Poor interface design exists all around us, but wait, what is ‘interface design’ exactly?
Think of the cheque deposit machine at the bank, it replaces a bank teller at the counter. Since the machine can’t talk to people, it has a computer screen that you interact with. The screen serves as the bridge between you and the machine. It displays a set of instructions that tell you how the deposit can be made.
Although the system works, these machines aren’t intuitive and user-friendly. For example, some machines use only English; some are difficult for first time users to figure out; and some can only accept one cheque at a time, which causes long queues. The overall experience translates into – poor interface design. The person to blame – the interface designer.
Poor interface design can affect us in other aspects of our lives too, not just at the bank. My mum once burnt her cake because the oven only had instructions in English, and I don’t know how many times I’ve found it hard to find the expiry date on food packaging. In the latter, it seems the interface designer thought it’d be clever to hide the date, print it in some faded colour or use a ‘code’ like 030411 instead of 3 April 2011. And, who needs a remote control that comes with 20 button on the panel? Why does Microsoft insist on asking you to configure the sensitivity of your mouse? (Apple products would never ask you to adjust the sensitivity of your touch screen).
It’s obvious that these interface designers have failed to understand consumer needs. So who’s the best interface designer? Well, maybe my mum would make a good oven designer, I could be a good cheque deposit machine designer, and my dad could be the best handphone designer… We all know what we want in a design, the so-called experts just need to tap into that.
Agreed?
About The Author
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Pin is the founder of 1.com.my. He hosts email and websites for his customers on Cloud. He has written two books on Online Business and Linux, and he also founded a Web Developer Group that has over 100 friends. To learn more, please visit his website at http://www.1.com.my
Ricky, thank you for featuring this post! UI is important to our web industries