Design for Screen - Research

User Interface

Definition - The means by which the user and a computer system interact, in particular the use of input devices and software.

Visual part of computer application or operating system through which a user interacts with a computer or a software. It determines how commands are given to the computer or the program and how information is displayed on the screen. Three main types of user interfaces are: Command language: the user must know the machine and program-specific instructions or codes, Menus: user chooses the commands from lists displayed on the screen, Graphical user interface (GUI): user gives commands by selecting and clicking on icons displayed on the screen.

What is its function?

A User Interface (aka industrial design field of human–machine interaction) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine from the human end, whilst the machine simultaneously feeds back information that aids the operators' decision-making process.

Quality

All great interfaces share eight qualities or characteristics:

1. Clarity - The interface avoids ambiguity by making everything clear through language, flow, hierarchy and metaphors for visual elements.

2. Concision It's easy to make the interface clear by over-clarifying and labeling everything, but this leads to interface bloat, where there is just too much stuff on the screen at the same time. If too many things are on the screen, finding what you're looking for is difficult, and so the interface becomes tedious to use. The real challenge in making a great interface is to make it concise and clear at the same time.

3. Familiarity -  Even if someone uses an interface for the first time, certain elements can still be familiar. Real-life metaphors can be used to communicate meaning.

4. Responsiveness - A good interface should not feel sluggish. This means that the interface should provide good feedback to the user about what's happening and whether the user's input is being successfully processed.

5. Consistency -  Keeping your interface consistent across your application is important because it allows users to recognize usage patterns.

6. Aesthetics - While you don't need to make an interface attractive for it to do its job, making something look good will make the time your users spend using your application more enjoyable; and happier users can only be a good thing.

7. Efficiency Time is money, and a great interface should make the user more productive through shortcuts and good design.

8. Forgiveness - A good interface should not punish users for their mistakes but should instead provide the means to remedy them.

User Interface Design

Definition - User interface design (UI) or user interface engineering is the design of user interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, home appliances, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximising usability and the user experience.

The goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction as simple and efficient as possible, in terms of accomplishing user goals (user-centered design).

An appropriate user interface design facilitates is to finish a task at hand without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Graphic design and typography are utilised to support its usability. By influencing how the user performs certain interactions and improving the aesthetic appeal of the design: design aesthetics may enhance or detract from the ability of users to use the functions of the interface. The design process must balance technical functionality and visual elements (e.g. mental model) to create a system that is not only operational but also usable and adaptable to changing user needs.

Procedure of Using an User Interface Design

An user interface design requires a good understanding of user needs. There are several phases and processes in the user interface design, some of which are more demanded upon than others, depending on the project. Functionally is important when it comes to user interface, for example: 

1. User & task analysis - the analysis contains how would the potential user be able to perform the task on the system they are using, and is it possible that the design is supporting this kind of function. These questions will need to be consider when creating a user interface design: 

- What would the user want the system to do? 

- How would they system fit in with the user's normal workflow or daily activities? 

- How technically intelligent is the user and what similar systems does the user already use? 

- What interface look and feel styles appeal to the user? 

2. Information architecture - the development of the process and/or information flow of the system (i.e. for phone tree systems, this would be an option tree flowchart and for websites this would be a site flow that shows the hierarchy of the pages). 

3. Prototyping - development of wire-frames, either in the form of paper prototypes or simple interactive screens. These prototypes are stripped of all look and feel elements and most content in order to concentrate on the interface. 

4. Usability testing - this is when testing of number of prototypes on an actual user. The user interface design testing allows the designer to understand the reception of the design from the viewer's standpoint, thus facilitates creating successful applications. 

5. Graphical user interface design - the actual look and feel of the design and the final graphical user interface (GUI).