Interface Design
The technique that designers use to create user interfaces in software or electronic devices with a focus on aesthetics or style is known as user interface (UI) design. Designers strive to produce user-friendly and enjoyable interfaces. Graphical user interfaces and other types, such as voice-controlled interfaces, are referred to as “UI design.”
Which Types of Interface Design are Provided By Digital Dice Media?
Depending on the underlying hardware and software configuration, UI can be graphical, text-based, or audio-video based. A user interface may be made of software, hardware, or both. The types of user interface design services provided by Digital Dice Media:
- Command Line Interface
- Graphical User Interface
Command Line Interface (CLI)
Up until the invention of video display monitors, CLI was a fantastic tool for communicating with computers. Many programmers and technical users like CLI over other interfaces. CLI is the bare minimum user interface that a piece of software can offer.
A command prompt is made available by CLI, where the user types the command and sends it to the system. The user must keep in mind the command’s syntax and purpose. The earlier CLI was not designed to adequately handle user failures.
A command is a text-based reference to a group of instructions that the system is supposed to follow. The user can easily operate using techniques like macros and scripts.
Graphical User Interface
The user can interact with the system graphically thanks to the graphical user interface. GUIs can combine hardware and software components. The user interprets the software using the GUI.
Generally speaking, GUI uses more resources than CLI does. With the development of technology, programmers and designers produce intricate GUI designs that operate more quickly, accurately, and efficiently.
User Interface Design Activities Done By Digital Dice Media
The process of developing a user interface involves several steps. Any model, including the spiral, iterative, and waterfall models, can be used for GUI implementation. These processes pertaining to GUI design and development should be fulfilled by a model utilized for those tasks.
- GUI Requirement Gathering – A list of all functional and non-functional GUI needs could be helpful to the designers. This can be derived from the user and their current software program.
- User Analysis – The software GUI’s user base is researched by the designer. The target audience is important since design elements vary depending on the user’s level of expertise and knowledge. A sophisticated and complex GUI can be added if the user is technically skilled. More details on software how-tos are provided for inexperienced users.
- Task Analysis – Designers must determine what function the software solution is intended to perform. It doesn’t matter how something is done in GUI. One main job can be broken down further into smaller subtasks to depict tasks hierarchically. Tasks give the GUI’s presenting objectives. The software’s GUI contents flow is determined by the information flow between subtasks.
- GUI Design & implementation – Designers create the GUI and put it into code after learning about the requirements, tasks, and user environment. They then integrate the GUI with live or fake software in the background. The developers then self-test it.
- Tested – There are many techniques to conduct GUI testing. A few of these are the ability for an organizations to conduct internal audits, user interaction directly, and beta version releases. Usability, compatibility, user approval, and other factors may be tested.
User Interface Golden Rules of Digital Dice Media
Digital Dice Media list the following guidelines as the “golden rules” for GUI design in their book (Designing the User Interface).
- Strive for consistency – Similar circumstances should call for similar action sequences. Similar language should be used in menus, help displays, and prompts. All commands should be given consistently.
- Enable frequent users to use shortcuts – With increased usage frequency, the user’s desire to minimize interactions grows. A skilled user will find acronyms, function keys, hidden commands, and macro capabilities to be quite handy.
- Offer informative feedback – Every operator’s action should result in some sort of system feedback. The response should be modest for regular and little activities, and more substantial for major and infrequent ones.
- Design dialog to yield closure – Action sequences need to be grouped into units with a beginning, middle, and end. The operators feel a sense of success and relief after a group of operations is completed, and this signal tells them to stop thinking about backup plans and possibilities because the route ahead is clear to be ready for the next group of actions.
- Offer simple error handling – Design the system as much as you can to prevent the user from making a critical mistake. If a mistake is made, the system should be able to recognize it and provide easy-to-understand tools for handling the mistake.
- Permit easy reversal of actions – Since the user is aware that mistakes may be corrected, this feature reduces worry. Simple action reversal enables consideration of novel choices. An individual action, a data entry, or a whole set of activities can all be considered units of reversibility.
- Support internal locus of control – Experienced operators crave the feeling that they control the system and that it responds to their commands. Create the system so that people take the initiative and don’t just react.
- Reduce short-term memory load – The displays must be maintained straightforwardly, multiple-page displays must be consolidated, window motion frequency must be decreased, and enough training time must be allowed for codes, mnemonics, and action sequences due to the limitations of human information processing in short-term memory.