 Designing effective

interfaces
for software systems
 To suggest some general design principles
for user interface design
 To explain different interaction styles
 To introduce styles of information
presentation
 To describe the user support which should be
built-in to user interfaces
 To introduce usability attributes and system
approaches to system evaluation
 User interface design principles
 User interaction
 Information presentation
 User support
 Interface evaluation
 System users often judge a system by its
interface rather than its functionality
 A poorly designed interface can cause a user
to
make catastrophic errors
 Poor user interface design is the reason why
so
many software systems are never used
 Most users of business systems interact with
these systems through graphical interfaces
although, in some cases, legacy text-based
interfaces are still used
Characteristic Description
Windows Multiple windows allow different information to be
displayed simultaneously on the user’s screen.
Icons Icons different types of information. On some systems,
icons represent files; on others, icons represent
processes.
Menus Commands are selected from a menu rather than typed
in a command language.
Pointing A pointing device such as a mouse is used for selecting
choices from a menu or indicating items of interest in a
window.
Graphics Graphical elements can be mixed with text on the same
display.
 They are easy to learn and use.
◦ Users without experience can learn to use the
system
quickly.
 The user may switch quickly from one task to
another and can interact with several
different applications.
◦ Information remains visible in its own window when
attention is switched.
 Fast, full-screen interaction is possible with
immediate access to anywhere on the screen
 User-centred design is an approach to UI
design where the needs of the user are
paramount and where the user is involved in
the design process
 UI design always involves the development of
prototype interfaces
 Analyse and Produce paper- Evaluate design
understand user based design with end-users
activities prototype

Produce
Design Evaluate design
dynamic design
prototype with end-users
prototype

Executable Implement
prototype final user
interface
 UI design must take account of the needs,
experience and capabilities of the system
users
 Designers should be aware of people‟s
physical and mental limitations (e.g. limited
short-term memory) and should recognise
that people make mistakes
 UI design principles underlie interface
designs although not all principles are
applicable to all designs
Principle Description
User familiarity The interfa ce should us e terms and concepts which are
drawn from the experience of th e people who will
make most use of th e system.
Consistency The interfa ce should be consistent in that, wherever
possible, comparable operations should be activated in
the same way.
Minimal surprise Users should never be surprised by the behaviou r of a
system.
Recoverability The interfa ce should in clude mechanisms to allow
users to recover from errors.
User guidance The interfa ce should provid e meaningful f eedback
when errors occur and provid e context-sensitive user
help facilities.
User diversity The interfa ce should provid e appropri ate interaction
facilities for di fferent types of system user.
 User familiarity
◦ The interface should be based on user-oriented
terms and concepts rather than computer concepts.
For example, an office system should use concepts
such as letters, documents, folders etc. rather than
directories, file identifiers, etc.
 Consistency
◦ The system should display an appropriate level
of consistency. Commands and menus should have
the same format, command punctuation should be
similar, etc.
 Minimal surprise
◦ If a command operates in a known way, the user
should be
 Recoverability
◦ The system should provide some resilience to
user errors and allow the user to recover from
errors. This might include an undo facility,
confirmation of destructive actions, 'soft' deletes,
etc.
 User guidance
◦ Some user guidance such as help systems, on-line
manuals, etc. should be supplied
 User diversity
◦ Interaction facilities for different types of user
should be supported. For example, some users
have seeing difficulties and so larger text should be
available
 Two problems must be addressed in
interactive systems design
◦ How should information from the user be provided
to the computer system?
◦ How should information from the computer system
be presented to the user?
 User interaction and information presentation
may be integrated through a coherent
framework such as a user interface metaphor
 Direct manipulation
 Menu selection
 Form fill-in
 Command language
 Natural language
Interaction Main Main Application
style advantages disadva ntages examples
Direct Fast and intuitive May be hard to Video g ames
manipulatio interaction implement CAD systems
n Easy to learn Only suitable where
there is a visual
metaphor for tasks
and ob jects
Menu Avoid s user Slow for Most gene ral-
selection error exp erienced u sers purpose systems
Little typing Can b ecome
required complex if many
menu options
Form fill-in Simple data Takes up a lot of Stock control,
entry screen space Personal loan
Easy to learn processing
Command Powerful and Hard to learn Operating systems,
language flexibl e Poor error Library
manage ment information
retrieval systems
Natural Accessible to Requ ires more Timetable systems
language casual users typing WWW
Easily extended Natural language information
understanding retrieval systems
systems are
unreliable
 Users feel in control of the computer and are
less likely to be intimidated by it
 User learning time is relatively short
 Users get immediate feedback on their
actions
so mistakes can be quickly detected and
corrected
 The derivation of an appropriate information
space model can be very difficult
 Given that users have a large information
space, what facilities for navigating around
that
space should be provided?
 Direct manipulation interfaces can be
complex to program and make heavy
demands on the computer system
Title JSD. example Grid Busy

Method JSD
OUIT
Type Network Units cm

Selection Process Reduce Full

PRINT

NODE LINKS FONT LABEL EDIT

 Users make a selection from a list of
possibilities presented to them by the system
 The selection may be made by pointing and
clicking with a mouse, using cursor keys or
by
typing the name of the selection
 May make use of simple-to-use terminals
such as touchscreens
 Users need not remember command names
as they are always presented with a list of
valid commands
 Typing effort is minimal
 User errors are trapped by the interface
 Context-dependent help can be provided.
The user‟s context is indicated by the current
menu selection
 Actions which involve logical conjunction
(and)
or disjunction (or) are awkward to represent
 Menu systems are best suited to presenting a
small number of choices. If there are many
choices, some menu structuring facility must
be
used
 Experienced users find menus slower than
command language
 NE W BOOK

Title ISBN

Author Price

Publication
Publisher date
Number of
Edition copies

Classification Loan
status
Date of
Order
purchase
status
 User types commands to give instructions to
the system e.g. UNIX
 May be implemented using cheap terminals.
 Easy to process using compiler techniques
 Commands of arbitrary complexity can be
created by command combination
 Concise interfaces requiring minimal typing
can
be created
 Users have to learn and remember a
command
language. Command interfaces are therefore
unsuitable for occasional users
 Users make errors in command. An error
detection and recovery system is required
 System interaction is through a keyboard so
typing ability is required
 Often preferred by experienced users because
they allow for faster interaction with the
system
 Not suitable for casual or inexperienced users
 May be provided as an alternative to menu
commands (keyboard shortcuts). In some
cases, a command language interface and a
menu-based interface are supported at the
same time
 The user types a command in a natural
language. Generally, the vocabulary is limited
and these systems are confined to specific
application domains (e.g. timetable enquiries)
 NL processing technology is now good
enough to make these interfaces effective for
casual users but experienced users find that
they require too much typing
 Command
Gr aphical user
language
interface
interface

Command
GUI
language
manager
interpreter

Operating system
 Information presentation is concerned with
presenting system information to system
users
 The information may be presented directly
(e.g. text in a word processor) or may be
transformed in some way for presentation
(e.g. in some graphical form)
 The Model-View-Controller approach is a way
of supporting multiple presentations of data
Information to Presentation
be displayed software

Display
 View state view modification Controller state
messages User inputs
View methods Controller methods

Model queries
and updates Model edits
Model state

Model methods
 Static information
◦ Initialised at the beginning of a session. It does not
change
during the session
◦ May be either numeric or textual
 Dynamic information
◦ Changes during a session and the changes must be
communicated to the system user
◦ May be either numeric or textual
 Is the user interested in precise information
or data relationships?
 How quickly do information values change?
Must the change be indicated immediately?
 Must the user take some action in response
to a change?
 Is there a direct manipulation interface?
 Is the information textual or numeric? Are
relative values important?
 Jan Feb Mar April May June
2842 2851 3164 2789 1273 2835

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
Jan Feb Mar April May June
 Digital presentation
◦ Compact - takes up little screen space
◦ Precise values can be communicated
 Analogue presentation
◦ Easier to get an 'at a glance' impression of a value
◦ Possible to show relative values
◦ Easier to see exceptional data values
 1
0 10 20
4 2

Dial with needle Pie chart Thermometer Horizontal bar

 Pressure Temper atu re
0 100 200 300 400 0 25 50 75 100
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Ch. 16 User interface design

OK Cancel
 Concerned with techniques for displaying
large amounts of information
 Visualisation can reveal relationships between
entities and trends in the data
 Possible data visualisations are:
◦ Weather information collected from a number of
sources
◦ The state of a telephone network as a linked set of
nodes
◦ Chemical plant visualised by showing pressures and
temperatures in a linked set of tanks and pipes
◦ A model of a molecule displayed in 3 dimensions
◦ Web pages displayed as a hyperbolic tree
 Colour adds an extra dimension to an
interface
and can help the user understand complex
information structures
 Can be used to highlight exceptional events
 Common mistakes in the use of colour in
interface design include:
◦ The use of colour to communicate meaning
◦ Over-use of colour in the display
 Don't use too many colours
 Use colour coding to support use tasks
 Allow users to control colour coding
 Design for monochrome then add colour
 Use colour coding consistently
 Avoid colour pairings which clash
 Use colour change to show status change
 Be aware that colour displays are usually
lower
resolution
 User guidance covers all system facilities to
support users including on-line help, error
messages, manuals etc.
 The user guidance system should be
integrated with the user interface to help
users when they need information about the
system or when they make some kind of error
 The help and message system should, if
possible, be integrated
 Application

Help Error message

interface system

Message
presentation
system

Help Error message

frames texts
 Error message design is critically important.
Poor error messages can mean that a user
rejects rather than accepts a system
 Messages should be polite, concise,
consistent
and constructive
 The background and experience of users
should be the determining factor in message
design
Context The user guidance system should be aware of what the user is
doing and should adjust the output message to the current
context.
Experience As users become familiar with a system they become irritated
by long, ‘meaningful’ messages. However, beginners find it
difficult to understand short terse statements of the problem.
The user guidance system should provide bothtypes of message
and allow the user to control message conciseness.
Skill level Messages should be tailored to the user’s skills as well as their
experience. Messages for the different classes of user may be
expressed in different ways depending on the terminology which
is familiar to the reader.
Style Messages should be positive rather than negative. They should
use the active rather than the passive mode of address. They
should never be insulting or try to be funny.
Culture Wherever possible, the designer of messages should be familiar
with the culture of the country where the system is sold. There
are distinct cultural differences between Europe, Asia and
America. A suitable message for one culture might be
unacceptable in another.
Pleasetypethepatient nameinthebo xthenc lic konOK

Bates ,J .

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 User-oriented error message
System-oriented error message

Error #27

?
Patient J . Bates is not registered
Invalid patient id entered Clic konP atientsf or alistofregisteredpatients
Click on Retr y to re-input a patient name
Click on Help f or more inf ormation

OK Cancel
Patients Help Retry Cancel
 Help? means „help I want information”
 Help! means “HELP. I'm in trouble”
 Both of these requirements have to be taken
into account in help system design
 Different facilities in the help system may be
required
 Should not simply be an on-line manual
 Screens or windows don't map well onto
paper
pages.
 The dynamic characteristics of the display can
improve information presentation.
 People are not so good at reading screen as
they are text.
 Multiple entry points should be provided so
that
the user can get into the help system from
different places.
 Some indication of where the user is
positioned
in the help system is valuable.
 Facilities should be provided to allow the user
to navigate and traverse the help system.
 Top-level
entry

Entry from
application

Entry from error

message system

Help frame network

Help frame map Mail redirection

Mail may be redirected to another

network user by pressing the
redirect button in the control
panel. The system asks for the
name of the user or users to
whom the mail has been sent

You are here more next top ics

Help history

1. Mail
2. Send mail
3. Read mail
4. Redirection
 As well as on-line information, paper
documentation should be supplied with a
system
 Documentation should be designed for a
range of users from inexperienced to
experienced
 As well as manuals, other easy-to-use
documentation such as a quick reference card
may be provided
 System System Novice Experienced System
evaluators administrators users users administrators

Functional Installation Introductory Reference Administrator’s

description document manual manual guide

Description of How to install Getting Facility Operation and

services the system started description maintenance
 Functional description
◦ Brief description of what the system can do
 Introductory manual
◦ Presents an informal introduction to the system
 System reference manual
◦ Describes all system facilities in detail
 System installation manual
◦ Describes how to install the system
 System administrator‟s manual
◦ Describes how to manage the system when it is
in use
 Some evaluation of a user interface design
should be carried out to assess its suitability
 Full scale evaluation is very expensive and
impractical for most systems
 Ideally, an interface should be evaluated
against a usability specification. However, it is
rare for such specifications to be produced
Attribute Description
Learnability How long does it take a new user to
become productive with the system?
Speed of operation How well does the system response match
the user’s work practice?
Robustness How tolerant is the system of user error?
Recoverability How good is the system at recovering from
user errors?
Adaptability How closely is the system tied to a single
model of work?
 Questionnaires for user feedback
 Video recording of system use and
subsequent
tape evaluation.
 Instrumentation of code to collect
information
about facility use and user errors.
 The provision of a grip button for on-line
user
feedback.
 Interface design should be user-centred. An
interface should be logical and consistent and
help users recover from errors
 Interaction styles include direct manipulation,
menu systems form fill-in, command
languages and natural language
 Graphical displays should be used to present
trends and approximate values. Digital
displays when precision is required
 Colour should be used sparingly and
consistently
 Systems should provide on-line help. This
should include “help, I‟m in trouble” and
“help, I want information”
 Error messages should be positive rather than
negative.
 A range of different types of user documents
should be provided
 Ideally, a user interface should be evaluated
against a usability specification