Designing the User Interface - Essay Example

Designing the User Interface Chapter Usability of Interactive Systems 1 Introduction User-interface designing is an important concept that has seen a complete transformation of user communication and collaboration, through a remarkable change of personal computers into social interaction devices (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 3). Through User-interface designing, it has become significantly easier for desktop applications that were initially meant for personal use to be transformed into user-generated contents, which are then shared with millions of people over the World Wide Web. Social media applications and web-based social networking, which were exclusively available to computer users initially, are now easily accessible through mobile devices and cell phones to billions of users, thus assisting individuals with low incomes, low literacy or disabilities to make use of the available technology advancements, for example the Apple’s iTunes interface found on [http://www.apple.com/itunes/ (Shneiderman and Plaisant,7). All this is possible since the User-interface designers and researchers have harnessed advanced technology to serve human needs. Through User-interface design, many business success stories have been produced, notably in international partnerships and mega-mergers through increased decision-support and information sharing arising from the interface designs. Such partnerships and mergers include, for example, the partnership between YouTube found at [http://www.youtube.com/] and PlayStation3 (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 9). Nevertheless, User-interface design produces intense competition among business and individuals, as well as resulting to the infringement of copyrights and intellectual property legal battles, such as the ones between advanced cell phone and computer companies (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 12). Further controversies surrounding User-interface design includes the inadequacies of the user-interfaces, which have in turn resulted in violations of the issues of national defense, personal identification, crime fighting and personal electronic health records (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 5). At a personal level, user-interfaces have changed people lives, through assisting individuals and professionals to effectively accomplish their tasks, such as assisting doctors to undertake successful diagnosis or assisting pilots to fly planes safely (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 6). Nevertheless, there are various shortcomings associated with user-interfaces, such as the frustrations that users often have do encounter, in regards to the complexity of the interface menus, terminologies that are incomprehensible or navigation paths that are too complex (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 6). 1.2 Usability Measures The desire and goal of every User-interface designer is to produce high quality interfaces that are celebrated by the users, and emerge as the envy of the competitors, who seek to imitate and replicate the same (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 13). However, such goals are not achieved through merely promoting a product, but through producing unique user-interface applications that enhances universality and usability. The fundamental of achieving the user-interface design goals is through prudent planning of the available resources, sensitivity and devotion to meeting the user needs, commitment to requirement analysis, and diligent testing of the final product before its launch and release to the users, to achieve effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of the users (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 14). The benchmarks of successful designers goes beyond merely targeting user friendliness, to focus more on the diversity of the users, and the tasks that needs to be accomplished (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 13). Therefore, the fundamental usability goals and measures for successful user-interface design must encompass the following five aspects: Time to learn: This refers to the measure of the time an average user will take to learn using the interface. Performance speed: This refers to the speed with which an average user can accomplish a task Error rate: it refers to the measure of the number and type or errors made by the user when applying the interface Knowledge retention: It is the measure of the how well users retain the knowledge of interface use Satisfaction rate: the measure of how well the users like using the interface While designers would like to succeed in all such usability goals and measures, certain tradeoffs are inevitable, since, for example, allowing a lengthy learning process will result to the usage of complex shortcuts and abbreviations (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 15). Therefore, designers are forced to define one or a few measures as paramount. The goals of every designer include: Meeting the user’s needs Ensuring the reliability of the user-interface Enhanced standardization, portability and consistency with similar interfaces Accomplishment of the design with the stipulated schedule and budget 1.3 Usability Motivations The major motivation of interface usability derives from the benefits that are enjoyed by users of a well-designed interface (15). The increased motivation stems from the designers and managers of various systems which include: 1.3.1 Life-critical systems These include the systems involved in controlling air traffic, medical operations, military operations, nuclear power reactors and power utilities (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 15). While high costs are involved in such systems and lengthy training periods more suitable, the major motivation is the realization of high levels of reliability and effectiveness, while subjective satisfaction is a lesser concern. 1.3.2 Industrial and commercial uses Include the systems for insurance, hotel reservations, banking, airline reservations and utility billing, which are highly influenced by the element of cost, with lengthy training time being considered expensive, and thus ease of learning becomes the fundamental aspect of consideration (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 16). Further, the speed of performance is a vital consideration, owing to the necessity for high volume transaction processing, while subjective satisfaction is also an important aspect for such systems. 1.3.3 Home and entertainment applications Home and entertainment applications such as applications for cameras, video games, music players and personal computers have become important in the modern-day world, and thus the ease of learning, low rates of errors and subjective satisfaction forms the major considerations for such application designs (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 16). Rapid performance and extensive functionality are also desirable. 1.3.4 Exploratory, creative, and collaborative interfaces These refer to systems that support human creativity and exploration such as the search engines and the web browsers, for example Google search engine at http://www.google.com/, as well as systems for business and scientific collaboration such as electronic-meeting systems, for example, The Yahoo! portal at http://www.yahoo.com/ (18). 1.3.5 Socio-technical systems These refer to systems involving many people over long periods of time, such as identity verification and crime reporting systems, which often deal with privacy and identity issues, thus the need to limit incorrect and deceiving information (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 19). This includes, for example, the electronic voting systems, which requires designers to encompass diversity, due to the differences in the expertise of diverse users. 1.4 Universal Usability The major challenges for user-interface designers is that they have to consider the diversity of human abilities, cultures, backgrounds, education, personalities and motivations while designing interfaces, with a greater need to cater for physical, personality and intellectual differences, to achieve universal usability (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 23). To achieve the broadest possible spectrum of user, the following actions are necessary: 1.4.1 Variations in physical abilities and physical workplaces Despite the challenges of realizing universal usability, designing interactive mobile devises and computer systems require incorporation of diverse physical needs, for example incorporating physical differences while designing key sizes and distance between keys for computer and mobile devices, in addition to adjustable chairs and working surfaces (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 24). 1.4.2 Diverse cognitive and perceptual abilities User-interface designers have to incorporate features that favor differences in the cognitive and perception abilities of users, such as decision-making abilities, abilities to reason and to solve problems, by designing interfaces that can be used by users with such different abilities (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 25). 1.4.3 Personality differences Understanding the personality differences, such as different interests and preferences helps a user-interface designer to generate interfaces that will serve the interests of both frustrated and those excited by certain applications. The different personalities may encompass male v female gender differences, judgmental v perceptive individuals, and extroverts versus introverts (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 26). 1.4.4 Cultural and international diversity Culture, linguistic, ethnic, religious and racial differences accounts for differences in perceptions, interests and tastes. Therefore, interface designers have to put in mind the targeted culture while designing user interfaces (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 29). 1.4.5 Users with disabilities While certain user-interfaces are specifically meant for people with disabilities, it is vital for designers to incorporate features that can favor both disabled and non-disabled interface users in their designs (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 31). 1.4.6 Older adult users The physical, social and cognitive needs of the older users are different from those of the younger generations, thus requiring designers to differentiate in such respects, the interfaces meant for the older users (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 32). 1.4.7 Children The major interest for children is entertainment and education, through avoiding complexity as done in International Children’s Digital Library at http://www.childrenslibrary.org/ (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 35). Therefore, User-interface designers should incorporate these aspects in the interfaces meant for children, while fostering ease of use and self-confidence through relevant applications such as letters, sounds and games such as those found on LeapFrog’s Tag Reading Basics at http://www.leapfrog.com (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 34). 1.4.8 Accommodating hardware and software diversity While incorporating components that promote universal usability of interfaces, designers should also accommodate hardware and software diversity, for the sake of expanding usage and functionality, such as automatic multiple languages conversion software, large display hardware and high-speed software and hardware (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 36). 1.5 Goals for Our Profession Establishment of clear goals is not only important for interface development, but also for professional and educational enterprises, aimed at influencing academic and industrial researchers, promoting computer consciousness to the public and providing commercial designers with relevant tools, knowledge and techniques (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 37). 1.5.1 Influencing academic and industrial researchers It is the goal of the User-interface design profession to alleviate the fear of computer use among the commercial and academic researchers, to encourage their social media participation and to promote research evolution, as well as promote extensive information exploration by researchers (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 39). 1.5.2 Providing tools, techniques, and knowledge for commercial designers It is the goal of the interface-design profession to enhance the performance of commercial designers, through the research, development and provisions of tools, knowledge and techniques that improve on the capabilities of the employees of the commercial designers, while also enhance the consistency, refinement and universal usability of the commercial designs (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 40). 1.5.3 Raising the computer consciousness of the general public Despite the widespread use of computers and other similar mobile devices, there are still people, who are uncomfortable with the computers, and whose anxiety and fears are not based on any substantial grounds, while some anxieties are developed by complex user-interfaces that are difficult for the people to use (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 41). Thus, through the development of user-interfaces that are friendly, easy to use and universally usable, the design interface profession serves to alleviate the fear and discomfort of computer use amongst the general public. Works Cited Shneiderman, Ben, and Plaisant Catherine. Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction (5th. Ed.). Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2010. 1-53. Print. Read More