History of Interface Journal 02
Yu Tian (Iris)
2/4/2018
Effective criteria
Universal usability
Since interface is a bridge between users and tools, it is crucial that tools are usable first. In many cases, a product is designed for a large diversity of people, which means that it should fit the needs of all the users. Designers should take their pre-knowledge, physical constraints and cultural background etc. into consideration.
Take the Path ticket machine as an example. There are multiple language choices prepared for people from different cultures. However, the machine only shows information with visual text, which makes it hard for people who have visual impairment to use.
Informative feedback
Information exchange is essential for a communication process. When users take an action, they need to know what is happening inside the machine to make sure if they are doing it right or wrong. That’s why an interface has to provide effective informative feedback.
When using the wireless charger for cell phones during the day , sometimes it is hard to tell if the blue light is on. In this case, I have to spend more time figuring out whether the phone is charged by checking the system.
Easy reversal
People make mistakes all the time. On the one hand, the design of interface should prevent mistakes as much as possible. On the other, an reversal system is also important.
When I use the combination lock of school locker, since there is little feedback after each step, I can only know if I did it successfully by the final result. In this process, there’s no reversal option. All I can do after a failure is to try again. So easily-reversal options always rely on effective feedbacks.
Less learning cost
Considering how much people would benefit from a product, the learning cost will more or less eliminate their satisfaction. Since all they want is to finish the task with the product, the less learning cost they need, the better. In terms of this, the operation mechanism should correspond to common knowledge as much as possible so that users would get used to it quickly and smoothly.
Looking at the interface of Silence app, the icons indicate their contents clearly. When someone press the button, the background color will turn into the color of the theme, such as green for “forest” and blue for “ocean”. This method of creating correlation between natural scenes and artificial products makes it easily understood by the users and thus reduce the learning cost of this product.
Common Ideas
“Rule of Modelessness: The interface's response to user actions should be consistent and never depend on hidden state.” is similar to “offer informative feedback”
“Rule of Reversibility: Every operation without an undo is a horror story waiting to happen.” is similar to “Permit easy reversal of actions.”
“Rule of Failure: All failures should be lessons in how not to fail.” seems a further understanding of “Prevent errors.”
“Rule of Confirmation: Every confirmation prompt should be a surprise.” seems an extension of “Design dialogs to yield closure.”