User interface design

User interface design focuses on the needs of the user over against the belief held (seemingly) by many developers and designers that the product's end result has nothing to do with user requirements. Most users are fundanmentallyignorant of how websites or applications work and to them the interface is the product. Put another way, the user interface is the system.

Too many developers and designers seem to feel that they are "above the law" and that the desire to reach the end product of their application will somehow supersede user's impressions about or difficulties with the graphical user interface that masks - and in fact, brands - the application or website. Yet the history of technology shows time after time that an intuitive user interface is more important to people than more clever, more practical, faster, better technology. Beta was a better product than VHS but was more difficult to work with; Microsoft won the PC wars of the early and mid 1990's in spite of clever developers' complaints about its imprecise code and other issues. Users want a usable user interface design. That is all.

There are basics to user interface design that are easy to delineate, although harder to implement on a project-by-project basis. If we were to delineate the essentials of user interface design, our list would look something like the following:

• Focus on consistency. Make sure that the same thing happens when users do the same thing from one part of your application or interface to the next.
• Follow standards of usability. Where there are no standards that apply, you can create your own as long as you stick to them consistently.
• Make your user interface flexible to different users with different abilities and different needs.
• Create messages, labels, icons, etc. that have effective meaning for the user. Again, this is an area where cleverness can take precedence over practicality. As with other aspects of the graphical user interface design, usability testing is an effective way of measuring and improving users' ability to interact effectively your interface and achieve their goals.
• Anticipate user errors, deal with them beforehand and actively avoid compounding them. That's a mouthful, of course. But to err is human, and offer your users a consistent battery of ways to recover from mistakes they might make.
• Adapt or die. Create an interface that is agile enough to meet user needs and that can be adapted by different users with different needs and skill sets.

Of course, a simple list of user interface design principles is not going to cover the actualities of any design project, especially for complex websites, applications and other interactions. And of course, we can't help but recommend that you call in usability professionals. Interpix Design's team of expert analysts applies our many years of experience to create a user interface optimized to meet the needs of your customers or users.

Contact us for a proper user interface design consultation.