The user interface is the part of a system exposed to users. In general, the system can be any kind of system with which a user may interact at will, such as a mechanical system or a computer system. For example, in an automobile the user interface consists of the steering wheel, the accelerator pedal, the brake pedal, the various instruments that the user requires, and similar facilities. In a computer system the user typically interacts with an operating system or with application software such as a spreadsheet or a word processor using a command-line interface or graphical user interface. With these the user interacts using menus, icons, keystrokes, mouse clicks and similar capabilities.
Recently, as systems have become increasingly complex, and thus more difficult to control, much thought has been given to the design of interfaces that enable a user to operate the system naturally thus increasing its usability by allowing the user to form a more intuitive mental model of the system. The term user friendliness has been coined as a measure of how well the user interface fulfills this goal.
References
Soren Lauesen: User Interface Design, A Software Engineering Perspective, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-3211-8143-3
Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant: Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-3212-6978-0
Jef Raskin: Humane Interface - The New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-2013-7937-6
Jennifer Preece, Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp: Interaction Design, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-49278-7
Ian Horrocks: Constructing the User Interface with Statecharts, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0201342782
David Hu: Object-Oriented Environment in C++: A User-Friendly Interface, MIS: Press, ISBN 1558280146
Constantine Stephanidis: User Interfaces for All, Lea, ISBN 0805829679
Jenny Le Peuple, Robert Scane: User Interface Design, Crucial, ISBN 1-903337-19-4
Dave Collins: Designing Object-Oriented User Interfaces, Benjamin Cummings, ISBN 080535350X
Susanne Bdker: Through the Interface: A Human Activity Approach to User Interface Design, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, ISBN 0805805702
Larry E. Wood: User Interface Design: Bridging the Gap from User Requirements to Design, CRC Press, ISBN 0849331250
Jane Carey: Human Factors in Information Systems: The Relationship Between User Interface Design and Human Performance, Intellect L & D E F a E, ISBN 1567502865
Ernest Edmonds: The Separable User Interface, Academic Press, ISBN 0122321502
Carl Zetie: Practical User Interface Design: Making Guis Work, McGraw-Hill Publishing, ISBN 0077091671
R. J. Torres: Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0130912964
External links
User Interface Design Essays of Don Norman (http://www.jnd.org/dn.pubs.html)
Weblog about User Interface Design (http://www.mominds.de/bugresort/)
Batch interfaces are non-interactive userinterfaces, where the user specifies all the details of the batch job in advance to batch processing, and receives the output when all the processing is done.
Too many developers think that they are artistic geniuses – they do not bother to follow userinterfacedesign standards or invest the effort to make their applicationsusable, instead they mistakenly believe that the important thing is to make the code clever or to use a really interesting color scheme.
First of all the more intuitive the userinterface the easier it is to use, and the easier it is to use and the less expensive to use it.
User interface-flow diagrams should optionally be developed to further your understanding of the flow of your userinterface.
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