User Interfaces

[PigCorpse]

Hi,

I'm doing research on user interfaces, but I have no idea where to start. My goal was to come up with a set of guidelines or designs for a superior interface, but I don't know if there is better research to be done on UIs. But for now, I'm going to stick to that.

So I was hoping that you can post your opinions on anything that deals with UIs. It doesn't matter what it is, it can be about Windows, cell phones, car navigation systems, whatever. I want to hear whatever you think about anything dealing with UIs. It can be criticism, stuff you want improved, your ideas, whatever.

You can also suggest better research topics, anything you want.

Thanks!

Edit: So to elaborate...

My target audience will be moderately experienced people (because beginners will like a tutorial/guided mode of doing everything and very experienced people won't need a GUI, they'd prefer a terminal for everything). At first, I was thinking of designing a new UI for tablets to replace Windows Tablet edition. But I don't know how much innovation can be done there. That's why I generalized it to other devices like cell phones, GPS systems, and audio players.

I really need ideas though. I don't know how far this topic can take me in terms of innovation.

 

[Mansize_tissue]

WIMP is the only way to go, i think. Form/menu driven interfaces suck, the majority of the time, depending on the system.

Different UIs are suited for different purposes; so while a WIMP UI is fine for a PC, it would be difficult to implement on a mobile phone, for example.

I think that a good UI must be optimised to use very little resources, especially on a PC, which is where Vista falls down.

I don't really know what to say on this topic... c'mon everyone!

 

[PigCorpse]

Well, perhaps there might be something else for the extremely creative to come up with, but for now I guess WIMP is practically all I can build upon.

So anything anyone here would like to see or be changed in a UI?

 

[Fryguy8]

The important factors of an interface are how easy it is to do something, and how pleasing it is for the user to use the interface.

This is awfully vague, but it can be expanded upon.

Things that make an interface easy:

1. Things being in an anticipated location
2. Things working in an anticipated manner
3. Things that work without much human effort (ex. a bigger button is better than a smaller button because it's easier to click).
4. Easy to navigate to. A poor example of this is the start button. On Mac systems, the menu is at the top of the screen always. You can whip your mouse to the top of the screen as hard as you want, and just click and you get the menu. On windows systems there is a small border so it requires more accurate clicking. This takes more time and isn't as good of a design.
5. Expanding on number 4 is the fisheye menu that makes it easier to click on things.

The prettiness aspect of an interface is totally subjective. Productivity increases can be had if the user of the system appreciates the interface more. This usually means pretty colors and effects, without slowing down normal workflow.

 

[duby229]

Here is a link to the gnome interface guidelines..... It should give you an idea of what is to be expected, and what is unavoidable. I think this would be a good place to start if you were writing on GUI design.


http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/

 

[ilkka]

Are you limiting yourself to computer-type devices, or thinking about the UI of devices like hammers, vacuum cleaners or chairs?

 

[PigCorpse]

The important factors of an interface are how easy it is to do something, and how pleasing it is for the user to use the interface.

This is awfully vague, but it can be expanded upon.

Things that make an interface easy:

1. Things being in an anticipated location
2. Things working in an anticipated manner
3. Things that work without much human effort (ex. a bigger button is better than a smaller button because it's easier to click).
4. Easy to navigate to. A poor example of this is the start button. On Mac systems, the menu is at the top of the screen always. You can whip your mouse to the top of the screen as hard as you want, and just click and you get the menu. On windows systems there is a small border so it requires more accurate clicking. This takes more time and isn't as good of a design.
5. Expanding on number 4 is the fisheye menu that makes it easier to click on things.

The prettiness aspect of an interface is totally subjective. Productivity increases can be had if the user of the system appreciates the interface more. This usually means pretty colors and effects, without slowing down normal workflow.

Yes, thanks a lot, that's exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for!

Here is a link to the gnome interface guidelines..... It should give you an idea of what is to be expected, and what is unavoidable. I think this would be a good place to start if you were writing on GUI design.


http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/

Sound's like a pretty interesting read, will be a nice contribution to my paper. Thanks!

Are you limiting yourself to computer-type devices, or thinking about the UI of devices like hammers, vacuum cleaners or chairs?

Well, I'm thinking of really computer-type devices, since the other stuff will probably be radically different. But if I'm wrong, I'm still open to anything.

 

[PigCorpse]

Bump

 

[WaryWolf]

I've gotta say, i really don't like when programs "think" they know what i want and try to do it for me... i want to tell the computer what to do, not the other way round. So you could say that "intuitive" UI's are pretty annoying for me. but hey, other people like them... you may want to look into that.

 

[PigCorpse]

I know! I hate that as well.

I hate when programs always start off with a tutorial or something where you see four big buttons like "Burn a CD", "Burn a DVD", "Rip a CD", "Copy a CD". It's so stupid.

Okay, so I guess this paper will be geared towards moderately experienced users.

Anything else?

 

[Mansize_tissue]

I know! I hate that as well.

I hate when programs always start off with a tutorial or something where you see four big buttons like "Burn a CD", "Burn a DVD", "Rip a CD", "Copy a CD". It's so stupid.

Okay, so I guess this paper will be geared towards moderately experienced users.

Anything else?

Yep; it bugs me, too.

I also dislike it when programs try to implement their own interface of that of the OS because, more often than not, they look half-finished and aren't in uniform with the rest of the system.

A clean, simply look is my preference. In Firefox, for example, i find the Safari interface far more attractive than the default one which uses uncomplementary colours and has a general lack of uniformity.

 

[jimmyb]

I require shortcut keys for every possible action.

 

[PigCorpse]

Yep; it bugs me, too.

I also dislike it when programs try to implement their own interface of that of the OS because, more often than not, they look half-finished and aren't in uniform with the rest of the system.

A clean, simply look is my preference. In Firefox, for example, i find the Safari interface far more attractive than the default one which uses uncomplementary colours and has a general lack of uniformity.

Yeah, I love consistency.

Consistency consistency consistency...

Before I switched to Linux, I had Windows customized to OCD levels. Everything had an OSX Tiger skin, I even wrote and Photoshopped my own stuff for things that didn't have skins like foobar2000.

I require shortcut keys for every possible action.

Yeah, I like that too. It will definitely be part of my paper.

Question though: Do you dislike having to constantly switch between keyboard and mouse? Or do you just find the keyboard faster?

For me it's both lol.

 

[Mansize_tissue]

Question though: Do you dislike having to constantly switch between keyboard and mouse? Or do you just find the keyboard faster?

When i'm feeling lazy and using the keyboard, it takes so much effort to reach over to the mouse; so yes, for me, i like to be able to control the interface using only the keyboard.

 

[mket]

What are your hardware parameters? Are you limiting to off the shelf current hardware such as mice, keyboards and screens or allow photo-projections, 3D touch projections, eye-movement sensors, speech recognition, voice/sound projection. Do you have language constraints? Who is your audience and expected user? A person can drive a car and yet not be able to read a word.

 

[PigCorpse]

Sorry, should've elaborated. I edited my OP.

 

[jimmyb]

Question though: Do you dislike having to constantly switch between keyboard and mouse? Or do you just find the keyboard faster?

I mostly dislike having to switch back and forth. I don't have a big preference between the two, although I slightly prefer sticking with the keyboard. The option to use both is really important for me though.