Good interface design is the key to good interactive multimedia, it will captivate the user and guide their eyes and interaction the way the designer intended. Therefore the very first thing the end user sees of your multimedia presentation is the interface design. This visual is their first impression, which, as we all know, first impressions are usually the ones that last the longest. Your Interface is your opportunity to interact with and impress the user. Moreover you need to make your interface design:
Appealing,
Easy to understand,
Intuitive to interact with
On the other hand, interaction is the dialog between user and computer. In between this the interaction, we need a medium in between to connect both parties together and having the interactive relationship.MEDIUM that we are talking here is Interface. But what is a good Interface? And how a good Interface design related the interaction?
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Recommended Reading
For those who are interested more on developing an interface design. A book that I highly recommended to you guys! These book ought to be complementary as tells you about design and visually communicating your message.
Mullet, K. & Sano, D. 1995, Designing Visual Interfaces: Communication Oriented Techniques, Sunsoft Press, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
This book is divided into 8 chapters. The first is an introduction to tell us that "Visual Design attempts to solve communication problems in a way that is at once functionally effective and aesthetically pleasing.", the last is the conclusion which gives us the profound observation that visual design is happening to your software every day and if it is not good design, then it must be bad design! The 6 chapters in between follow a clearly defined pattern. They first explain the problem, then deliver the background (usually from cognitive psychology), present the principles involved, followed by a series of examples demonstrating common errors, then we are presented with the techniques (from the title) which can be used to solve the problem and adhere to the principles. These techniques are explained in clear, concise and logical detail with examples. Each technique is summarised into bullet points.
Throughout, this book is beautifully illustrated with examples ranging from industrial design, graphic design, ui design and brand marketing. The authors/publishers must have spent a long time selecting the imagery to be used and obtaining all the necessary permissions to re-produce the material. In this respect alone, the book is a triumph as a general book on design.
Overall we are told that "When designing for human-computer interaction, communication is the over-riding concern." So here is a book about communicating your information, message or data through the computer screen.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The evoluation of interface design process
"Design, even just the usability rquires a team of people with extremely different talents" - Donald Norman (1996)
The problem mapped in producing a good interface design of interactive multimedia courseware is to understand what users require from a product and how to provide effective engagement. In this context for example, interface design needs to consider carefully on graphic visual and navigation to engage learners in meaningful authentic tasks.
In the past, user interface design were totally driven by the current technologies and the current systems on which the courseware was built. This is call system driven or technology driven. Therefore since early 1980s the focus has been on user centered design where users are somewhat invovled in the design process but as a passive role. Further as part of the Human computer interaction (HCI) it was moving to new methodologis called user involved design or learner centered design.
For today's trend in designing interface design for computer application, the current approaches are participatory design, ethnographic techniques and field research techniques are adequate. This new approaches seek to improve requirement defination by creating a new relationship between designer and user.
The problem mapped in producing a good interface design of interactive multimedia courseware is to understand what users require from a product and how to provide effective engagement. In this context for example, interface design needs to consider carefully on graphic visual and navigation to engage learners in meaningful authentic tasks.
In the past, user interface design were totally driven by the current technologies and the current systems on which the courseware was built. This is call system driven or technology driven. Therefore since early 1980s the focus has been on user centered design where users are somewhat invovled in the design process but as a passive role. Further as part of the Human computer interaction (HCI) it was moving to new methodologis called user involved design or learner centered design.
For today's trend in designing interface design for computer application, the current approaches are participatory design, ethnographic techniques and field research techniques are adequate. This new approaches seek to improve requirement defination by creating a new relationship between designer and user.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tips and Techniques for interface design
A fundamental reality of interactive application development is that the user interface is the place of the system communicates to the users. What users want from every developer is to build the applications that meet their needs and easy to use. Therefore too many developers think that they are artistic geniuses – they often do not bother to follow user interface design guideline or invest the effort to make their applications usable. Instead they mistakenly believe that the important thing is to make the applications are really colorful.
User interface design however is important for several reasons. First of all, the more intuitive the user interface the easier it is to use, and the easier it is to use and the less expensive to use it. The better the user interface the easier it is to train people to use it, reducing your training costs. The better your user interface the less help people will need to use it, reducing your support costs. The better your user interface the more your users will like to use it, increasing their satisfaction with the work that you have done. Here I discuss some Tips and Techniques for developing interface design that I revealed from some literature.
Consistency. I believe the most important thing you can possibly do is ensure the user interface works consistently. If you can double-click on items in one list and have something happen, then you should be able to double-click on items in any other list and have the same sort of thing happen. Put your buttons in consistent places on all your windows, use the same wording in labels and messages, and use a consistent color scheme throughout. Consistency in your user interface enables your users to build an accurate mental model of the way it works, and accurate mental models lead to lower training and support costs.
Standardize and stick to them. The only way you can ensure consistency within your application is to set user interface design standards, and then stick to them
Navigation. If it is difficult to get from one screen to another, then your users will quickly become frustrated and give up. When the flow between screens matches the flow of the work the user is trying to accomplish, then your application will make sense to your users. Because different users work in different ways, your system needs to be flexible enough to support their various approaches. User interface-flow diagrams should optionally be developed to further your understanding of the flow of your user interface. In most societies, people read left to right and top to bottom. Because people are used to this, should you design screens that are also organized left to right and top to bottom when designing a user interface for people from this culture?
Use color appropriately. Color should be used sparingly in your applications and, if you do use it, you must also use a secondary indicator. The problem is that some of your users may be color blind and if you are using color to highlight something on a screen, then you need to do something else to make it stand out if you want these people to notice it. You also want to use colors in your application consistently, so you have a common look and feel throughout your application.
Usability and Interface Design book
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
Published many years ago, this book is already a usability legend. Norman writes about the importance of the user-centered design and how this concept can be applied to design of everything. Memorable chapters include “Design for Error”, “Simplify the Structure of Tasks” and “When All Else Fails, Standardize”. Donald Norman is one of the founders of the well known Nielsen Norman Group, pioneers in usability and user-centered design.
Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design by Jenifer Tidwell
This book has well-illustrated examples on web applications, desktop software and mobile devices organized according to user interface patterns, each containing practical advices. A kind of “read it from beginning to end”, this book provides solutions for each problem a user interface could have.
Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices by Dan Saffer
This book provides examples, patterns and guidelines for interaction design on the Web as well as suggestions for software applications and different electronic devices. Dan Saffer himself was working as a creative leader and interaction designer which is clearly illustrated in the way this book is written. Particular and unique are the short and clear real design case studies and the interviews with professional designers.
Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction by Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant
This provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of human-computer interaction. Struggling through sometimes rather complex choice of words, you learn practical principles and guidelines needed to develop high quality interface designs — ones that users can understand, predict, and control. It covers theoretical foundations, and design processes such as expert reviews and usability testing.
Therefore, from my point of view, I pick Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction by Jenny Preece, Yvonne Rogers and Helen Shar
Published many years ago, this book is already a usability legend. Norman writes about the importance of the user-centered design and how this concept can be applied to design of everything. Memorable chapters include “Design for Error”, “Simplify the Structure of Tasks” and “When All Else Fails, Standardize”. Donald Norman is one of the founders of the well known Nielsen Norman Group, pioneers in usability and user-centered design.
Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design by Jenifer Tidwell
This book has well-illustrated examples on web applications, desktop software and mobile devices organized according to user interface patterns, each containing practical advices. A kind of “read it from beginning to end”, this book provides solutions for each problem a user interface could have.
Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices by Dan Saffer
This book provides examples, patterns and guidelines for interaction design on the Web as well as suggestions for software applications and different electronic devices. Dan Saffer himself was working as a creative leader and interaction designer which is clearly illustrated in the way this book is written. Particular and unique are the short and clear real design case studies and the interviews with professional designers.
Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction by Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant
This provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of human-computer interaction. Struggling through sometimes rather complex choice of words, you learn practical principles and guidelines needed to develop high quality interface designs — ones that users can understand, predict, and control. It covers theoretical foundations, and design processes such as expert reviews and usability testing.
Therefore, from my point of view, I pick Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction by Jenny Preece, Yvonne Rogers and Helen Shar
A simple explaination on how interface design interconnected with user interaction that can contribute to learning experiences from HCI point of view.
How to make user interface more interesting
Considering that I have been using the internet since 1997 and have seen many interactive educational courseware, I rated Malaysian interactive educational courseware as one of the best in terms of graphics but one of the worst in terms of user interface design. So how do we make our existing Malaysian educational courseware user interface more interesting?
Sunday, July 6, 2008
how good the interface of malaysia science courseware
Introducing Smart school and provided all the schoolpupil with the interactive courseware are one of the biggest government inisiative. through out almost 8 years implementation of the courseware in malaysia education, the effectiveness of the interactive courseware was define from several point of view.one of that is the quality of the interface design..can we define the quality of the interface design currently..
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