist of?
Through the digitalisation of our everyday lives, user interfaces are an ever-increasing presence. Today alone I personally have had contact with the following user interfaces: on my tablet, my computer, my ATM, etc. And in the future, this will surely only increase: we need only think of refrigerators, home control systems or voice assistants (Alexa, for example), and so on.
User interfaces are being integrated more and more into our daily life — in a private as well as a professional context — without us really paying too much attention to them. As user interfaces are easy to understand, they are often not actively perceived at all. They are simply part of the product or software.
While we formerly turned to the operating instructions when we bought a new product, nowadays we approach the workings of a device rather intiuitively, which is to be attributed to the learning processes of the user and the developer.
History of User Interface: the Evolution of the Input Command
“A user interface is an interface through which a person can control specific software or hardware. Ideally, user interfaces should be user-friendly in order to make the interaction as instinctive and intuitive as possible.”
(Source: OnPageWiki)
At first, computers were still operated by commands in the Command Line Interface (CLI). However, through the development of the hardware as well as the processing power, the User Interface (UI) was developed. Following this, graphic user interfaces (GUI) were put into use. These days, computers can be operated via menus, buttons and icons. The input is mostly made using the mouse and/or the keyboard.
After this came video game consoles and touchscreens, as well as voice user interfaces (VUI) and natural user interfaces (NUS), which have made control possible through speech, gestures and facial expressions.
Effective User Interface: In Focus
The user of an interface wants to achieve a goal without having to learn the internal processes of the product. The user interface gives a feeling of control, without admitting the possibility for mistakes.
An example: you want to link up your smartphone with the hands-free system in your car. The following scenario is possible: you open the setting with the click of a button and then select the Bluetooth option. A list of possible active Bluetooth devices is displayed. After selecting your device and activating your hands-free kit, the connection between the two devices is completely independently and correctly established. You have achieved your goal.
The interface should therefore always be consistently designed right down to the very last detail, so that the process can be better supported.
An online shop uses two types of buttons. One group of buttons has an eye-catching design, and has the visual form of an actual button. These serve important function and action requests, such as “place item in shopping cart”, “go to checkout” and “place order now”. The other group of buttons consist of simple items with simple text. The buttons are used for content navigation (for example, “back”, “more”, or “delete”). In reality, both groups of buttons represent technically simple links. However, the different visual aspects of the two types of buttons intentionally suggest different degress of importance.
Minimalist User Interface: Reduction to the Essentials
Good user interface focuses on the essentials. It is unobtrusive and long-lasting in design. The basic prerequisite for this is the reduction in the complexity of functionality.
Apple has achieved this with the iPhone. The smartphone comes with basic functionality (phone, messaging, browser, e-mail, calendar, photos, etc.). Through apps, the user has the possibility to expand the range of functions entirely according to his or her personal and individual taste.
Put simply, the interface of the iPhone consists of several levels. The first, top level operates as a platform for various apps and comes in the Apple design. On the other hand, the applications can have their own design, with some basic functionality and navigation from Apple, along with its predefined design.
Thus, despite the different apps, both the user interface and the sender remain clear.
Good User Interface: A Quintessence
In the mid-1970s, Dieter Rams compiled a list of tenents of good product design. These ten points, listed below, can also be applied to good user interface:
- Good design is innovative
- Good design makes a product useful
- Good design is aesthetic
- Good design makes a product understandable
- Good design is unobtrusive
- Good design is honest
- Good design is long-lasting
- Good design is thorough down to the last detail
- Good design is environmentally friendly
- Good design is as little design as possible
This blog entry refers to the following sources:
www.itwissen.info/definition/lexikon/Benutzeroberflaeche-UI-user-interface.html
http://asktog.com/atc/principles-of-interaction-design
www.designwissen.net/seiten/10-thesen-von-dieter-rams-ueber-gutes-produktdesign
Originally published at gu-co.de on November 22, 2016.