8.

User Interface Design

Objects

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 2

The user interface

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 3

Graphical user interfaces

• Most users of business systems interact with

these systems through graphical interfaces
although, in some cases, legacy text-based
interfaces are still used

Analysis and Design of IS 4

GUI characteristics

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.

Analysis and Design of IS 5

GUI advantages

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 6

User-centered design

• To sensitize software engineers to key issues

underlying the design rather than the
implementation of user interfaces
• User-centered 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

Analysis and Design of IS 7

User interface design process

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

Analysis and Design of IS 8

UI design principles

• 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 recognize that people
make mistakes
• UI design principles underlie interface designs
although not all principles are applicable to all
designs

Analysis and Design of IS 9

User interface design principles

Principle Description
User familiarity The interface should use terms and concepts
which are drawn from the experience of the
people who will make most use of the system.
Consistency The interface 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
behaviour of a system.
Recoverability The interface should include mechanisms to
allow users to recover from errors.
User guidance The interface should provide meaningful
feedback when errors occur and provide
context-sensitive user help facilities.
User diversity The interface should provide appropriate
interaction facilities for different types of
system user.
Analysis and Design of IS 10
Design principles

• 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
able to predict the operation of comparable commands

Analysis and Design of IS 11

Design principles

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 12

User-system interaction

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 13

Interaction styles

• Direct manipulation
• Menu selection
• Form fill-in
• Command language
• Natural language

Analysis and Design of IS 14

Advantages and disadvantages

Interaction Main advantages Main disadvantages Application

style examples
Direct Fast and intuitive May be hard to implement Video games
manipulation interaction Only suitable where there CAD systems
Easy to learn is a visual metaphor for
tasks and objects
Menu selection Avoids user error Slow for experienced Most general-purpose
Little typing required users systems
Can become complex if
many menu options
Form fill-in Simple data entry Takes up a lot of screen Stock control,
Easy to learn space Personal loan
processing
Command Powerful and flexible Hard to learn Operating systems,
language Poor error management Library information
retrieval systems
Natural Accessible to casual Requires more typing Timetable systems
language users Natural language WWW information
Easily extended understanding systems retrieval systems
Analysis and Design of IS are unreliable 15
Direct manipulation advantages

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 16

Direct manipulation problems

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 17

• Control panel interface

Analysis and Design of IS 18

Menu systems

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 19

Advantages of menu systems

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 20

Problems with menu systems

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 21

• The form fill-in interaction style (also called
"fill in the blanks")

Analysis and Design of IS 22

Form-based interface

Analysis and Design of IS 23

Command interfaces

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 24

Problems with command interfaces

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 25

Command languages

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 26

• Command language (or command entry)

Analysis and Design of IS 27

Natural language interfaces

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 28

Typical examples of natural language interfaces include:
• Voice agents that communicate via speech. These agents may run on a computing
device such as a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer. They can be
embedded in specialized hardware such as consumer appliances, or the automation
system of a vehicle.
• Chat bots in Web applications. Chatbots that process natural language requests
from the user. For example, a customer service application available on an
organization's web site could offer a natural language user interface to handle
customers' inquiries. Not all chatbots are speech-based, some text-based chatbots
can let people use speech via a keyboard dictation function.
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems that interact with the user via a
telephone call. IVR systems accept speech or key pad input and generating speech
output.

Analysis and Design of IS 29

Multiple user interfaces – Model View Controller

Command
Gr aphical user
language
interface View
interface

Command
GUI
Controler language
manager
interpreter

Operating system
Model

Analysis and Design of IS 30

Model-view-controller

Analysis and Design of IS 31

Information presentation

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 32

Information presentation

Information to Presentation
be displayed software

Display

Analysis and Design of IS 33

Information presentation

• Static information
 Initialized 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

Analysis and Design of IS 34

Information display factors

• 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?

Analysis and Design of IS 35

Alternative information presentations

Jan Feb Mar April May June

2842 2851 3164 2789 1273 2835

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
Jan Feb Mar April May June
Analysis and Design of IS 36
Analogue vs. digital presentation

• Analogue presentation
 Easier to get an 'at a glance' impression of a value
 Possible to show relative values
 Easier to see exceptional data values

• Digital presentation
 Compact - takes up little screen space
 Precise values can be communicated

Analysis and Design of IS 37

Dynamic information display

1
0 10 20
4 2

Dial with needle Pie chart Thermometer Horizontal bar

Analysis and Design of IS 38

Displaying relative values

Pressure Temper atu re

0 100 200 300 400 0 25 50 75 100

Analysis and Design of IS 39

Textual highlighting

The filename you have chosen h as been

used. Please choose an other name

Ch. 16 User interface design

OK Cancel

Analysis and Design of IS 40

Data visualisation

• Concerned with techniques for displaying large

amounts of information
• Visualization can reveal relationships between
entities and trends in the data
• Possible data visualizations are:
 Weather information collected from a number of sources
 The state of a telephone network as a linked set of nodes
 Chemical plant visualized 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

Analysis and Design of IS 41

• Data visualisation

Analysis and Design of IS 42

Colour displays

• Color 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 color in
interface design include:
 The use of color to communicate meaning
 Over-use of color in the display
• The five most legible foreground/background color
combinations:
 Black on yellow
 Green on white
 Blue on white
 White on blue
 Yellow on black

Analysis and Design of IS 43

Colour use guidelines

• Don't use too many colors

• Use color coding to support use tasks
• Allow users to control color coding
• Design for monochrome then add color
• Use color coding consistently
• Avoid color pairings which clash
• Use color change to show status change
• Be aware that color displays are usually
lower resolution

Analysis and Design of IS 44

User support

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 45

Help and message system

Application

Help Error message

interface system

Message
presentation
system

Help Error message

frames texts

Analysis and Design of IS 46

Error messages

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 47

Design factors in message wording

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

Analysis and Design of IS 48

Nurse input of a patient’s name

Analysis and Design of IS 49

Help system design

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 50

Help information

• 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.

Analysis and Design of IS 51

Help system use

• 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.

Analysis and Design of IS 52

Entry points to a help system

Top-level
entry

Entry from
application

Entry from error

message system

Help frame network

Analysis and Design of IS 53

Help system windows

Analysis and Design of IS 54

User documentation

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 55

User document types

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

Analysis and Design of IS 56

Document types

• 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

Analysis and Design of IS 57

Analysis and Design of IS 58