Chapters

Scope

Definitions

User interface design or user interface engineering is the design of websites, computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, and software applications with the focus on the user’s experience and interaction. 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—what is often called user-centered design. Good user interface design facilitates finishing the task at hand without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Graphic design may be utilized to support its usability. 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.

Types of Interfaces:

• Direct manipulation interface is the name of a general class of user interfaces that allow users to manipulate objects presented to them, using actions that correspond at least loosely to the physical world.

• Graphical user interfaces (GUI) accept input via devices such as a computer keyboard and mouse and provide articulated graphical output on the computer monitor.

• Web-based user interfaces or web user interfaces (WUI) that accept input and provide output by generating web pages which are transmitted via the Internet and viewed by the user using a web browser program.

• Touchscreens are displays that accept input by touch of fingers or a stylus. Used in a growing amount of mobile devices and many types of point of sale, industrial processes and machines, self-service machines etc.

• Command line interfaces, where the user provides the input by typing a command string with the computer keyboard and the system provides output by printing text on the computer monitor.

• Touch user interface are graphical user interfaces using a touchpad or touchscreen display as a combined input and output device. They supplement or replace other forms of output with haptic feedback methods.

• Attentive user interfaces manage the user attention deciding when to interrupt the user, the kind of warnings, and the level of detail of the messages presented to the user.

• Batch interfaces are non-interactive user interfaces, where the user specifies all the details of the batch job in advance to batch processing, and receives the output when all the processing is done. The computer does not prompt for further input after the processing has started.

• Conversational Interface Agents attempt to personify the computer interface in the form of an animated person, robot, or other character, and present interactions in a conversational form.

• Crossing-based interfaces are graphical user interfaces in which the primary task consists in crossing boundaries instead of pointing.

• Gesture interfaces are graphical user interfaces which accept input in a form of hand gestures, or mouse gestures sketched with a computer mouse or a stylus.

• Intelligent user interfaces are human-machine interfaces that aim to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and naturalness of human-machine interaction by representing, reasoning, and acting on models of the user, domain, task, discourse, and media (e.g., graphics, natural language, gesture).

• Motion tracking interfaces monitor the user’s body motions and translate them into commands.

• Multi-screen interfaces, employ multiple displays to provide a more flexible interaction.

• Noncommand user interfaces, which observe the user to infer his / her needs and intentions, without requiring that he / she formulate explicit commands.

• Object-oriented user interfaces (OOUI) are based on object-oriented programming metaphors, allowing users to manipulate simulated objects and their properties.

• Reflexive user interfaces where the users control and redefine the entire system via the user interface alone, for instance to change its command verbs.

• Tangible user interfaces, which place a greater emphasis on touch and physical environment or its element.

• Natural User Interface (NUI) is the common parlance used by designers and developers of human-machine interfaces to refer to a user interface that is (1) effectively invisible, or becomes invisible with successive learned interactions, to its users, and (2) is based on nature or natural elements.

• Organic User Interface (OUI) is a user interface designed using a non-flat display.

• Task-Focused Interfaces are user interfaces which address the information overload problem of the desktop metaphor by making tasks, not files, the primary unit of interaction

• Text-based user interfaces are user interfaces which output a text, either containing a command-line interface or a text-based WIMP environment.

• Voice user interfaces, which accept input and provide output by generating voice prompts. The user input is made by pressing keys or buttons, or responding verbally to the interface.

• Natural-language interfaces – Used for search engines and on webpages. User types in a question and waits for a response.

• Zero-Input interfaces get inputs from a set of sensors instead of querying the user with input dialogs.

• Zooming user interfaces are graphical user interfaces in which information objects are represented at different levels of scale and detail, and where the user can change the scale of the viewed area in order to show more detail.

References: Definitions and links (unless otherwise indicated as “site” or “pdf”) are copied and edited from English Language Wikipedia as of 1st September 2013. Titles could be further explored through indicated links.

Research

Design issues

Case-studies

Diigo links: “UI” + “case”

Readings

Tools