Designing the User Interface

Designing the user interface should be the most important part of a designers' job. The interface is what bridges the user to the computer. It acts as an information portal where the user will obtain and process data into information. The interface is where information design actually exists in tangible form. The tangible form is where the look and feel of the program comes into play.

The primary goal of information design is to have the user enjoy the experience and not actually realize that the product was designed or what it took to design it. The user should just think that the product has always been there.

Guidelines for Interface Design:

There are several guidelines that should be taken into consideration when designing an interface:

1. Strive for consistency in the following areas:

  1. Product terminology- by keeping terminology that is not common knowledge to your clients down to a minimum you can avoid confusion. When you do incorporate terminology into your design plans always be sure to define the terms.
  2. The types of prompts available to assist the user.
  3. Navigational menu options
  4. The help screens should be searchable and easily accessed by the users.
  5. Appropriate color scheme, avoid colors that clash
  6. The overall look and feel of the website, make sure there isn’t any unnecessary clutter such as excess images and text.
  7. The style and size of fonts and the use of capitalization. NEVER write a whole website in all capitals!

2. Enable shortcuts:

  1. Abbreviations
  2. Short-cut keys such as the F commands
  3. Hidden commands within the interface that frequent users will learn.

3. Feedback- this is a good idea to learn what works in a interface and what doesn't.

4. Organize the actions into groups with an intro, middle, and an ending. All actions should have a conclusion. The user should never be left hanging and unsure of what to do next.

5. Offer error prevention and simple error handling, and make sure the program is set up to prevent error situations. If the program does encounter an error, it corrects itself so the user doesn't have to wonder what went wrong.

6. Have an easy to maneuver navigation system. The user should not have to use the browser back button to return to a previous screen. A random access interactivity navigation system would be ideal, you could also incorporate breadcrumbs.

7. Reduce short-term memory load. The user should not have to memorize complex interfaces in order to navigate easily.

The user of your interactive multimedia products should walk away from their experience of the product by remembering the information that was presented, and not how clumsy, ugly, or confusing the interface design was.

Basic Navigation Strategies:

There are two basic navigation strategies in interactive information design:

  1. Direct access interactivity
  2. Random access interactivity

Direct access interactivity is the simplest interactive design form, and involves the fewest navigational steps for the user. It usually keeps the navigation on the home page with a return to home link on each branched page.

Random access interactivity is a more complex form of interactivity. In random access, the user can navigate anywhere in the program to access information in any order s/he chooses. The navigational tool will be incorporated on each page throughout the website. It should be clearly visible and concise.

Information Mapping Strategies:

Information mapping can be done in any of the three different forms, each of which employs one of the two methods of access.

The three forms are:

  1. Radial branching,
  2. Linear branching, and
  3. Linked branching.

Radial branching is much like direct access interactivity in where it is the simplest interactive design form and involves the fewest navigational steps for the user. The home screen method is common among radial branching.

Linear branching is a modified direct access type of navigational strategy because, instead of having to return to a home screen, the user may return to a main topic screen before returning home. Linear Branching provides the user with multiple levels of interactivity and information. Each level is accessible from the previous level.

Linked branching is based on random access type of navigational strategy in that the navigational tool will be incorporated on each page throughout the website. The user can go anywhere within the website they choose and never have to return to a home screen.

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