Human Computer Interface design

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• Human Computer Interface design
• Manohita Gurram
• Nov 19 2002

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• Good interfaces should
• be easy to learn,
• minimize user frustration
• maximize user productivity

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• A few basic rules for the system requirements
  are
• Software must assist the user perform a task, not
  become a task in itself
• Software must not make the user feel stupid
• Software must not make the computer appear to be
  stupid

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• Some of the important factors to be considered in
  the interface design are
• Visual elements colors, fonts, icons etc.
• Terminology
• Controls
• Error messages
• Metaphors

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Visual Elements
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• When properly applied, color can
• enrich the user interface by improving the
  aesthetic quality of the interface
• guide the user's attention to points of interest.
• The improper use of color on the other hand, can
  seriously impair the user's ability to interact
  with the program.

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Icons
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Terminology

• Program developers and users should share the
  same knowledge base. Programs should be designed
  according to the tasks of the users and each
  should know what the other was talking about.

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• The designers of Netscape Navigator however,
  forgot that most people using their product are
  not programmers

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• In any other application cut gtobject is removed
  and a copy is placed in the clipboard for later
  use
• In Microsoft Excel, "Cut" means "Leave it there
  until I Paste it somewhere else."

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Controls

• In a graphical user interface, the controls
  represent the means by which the user
  communicates with the application. The quality of
  the communication depends on two aspects of the
  controls
• the appropriateness of the control for the task
• the consistency of the rules under which the
  control operates.
• Selecting the wrong tool for the job, or changing
  the rules under which the tool operates, the
  designer will create problems for the users.

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Error Messages

• Error messages are often invasive and rude,
  halting the current activity, and demanding that
  you acknowledge them before you are allowed to
  continue.
• Many error messages are ambiguous, failing to
  provide meaningful information, and at times are
  simply incorrect, potentially causing undue grief
  and expense to the innocent user.

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This message was popped up when trying to delete
files from a nearly-full hard drive in Windows 95
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Netscape's Hidden Frames function generates
hidden messages as well.
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Metaphors

• Metaphors are often employed in interface design
  to help users learn the application by
  facilitating the transfer of existing knowledge

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Good Design Features

• Tool tips
• 1) Enable users to learn the interface more
  rapidly by making the toolbar less intimidating
• 2) allow the user to rapidly locate functions
  that may otherwise have been buried within the
  menus

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Given all the passwords each of us must keep
track of these days, it's all too easy to forget
the password for a particular account or program
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