2008:PR002

User Interface Design Methods

and Qualities of a Good User
Interface Design


Ravi Chandra Chaitanya Guntupalli

MASTERS THESIS
Software Engineering, 2008
Department of Technology, Mathematics and Computer Science
MASTERS THESIS
User Interface Design Methods and Qualities of a
Good User Interface Design
Summary

User interface (UI) plays a vital role in software. In terms of visibility, its design
and precision holds the primary importance for depicting the exact amount of
information for the intended user. Every minor decision taken for the designing
of UI can contribute to the software both positively and negatively. Therefore,
our study is intended to highlight the strategies that are currently being used for
successfully designing UIs, and make appropriate suggestions for betterment of
UI designs based on case studies and research findings.
Author: Ravi Chandra Chaitanya. Guntupalli
Examiner: Dr. Samantha J enkins
Advisor: Dr. Samantha J enkins
Programme: Software Engineering, 2008
Subject: Software Engineering Level: Master
Date: J une, 2008 Report Number: 2008:PR002
Keywords User interface design, Software Quality, Reliability, Efficiency, Conciseness, Portability,
Consistency, Maintainability, Understandability, System status visibility, System
consistency, Error handling, Feedback systems, Memory loading, Efficiency, Appropriate
outlook, UI design principles, Usability design, Interface design, Information design,
Stake holder, End user.

Publisher: University West, Department of Technology, Mathematics and Computer Science,
S-461 86 Trollhttan, SWEDEN
Phone: +46 520 22 30 00 Fax: +46 520 22 32 99 Web: www.hv.se

User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

Acknowledgement

I choose this thesis work as a part of my Masters of software Engineering
program. The successful completion of this thesis work involves dedication,
sincerity, intense research study and encouragement by many people including
my family, friends who have been my emotional backbone and all my teachers
since my childhood who have helped me reach this far.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to the university staff. This thesis work stands
completed virtually as a result of teamwork and all the attributes already spelled
above. For me it has been a wonderful and satisfying experience, and the output
of the dedicated efforts leaves me successfully motivated to involve in this
research thesis and complete it with a touch of excellence.

I am thankful and heartfully appreciate the University West, Sweden and the
personals who have helped me a lot. My special thanks to Dr. Samantha J enkins
(Supervisor & Assoc. Prof., Department for Economics and Informatics), Email:
Samantha.J [email protected].
User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

Contents
Summary............................................................................................................................................. ii
Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................... iii
Contents ............................................................................................................................................iv
1 Introduction................................................................................................................................ 1
2 Background................................................................................................................................. 2
2.1 Software Quality................................................................................................................... 2
2.1.1 Factors Involving Software Quality..................................................................... 3
2.2 Importance of Software Quality........................................................................................ 4
2.3 User Interface (UI) Design and Software Quality .......................................................... 4
2.3.1 System Status Visibility.......................................................................................... 5
2.3.2 System Consistency................................................................................................ 5
2.3.3 Error Handling ....................................................................................................... 5
2.3.4 Feedback System.................................................................................................... 6
2.3.5 Memory Loading .................................................................................................... 6
2.3.6 Promptness of Action Against Request.............................................................. 6
2.3.7 Efficiency................................................................................................................. 7
2.3.8 Availability of Documents and Manuals............................................................. 8
2.3.9 Compliance of UI Design with Software Objectives........................................ 8
2.3.10 Compatibility with Varied Platforms................................................................. 9
2.3.11 Proper Amount of Displayed Information ...................................................... 9
2.3.12 User Involvement During Design ..................................................................... 9
2.3.13 Relevance of Content ........................................................................................10
2.3.14 Appropriate Outlook.........................................................................................10
2.4 User Interface Design .......................................................................................................11
2.4.1 Human factors in interface design.....................................................................11
2.4.2 UI design principles .............................................................................................11
2.5 Usable Design.....................................................................................................................12
2. 5.1 Interface design ...................................................................................................12
2.5.2 Information Design..............................................................................................13
2.5.3 Interaction Design................................................................................................14
2.6 The UI design process ......................................................................................................14
2.6.1 User analysis..........................................................................................................14
2.6.2 System prototyping ..............................................................................................15
2.6.3 Interface evaluation..............................................................................................15
2.7 Evaluation of User Interfaces ..........................................................................................15
2.7.1 Electronic Mail......................................................................................................15
2.7.2 E- Commerce Websites.......................................................................................21
3 Method..........................................................................................................................................26
4 Discussion.....................................................................................................................................27
5 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................30
6 Future work ..................................................................................................................................30
7. References....................................................................................................................................31


User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

Appendix
A. First appendix
B. Second appendix





























User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

1 Introduction
User interface is the representation of the software or business to the user.
It is displayed in terms of pictures, sounds, colors and text. The
communication with the user on behalf of a system is performed by using a
UI. Therefore, the minor details in designing as well as displaying the UI
plays a vital role in creating an impact of the entire system to the user.
There are various aspects involved for the measurement of whether a UI
design is successfully communicating the intended impression to the user
or not. [1, 2]
For designing a good UI that can represent the intended amount of
information to the end user, it is very important to maintain the
involvement of the intended user of the system throughout the designing
process. In this way, the design will be made according to the expectations
of the user and thus will be successfully utilized. [3, 4]In order to represent
the intended message of the website or software, it is important that the UI
design is made by taking the objectives of the website or software under
consideration. Otherwise, the intended message will not be conveyed to the
user and the results can affect the expected outputs of the system at hand.
A good UI design is always expected to have a good error handling
strategy, so that the end-user is not irritated by repeated attempts for doing
a task. It is also important to let the user know exactly what error occurred
so that he can take further steps accordingly. This factor is extremely
important for doing online transactions. Security is a very important feature
for E-commerce websites and therefore, while designing the transaction
pages the user should be clearly shown about the security status. It is
important that a UI design is tested against varied platforms so that when it
is viewed by a user, it should display all the information as originally
designed. Proper manuals for the usage and help instructions should be
given to the users, so that the new users of the system can be appropriately
accommodated. It is important for a UI good design to have appropriate
information displayed in it. This information should not be too much or too
little. It should just be enough to represent what is intended to be conveyed
to the user. [5, 6]
The contribution of this study will be towards the compilation of the
current strategies for designing UI. The primary focus will be given to the
successful methods and techniques that can be applied with focus on a set
of recommendations after detailed analysis of a set of different systems.
The study will also discuss the UIs of E-commerce websites, used for
online shopping, bank transactions, online stores etc), Commercial websites
(Magazines, TV channels, etc), User applications (Microsoft PowerPoint,
Excel, Word, etc.). In this way the detailed data regarding the negative and
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

positive aspects of all the designs will be gathered along with the strategies
applied on each design. In the end, the results will be based on the actual
results from the data collected after the study of UI from varied categories.
The main goal of the thesis is to investigate different aspects of a UI design
that play a vital role in depicting the software quality. In addition to this,
the study will also discuss in detail all the software quality measures and
techniques. Based on the measures and techniques to determine software
quality, the UI designs will be evaluated. The study also aims to take into
account UIs systems belonging to varied genre for checking the
characteristics of a successful UI design.
In this paper, a step by step procedure is followed. In section 2 the
background concepts regarding software quality, user interface design etc.,
were introduced and later in the same section different scenarios are
evaluated under the introduced criteria. In section 3 the method followed is
described, discussion regarding all the thesis work is done in section 4. In
section 5 the thesis work is concluded and future work is discussed in
section 6.

2 Background

The present study is in view of various aspects to ensure that the user
interface design is positively affecting the software quality. But in order to
proceed further, we need to understand what software quality is, and what
are the good or bad implications of a UI design on it.

2.1 Software Quality

Although there are several definitions for software quality, yet largely the
crux always states that the quality of software is measured in the following
two ways:

How good is the design of the software in relation to the
requirements of the client.
How good the actual software is in relation to the design made for
it. [7]

In order to ensure the above two, there are several factors that are taken into
account. Reliability, efficiency, conciseness, portability, consistency,
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

maintainability, and understandability to name a few. These factors will be
described in detail in the following paragraphs. [8]
2.1.1 Factors Involving Software Quality

As pointed earlier, the following factors play a vital role in determining the
quality of software.
Reliability

Reliability deals with the way the software performs in the longer run.
When a user uses a software, there are certain expectations associated with
it. These expectations are present due to the behavior of the software in the
past. Reliable software should be able to perform the same way and with
the same precision and pattern. [9]
Efficiency

Efficiency is the measure of how well the resources are managed by the
designed software. An efficient software should be able to perform the best
of its capabilities with the least utilization of resources. In other words, no
extra execution time, memory space or delays should be present. [8]
Conciseness

Conciseness is the measure of how well the software is designed and
developed by considering the necessary information only. Concise software
doesnt present additional information or excessive lines of coding that are
un-necessary.
Portability

Portable software should be able to run on varied platforms without any
problem.
Consistency

Consistency is the measure of how the software maintains a similar code
for notations, abbreviations and naming conventions throughout. [8]
Maintainability

As the software and hardware keep on getting updated from time to time,
maintainable software should be able to upgrade according to the recent
requirements. For this matter, we need proper documentation to enhance
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

the design, and consistent and well-written code in order to make the
development level changes.
Understandability
At the end of the day, the software has to be understood by the user,
otherwise, it will not present the intended benefits. An understandable
design should not only be usable by the user but also well documented and
consistent that the modifiers of the design should feel no problem in
understanding the actual system. [10, 11]

2.2 Importance of Software Quality

The understanding and implementation of the software quality factors is
extremely important for the success of a system that is delivered in the
market. Non- compliance with these factors can cause serious harm to the
reputation and credibility of the developer and designer. [12, 13, 14]
In the software market, we see many products that are appreciated and used
widely around the world. If we take a closer look at the products, we will
find out that these products are designed and developed by keeping all
software quality factors in mind. [15]
Delivering a low quality product means that in one way or the other; the
user will not be satisfied and hence feel discouraged to use the software
again for the purposes that it was designed for. Many next versions will not
be able to restore the lost trust of the intended user in the product. [16, 17]
Sometimes, the design as well as the development is crucial, and its impact
is serious, for the user. E-commerce is again a good example. If a user is
unable to get the precise and concise information, within an understandable
system, he might not use the application in future. The result will be a loss
to the company and consequently to the software product. [10]

2.3 User Interface (UI) Design and Software Quality

In order to represent the software and all its intended objectives, the UI
design plays a crucial role. Software will not be communicated to the user
for its possible benefits if the UI design is not created with relevant and
significant amount of information. [18]
Many other factors that are used to measure how well the UI design has
been created will be discussed in the subsequent sections. However, for
ensuring the software quality, it is a key factor that the user should be able
to understand the system fully for utilization. Hence, the UI design is the
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

only face of the software which is visible to the user and hence, if the user
is unable to understand and make use of it fully then he will not be able to
use the developed software at all. In addition to this, for any good quality
software, its UI design should clearly show what are the main features and
functionalities of the system. Therefore, it holds an important place for the
quality of the software. [19, 20, 21, 22]
As already discussed above, UI design and software quality are closely knit
together. Therefore, in order to understand whether a UI design is good or
bad, we will be studying various aspects by keeping in view the software
quality factors in the following section.

2.3.1 System Status Visibility

It is important to understand that the involvement of a user is extremely
crucial to the success of a UI design. [23] A typical user is interested in
knowing the system status at all times during the correspondence and
communication. This aspect is very sensitive in terms of online transactions
where the truncation, cancellation and refreshing a transaction can cause
real time damage to the end user. Therefore, the system status visibility will
be studied in order to check whether the updated information is available to
the user or not. However, criticality of this feature will be studied under the
light of the fact that whether the system status can cause damage to the user
or not.

2.3.2 System Consistency

Consistency is an extremely important feature for the positive impact on a
UI design of the system. Consistency has to be maintained for a single
system across all the UIs as well as in terms of platforms. All the UIs
developed for a single system should have the similar kind of design,
choice of colors and platform. The UI should follow the certain theme and
objective of the larger software system, so that the proper message and
intention of the system can be communicated to the user. [24, 25, 26, 27]

2.3.3 Error Handling

It is important for a UI design to provide the end-user with a convenience
that the run-time errors can be handled. In this context, even if the user is
unaware of the errors that are possible to occur at the back-end of the
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

system still the UI design should be capable of catching as well as
providing a solution for these errors. [28, 29, 30]
These errors can be of two categories run-time and compile time errors, but
for a UI design the run-time errors are of utmost significance. The UI
design should cater all possible forms of inputs that a user can enter and a
design should be finalized after testing the UI for all possible error types.

2.3.4 Feedback System

With the growing utility of the online content and systems, the users are
getting involved in running the businesses as well as general online surfing.
The awareness of the end-user about the system at hand is growing as each
day progresses. In this scenario, it is important for a designer to consider
that the UI design is basing its updates as well as construction on the user
feedback. [17, 31] For this matter a constant involvement of the end-users
should be made sure during the designing process. Even after the final
product should be launched, still the improvements and later versions of the
UI should be based on the feedback it has got from its potential users. This
process helps in constructing and designing the UI in such a way that it
becomes more user friendly. The feedback system generally helps the
organization as well for developing more user oriented UIs so that their
company aims and mission is highlighted. [32, 33]

2.3.5 Memory Loading

The size of a particular UI plays a vital role in issues related to the web
space as well as cost of the entire website. It should be kept in mind during
the design that even if high resolution images are appended in the UI still, it
should always present the lowest possible memory size. It should waste
unnecessary web space just for making the UI more attractive. Sometimes,
if the images are too large or there is too much scrolling on the page, the
users also get weary of the concept. Therefore, it is important to consider
how much extra space a UI is taking, so that the system does not have to
compromise a lot on the cost for something that is hardly necessary. [23,
34, 35]

2.3.6 Promptness of Action Against Request

For a UI design the most important thing the user is interested in its speed
or promptness. No matter what is the speed of the connection of internet
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

that the user is using, he would always want the response to be fast. Many
users are found to be engaging themselves in the websites that are not very
attractive looking but provide faster access. A very good example is Google
Mail. The interface is plain, simple and loads at a higher speed than many
of the other systems. The result is the higher number of joining users for
Google Mail. [36]
It is important to note at this point that even if the system running behind a
UI has a high speed server, still the user and the internet connection is slow,
it shows the same result. To avoid this situation a UI should be tested by
keeping in view the worst case scenario in which the user has slowest
possible connection. An alternative strategy could be displaying the time
that is required for a page to be loaded with respect to different internet
speeds available. In the latter strategy however, the information gets
redundant across pages and the user gets tired after getting the repeated
information. Therefore, the former should be used for the design.
Another important consideration in this context is the appropriateness of
the displayed content. The UI should not have a lot of redundant and
meaningless images that increase the loading and response time for the
user. [37, 38]

2.3.7 Efficiency

The efficiency of the UI is measured in terms of the amount of related
information it brings to the user. If a user visits a particular page, he has
certain requirements and expectations in his mind. An efficient system will
bring to the system all the requirements that he wishes and most of where
he wishes.
The placement of information in the light of a users requirements plays a
vital role in making the system efficient. Only the UI that has the best
sorted information will provide it to the user in ideal time and with
precision. [15, 39, 40]
The implications are very huge to the software system. If a UI fails to
provide the information that the user is expecting from it, then it will be a
negative impact to the system as users will get discouraged to use the
system in future.




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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

2.3.8 Availability of Documents and Manuals

As for the development of software, working before hand is important.
Similarly, it is extremely important to visualize and document all the steps
that are involved in the construction and design of the UI system. [28]
There are two stages in which the UI system has to be documented. The
first stage is when the UI is being designed and visualized. The second step
is when the UI design is being implemented. In both the scenarios, the
documentation plays a very important role. In order to maintain a UI design
one needs to refer to the documentation for knowing the strategy and
reasoning behind its particular way of implementation. For the same
reason, at all steps of a UI design this documentation should be an integral
part of the process. [41, 42]
In addition to the documentation, the user manuals and help options are
extremely important. A system can encounter a variety of users ranging
from new users to experts. But normally if we take the average user, still
the help option and user manual for the UI is a very important part of a UI
design. There should be proper content prepared for each problem that the
user will encounter during usage of the system. It is again very important
here for the designer team to point out the mistakes that a user can occur
and all the possible scenarios for eliminating these mistakes. [43]

2.3.9 Compliance of UI Design with Software Objectives

The UI design should clearly show and depict the software system
objectives. The user should be able to distinguish between the websites he
is visiting. For an e-commerce website, the design should clearly show the
user what the website is about. In this way, the user will be able to surf
faster and extract the related information quickly without having to go
through the entire text, just to find out what the website or the system is all
about. [3]
In addition to this, the objective of the system has to be kept in mind during
the design of the UI. The user should be shown what the system supports
and what it does not support. For a political website, it should clearly show
that it is meant for political purposes and not some general public opinion.
So that the user is not mislead by the displayed information and gets the
benefit that was intended by the system during its formation. Another way
of showing this is to clearly indicate the objectives of the UI so that the user
is aware of the issues related to it.

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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

2.3.10 Compatibility with Varied Platforms

During the UI design it is important to consider if the UI is compatible at a
variety of platforms. Sometimes a user views the information presented in
the UIs using different browsers. This normally occurs when the system is
web based and not installed on the users computer. [22, 44] In this way,
sometimes due to the different adjustments of the browsers, the
compatibility is lost. A good UI design should be tested across varied
platforms to see if it is displayed in the same way or not. [45, 46, 47]

2.3.11 Proper Amount of Displayed Information

A user is always looking for the proper amount of information that is being
displayed on the UI. If too little information is displayed, a user might get
tired in looking for the relevant information. If there is too much
information displayed, a user might get perplexed in accessing the relevant
portion. The result, at the end, is the bad impression of the system for
which the UI was designed. [48]
Therefore, it should be kept in mind that how much information should be
provided and how many UIs should be generate on a single subject. If the
user has to traverse across a wide number of pages, it causes frustration.
Also, if the systems relevant information is too much for the user, he might
try to switch to another website that presents the information in an
organized manner. [1, 49]
Therefore, for the benefit of the users and the system at the larger scale, a
UI should display the right amount of information that is required by a user.
Again, over here as well, the user has to be involved in the process of
designing. So that the information is gathered by keeping in view how
much of it is actually necessary for the particular end-user. A UI will only
be accepted by the end-user if they find it matching to their requirements.
[50]

2.3.12 User Involvement During Design

It is important to involve the user and get proper feedback at all stages
during the design of the UI. Even after the design has been deployed, it is
important to know what the users are expecting with the growing
information about varied systems across the internet and otherwise. [51, 52]
Especially, this scenario is important after the deployment of the system, if
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

the users are suggesting to improve or change a certain field or property of
a UI, and then this should be catered in the later versions of the design so
that the UI is always as per the intended user wanted. The result will always
be a positive impact towards the system that the UI is representing. As the
users will see the UI evolving according to their expectations and
requirements, they will engage themselves more and more into the process
and the system will have more responses in future for changes as well as
improvements.[53,54, 55]

2.3.13 Relevance of Content

It is important that a UI design has only the relevant material shown. A user
is always looking for the right amount of information displayed in a right
manner. But there is not any certain definition of the right amount itself.
Therefore, the UI design has to be tested for feedback in all stages to know
if the required content has been displayed to the user or not. [1, 56, 57]
In addition to this, it should be decided before the design what appropriate
content has to be displayed; this process should be done under the light of
the main objectives of the system.

2.3.14 Appropriate Outlook

If we have a UI design that is not displayed in a proper format, using the
appropriate colors and choice of outlook, a user will get distracted.
Sometimes a combination or a contrast is chosen for a website that is
irritating to the eyes of the users. Such sharp contrasts should be avoided so
that the user does not ignore the relevant content just because of the way it
is displayed. Normally the user is interested in the UI if it displays the
information in a simple and minimalistic form. In this way the maximum
impact can be obtained because the user is not confused by too flashy a
layout. [7, 36]
For a software system to achieve its planned spectrum of achievements, it
should always present the best available outlook keeping in view the
feedback and requirements of the user.



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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

2.4 User Interface Design

The main purpose of user interfaces is that they should match and satisfy
the skills and expectations of its users. A system will always be judged by
its users not by its functionality, but by its interface design. Many software
systems are never used because of the poor interface design as this will
confuse the users and will lead to many catastrophic errors.

2.4.1 Human factors in interface design

There are many human factors which should be considered before
designing an effective interface. These factors could be like limited
memory as most of us cannot remember more than seven things at one go
and if a user is presented with more than seven things to remember
instantaneously he is more sucesseptible to make mistakes. It is natural that
users make mistakes when they use new interface software and things like
alarms or messages might panic the user and will become the reason for
more mistakes. There are different kinds of people who think differently
and prefer different things like pictures, special audibles, menu style, text
etc. and there are people with different physical and mental capabilities and
a designer should keep all this in mind before designing an effective user
interface which can be used and appreciated by everyone. [2, 5, 22, 24]

2.4.2 UI design principles.

There are some principles which when followed will make a developer a
good interface designer. The user interface should look familiar to the user
i.e. it should be based on the use terms rather than computer concepts like
documents, folders which can be replaced by directories, file identifiers etc.
consistency should be followed when commands and menus are taken into
consideration. They should appear similar in format and punctuation. There
should not be any confusion to the user when using or operating a
command and he should be able to predict the operation and consequences
of commands. Users should be having the options of recoverability to allow
them to overcome their errors. These include things like an undo and redo
facility. The interface program should be provided with manuals to guide
the user and user diversity should be observed to make the interface to
support different users. [19, 36]

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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

2.5 Usable Design

An effective usable design includes three different designs that are
important for each aspect. They are,

Interaction Design
Information Design
Interface Design

To achieve a perfect design all the three designing characteristics should be
included and overlapped. Failure of any one of these designs will lead to
the failure of the whole design. A system with good information and
interface design will not be successful unless there is a good interaction
with the user. This is represented in figure 1.




Figure 1: shows the usable design. [Linn, G. user interface design, Software
Engineering, lecture notes, university west, Sweden]

2. 5.1 Interface design

An interface should be designed with proper colors and objects. Colors
should be used restrictively with a meaning. Proper color pairing should be
observed and at the same time people with color blindness should be taken
into consideration. Objects like buttons, menus, and icons should be used.
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

Navigation should be made easy. Proper style of interaction should be
followed with proper language and symbols. A bad interface will produce a
useless system. [3, 5]

Golden' rules to be followed in creating an effective interface design.

Rule 1 Consistency of the software
Rule2 Shortcuts for the convenience of frequent users
Rule 3 Feedback information
Rule 4 Designing dialog boxes to show the status
Rule 5 Recoverability to minimize errors
Rule 6 Action reversal- undo
Rule 7 Design in a way that the user is in control of the
software
Rule 8 Minimize instructions and information to make it
easy for the user to remember things.

Table 1: represents Golden rules to be followed in creating an effective
interface design.

2.5.2 Information Design

Present the information properly so that the user finds it easy as to who is
the intended recipient, adaptation of information, text, graphical objects,
photos, diagrams. Information regarding the relationship between values
and change of information must be present. Use of colors should be in a
proper way when showing the change in the system status and color coding
can be used to let the users know about the task they are performing. Colors
should be used restrictively when it comes to dark colors and they should
be used in a thoughtful and creative way. Proper color pairings should be
observed. The system should be able to predict what the user is doing and
give messages relevant to the situation, experienced users would not like
long messages and new users might not be able to get enough information
from short sentences so both types of users should be taken into
consideration and allow them to use message conciseness. Messages should
be given out in way that different classes of users should be able to handle
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

it depending on their skills. When expressing a thought in a message they
should be tailored in a way that it gives out the message in a positive way
and it should not sound funny. When giving out messages the designer
should be aware of the culture followed in the country where the system is
being sold to give a proper representation as different countries follow
different cultures. [5, 48, 49, 50]
2.5.3 Interaction Design

When designing an interface system things to be taken into consideration
are like the age, culture and background of the user, the users computer
knowledge should be assessed and also his ability to adapt to the system.
Navigating and finding help should be made easy for the user when
searching for information. Help should be provided for the function, to
interact and learn. Use of different lighting, sounds can be done to attract
the user. The user should not feel any stress or pressure. [2, 26, 28]

2.6 The UI design process

The UI design is a process where the users interact with the designers.
There are three important essential activities in this design process. [5, 8]

2.6.1 User analysis

In this analysis process we develop a task that the users do in other words
understanding what the users do with the system. To develop an effective
interface we have to understand what the users want to do with the system.
User analysis should be described in such a way that it is easily understood
by the users and other designers. Scenarios are one of the ways of
describing the analysis. Some of the requirements from the scenario are
help in using appropriate search terms as the users may be unaware of
them. Searches and request copies to the related material must be carried
out by the users. [23, 24]





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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

2.6.2 System prototyping

The development of prototype system helps in guiding the evolution of the
interface. Prototyping process with early paper prototypes are used as the
basis for automated prototypes. [5]

2.6.3 Interface evaluation

In interface evaluation we collect the users experience with the interface.
Evaluation of interface design should be done to know its suitability. Full
scale evaluation is not practical for the systems and is also very expensive.
Generally interface is evaluated against the usability specification. Interface
evaluation based on usability attributes evolution is conducted. Evaluation
of user interface design in a systematic way can be an expensive process.
This process involves graphics designers and cognitive scientists. Cheap
way to evaluate an interface is by surveying users by questionnaire. Users
should rate the questionnaire with their own experience and background.
Observation-based evaluation involves users watching as they are using
system. Specially equipped evaluation is required for complete video
analysis. Analysis of recordings help the designers to find if the interface
requires too much hand movement or unnatural eye movement will do. [5]

2.7 Evaluation of User Interfaces

In this section, we will be taking the examples of different User Interfaces and
evaluating them on the basis of the quality measures discussed in the previous
section.

2.7.1 Electronic Mail

Electronic mail (e-mail) systems are the most widely used interfaces of our
time. Free as well as economically priced solutions to effective online
communication are available. There is a wide range of E-mail Service
Providers (ESPs). We will be studying a three of such ESPs and then
evaluating the UIs presented in them.


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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

Gmail Interface

First of all we will be taking into account the Google Mail (Gmail)
interface. We will move from one measure to another in order to determine
whether it complies with the quality characteristics or not.

1. Gmail homepage has the constant display of the status of the byte
increase in the storage space being provided to the users. This
enables the user to view the system status graph for the constant
improvements in the provided user space.
2. All the UIs of Gmail are designed under the same choice of
consistent color schemes, font size, font style, etc. Hence, there are
no surprises to the user.
3. During the operation of Gmail, there are many possible scenarios in
which varied errors can occur. These errors include: delay in
response, sign-in issues, server conflict etc. In such a scenario,
Gmail provides fast and efficient error handling. For example, if we
take one particular scenario, in which while there is a delay in
getting response from the server for sending email due to the slow
speed of the internet connection. The UI updates its status
periodically. This is done by displaying sending first and then after
a certain time, still working.This particular feature lets the user
know that the system is actually working on the request, but, due to
the slow transfer of data, is unable to cater to the request
immediately.
4. Gmail interfaces are quickly loaded on browsers due to the fact that
they are designed in such a way that they are not large in size.
Therefore, they provide high speed in loading. Another attractive
and unique feature that Gmail has is the provision of a much light
weight Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) view. By utilizing
this view, the users are able to view information even if they are
using a very slow internet connection such as the conventional dial-
up connections on 56K modems. The HTML view is much like the
original view, and is much lighter and faster.
5. The Gmail interface displays simple menu options that are spread in
the column conspicuously located at the left hand side of the inbox
panel. Therefore, locating the required options on Gmail is very
easy and simple for a user.
6. Gmail provides detailed help options for all its features. The help is
a step by step guide for the solution of the problems that the user is
likely to face.
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

7. The Gmail interface uses less of color and more of quality and
speed. Although everything is not black and white, but colors are
appropriately utilized in such a way that they are irritating for the
eyes of a user.
8. A user is able to find the relevant and significant amount of
information at relevant areas of Gmail UIs. The related information
is spread across the concerned sections of pages which make it easy
to track and extract.
9. Last but not least, the Gmail UIs represent user ease and comfort
along with fast and simple access to the target utility.

Figure 2: A representation of Gmail interface

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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

Yahoo! Mail Interface

The next ESP being analyzed is Yahoo! Mail. This ESP is recognized of
being one of the most widely used among people of varied backgrounds. In
the subsequent points, the compliance of Yahoo! Mail with the good UI
design measures is studied.

1. Yahoo! Mail presents attractive outlook for the email services. This
includes placement of text and graphics in such a manner that they
are not irritating to the eyes of the user.
2. The Yahoo! Mails new version, beta, is a heavier version, with
more details added to it. Therefore, sometimes, it takes more time to
load on slow internet connections.
3. The Yahoo! Mail interface has a complicated way of representing
the required information. Nevertheless, the information that is
required by the user is easy to find. This is due to the fact that the
placement if information is in the form of sets. With each relevant
piece of information placed appropriately in its respective set.
4. Yahoo! Mail provides multiple interfaces within the same page. Its
chat interface is adaptable and easy to operate.
5. All the Yahoo! Mail interfaces for email utilities are linked to each
other. They seem related to each other as they follow the same
theme. The UI opens the new option in a tab rather than a new
window, therefore, it becomes easy to select and manage options.
But at the same time, the draw back of loading pages gets difficult
to manage when the user selects a large number of options to be
opened in the window.

Figure 3: A Representation of Yahoo mail interface
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design


Hotmail Interface

1. The new version of Hotmail called Live presented many changes in
the conventional hotmail design. The hotmail UIs were designed to
be much simpler and easier to understand as compared to its earlier
versions.
2. There were many graphical features added to the UIs of hotmail,
with large advertisements being the most prominent. However, with
the increase in the graphical features, it becomes more and more
difficult for a user to access the required information on slow speed
internet.
3. The UI presented simple and easy to access design of menus and
options for emailing utility. It was more or less like the design of
earlier email applications built by Microsoft, namely Outlook
Express & Microsoft Outlook.
4. The Hotmail UIs are designed in such a way that they all seem to
the part of the same system running behind them. Therefore, a user
knows what he is going to find even if he clicks or selects to use
multiple options.
5. Hotmail has an effective feedback system. Even while the new
version was still in the testing phase, vigorous actions were taken
against the user feedbacks. Individual importance was given to the
comments and suggestions that were given by the user. So that there
is a constant involvement of the user in designing of an ESP that the
users are looking for.
6. The Hotmail UIs have a range of colors that are soft combinations
that have soothing effect on the eyes. The UIs are not created by
using high contrasts so that the user feels comfort in utilizing the
offered services.
7. Hotmail displays a range of help topics that are given to the user for
guidance in case of an ambiguity. The information is easy to use
and properly focused on the required field.
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design



Figure 4: A Representation of Hotmail interface


A table was drawn with the list of Golden rules and each website
discussed was compared to check whether the rules are satisfied or not and
results can be inferred from Table 2.






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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design


Rule Golden Rule Gmail Yahoo Hotmail
Rule-1 Consistency of the
software
Yes Yes Yes
Rule-2 Shortcuts for the
convenience of frequent
users
Yes Yes Yes
Rule-3 Feedback information Yes Yes Yes
Rule-4 Designing dialog boxes to
show the status
No No No
Rule-5 Recoverability to
minimize errors
Yes Yes Yes
Rule-6 Action reversal- undo Yes Yes Yes
Rule-7 Design in a way that the
user is in control of the
software
Yes Yes Yes
Rule-8 Minimize instructions
and information to make
it easy for the user to
remember things.

Yes Yes Yes

Table 2: represents the list of Golden rules and each website discussed.
All the three websites were compared to check whether they satisfy the
golden rules.

2.7.2 E- Commerce Websites

In addition to the kind of websites discussed above, there are other websites
that are used for online shopping, banking, transactions, etc. In such
websites, the UI plays a vital role in the success and further progress. In
general, there are two types of such websites:

1. The websites that are actually representing a business are already
present in the real market offline, with the online business serving
as an extension to the business.

2. The websites that are representing the business which is only
present offline, with only the shipping and delivery system etc.
present office.

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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

In the latter, the appropriate UIs are the most crucial part of the business. They
serve as the main object for attracting customers and increasing business. In the
subsequent sections, we will be discussing about the e-commerce websites.

ebay Interface

1. ebay offers a wide variety of goods for purchase. All the data is
properly sorted and arranged. Hence, it becomes extremely easy for
the user to locate the desired good for purchase.
2. In addition to the proper placement of the goods in different
categories, it also displays different searching options. So that the
user is able to select the required good easily.
3. The color scheme that is used in creating the ebay UIs is light with
the main emphasis on the product rather then the design of the UI
itself. The website itself remains in the background whereas the
products are displayed at the front.
4. Although there is much information displayed on the website, but
all the information is strictly precise, so that the user doesnt get
fed-up with the nitty gritty details that he is not interested in.
5. Different promotion options are updated quickly and the system
displays the status of the promotion and updates it while the user is
going through different product details. In this way the user is able
to know when a certain feature on the promotion will ending.
6. As it is an interactive website, therefore the users place their request
very rapidly. In such a scenario, ebay present a highly efficient error
handling and loading system. The system is not only secure for
online transactions but also is highly efficient in terms of
responding to a request placed by the user.
7. The objective of ebay website is to provide the users an interface
which is easily manageable in terms of access as well as retrieval of
information about a product. In this way the users are able to decide
which product they want to purchase. The UIs are designed in such
a way that they users are able to utilize this online shopping facility
easily.
8. ebay provides an efficient feedback system. In order to help the
customers the guidance is provided through phone, email and online
chatting sessions. This is a unique but extremely productive and
innovative method for solving the user problems right when they
arise.

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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design



Figure 5: A Representation of ebay interface
23
User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

Amazon Interface

The UIs of Amazon are designed in such a way that the customers are
encouraged to purchase goods and feel comfortable with the available
interface design and utilities.

1. There are different categories of items available at Amazon for
purchase. These items are placed at appropriate places in different
sets so that it is easy for the user to locate and purchase them.
2. Searching techniques for quick item retrieval are presented, on the
top of the homepage UI. In this way the user sees that the main
emphasis is given on the searching of the item. A user accessing the
information on an item for purchase using this utility.
3. The entire website uses the same look and template for displaying
relevant information. In this way nothing seems to be out of context
in terms of the out look.
4. The main emphasis is given to the products. Therefore, the websites
is very easy to load and fast in the processing that is required.
5. The fast query response time enables the user to indicate and cater a
query for purchase in no time.
6. The website is designed by keeping view that the presentation of the
UI should not be irritating to the user. Hence, no sharp contrasts are
used, but plain and simple background is used instead so that the
primary focus remains on the product.

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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design


Figure 6: A Representation of Amazon interface.
25
User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

The findings were also tabulated, to check the usage and satisfaction of the
Golden Rules by the E-Commerce websites. Most of the rules were
satisfied and this can be inferred from Table 3.

Rule Golden Rule E-Bay Amazon
Rule-1 Consistency of the software Yes Yes
Rule-2 Shortcuts for the convenience
of frequent users
Yes Yes
Rule-3 Feedback information Yes (user rating and
review)
Yes
(seller and buyer ratings)
Rule-4 Designing dialog boxes to
show the status
No No
Rule-5 Recoverability to minimize
errors
Yes Yes
Rule-6 Action reversal- undo Yes (add or remove
to shopping cart)
Yes (delete item from the
list)
Rule-7 Design in a way that the user
is in control of the software
Yes (provides much
options to users to
change the feel of
the website)
Yes
Rule-8 Minimize instructions and
information to make it easy
for the user to remember
things.

Yes Yes

Table 3: represents the usage and satisfaction of the Golden Rules by the
E-Commerce websites
3 Method

The present thesis work consists of Academic and industrial aspects in user
interface development. In order to write this thesis work I used materials
like research papers, journals, tutorials, books, market news, web browsing
and literature survey. Subject related to the literature work was collected
from university library, material available on the internet, research papers
published by the people, workshops and books. The literature study also
included the material from the conferences which were held at different
places. The search engines like citeseer.ist.psu.edu, google.com,
yahoo.com, springerlinks.com, ACM portal and IEEE Xplore were utilized.
26
User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

4 Discussion

The systems that are successful today have given primary importance to the
UI design and development.
In order to enhance ones business for possible benefits, it is important that
UIs are designed in such a way that the user feels easy and comfortable in
using the software. The right choice of colors and background is extremely
important in the UIs. They are used to emphasize on the target products. In
the websites that are used for e-commerce and trading, the UIs play a very
important role. They have the dual role of serving as the identifier of the
main content of the website as well as the advertisement for future work. A
good UI would be extremely beneficial for the system, in this way.
Feedback system in any system has proved itself to be a useful modern day
technique for betterment of the product. Even in the case of user interfaces,
if there is an effective feedback strategy upon which there are certain
demanded actions taken. Then the users will always be inclined towards the
actual product and they will use the system more frequently. [43, 52]
When a user accesses a system for any useful purpose, he expects to see
what the software system claims to bring to him. In this scenario, if proper
message is not conveyed to the user in terms of a good user interface
design, he will never be able to receive the intended message and therefore,
never utilize the software to its intended purpose. The system, in his
scenario, is unable to depict its reliability feature and therefore, could not
be used by the user.
Similarity and consistency between all user interfaces is an extremely
important feature. A standard should be maintained between the interfaces
across all sections, so that the user gets the true picture of the relationship
between different sets of pages across a software system. [34, 48]
A well written and well designed User interface will always be appreciated
because of its ease of interpretability. In a UI design, it is often noticed that
when it is tested on one platform and it is opened using another
software/platform where it has not been tested before, the UI will not
remain in its present shape. This is a very important feature that has to be
kept in mind. As for the online systems, the users can belong to any region
of the world; hence, the similarity of the platform can not be assured. Even
if the users come from the same geographical area, still the designer cannot
assure which software they will be using to view the UIs of the system. In
this case the UI has to be designed in a flexible way. As we have seen a few
examples in the sections above about some of the successful user involving
systems, that are frequently used and are very popular, that no matter in
which browser you open them, they will give the exactly similar look. This
27
User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

shows that they have been designed in such a way that they are able to
adapt to the changing software and varying platforms.
With the fast pacing changes that appear in the user requirements as well as
the software versions, a very important feature that the system should
provide is backward compatibility. The UIs should be designed in such a
way that they are compatible with the earlier versions of the software. In
addition to this, they should also be updated periodically for the latest
software.
If we look closely, then all the features of software quality assurance are
very closely knit with the measures of a good UI design. In order to ensure
good error handling, the software quality features of consistency,
conciseness, and understandability come into play. In order to apply
effective error handling techniques, it is important for the coder to know the
exact orientation of the code and implementation details, so that he can
make error free code. In addition to this, for any new error scenarios, an
understandable code can be altered and maintained by the user. [52, 57]
In addition to the above, the portability feature is determined by testing the
software across varied backgrounds so that a user is not troubled with
different outlook each time he tries to access the same system through a
different browser.
The availability of documents and manuals that show the details of the
theme and the implementation design of the UIs plays its part in the
maintainability feature of software quality. It might not be the case that the
designer is called in each time there is a case of upgrading the UIs for
changing requirements, if proper documentation is available, then even the
maintenance team can take care of this on their own. Sometimes, the initial
resources who are responsible for the design as well as the construction are
not the ones who perform the maintenance tasks.
In each of the above, the understandability is the key feature.
Understandability in terms of the documents and manuals, in terms of the
consistent set of symbols and notations used across all UIs and in terms of
orientation of the data on the actual UI. It is important to note that there is
no use of a software system if it is not represented in a way which is easy
for the user to understand and interpret. [11, 46]
The size of the UIs is also an important consideration that should be kept in
mind because they directly influence the time of loading of the pages. As
discussed above, the websites that are frequently being used by people are
very light weight so that they can respond quickly to the users requests.
There are many aspects that should be kept in mind while designing a UI
and all these ensure how successful a software system is going to be. For a
good UI design, we can not ignore any of the above mentioned. No matter
at what stage a business is, or how the planning is done, a representation of
28
User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

a concept is of primary importance while dealing with a system that will be
used for communication between a user and a system.
There are many software systems which are currently available in the
market that shows excellent product features and compatibility, but they are
not successful. This is due to the fact that not only the properties of a
product are important, but how it is presented to the end-user. On the other
hand, there are other systems that do not show very highly technical
features and flashy outlook but still are widely accepted by the users
belonging to every part of the world. These are the systems that have high
preference towards the user perspective of the system at hand.
A very crucial aspect in this scenario is the acceptance from the users of the
system. Many a systems that are developed in a highly technical way are
rejected by the users only because the users are not comfortable with using
the services. Now, all the effort that was put in during the design and the
development of a close to perfect system are wasted only because the
system failed to depict its real quality to the end user.
During the design and development of the UIs it is also an important
consideration to keep the type of users who will be using the system. A
close and clear analysis should be made in this respect so that there are no
ambiguities about the nature of the users. Evaluating this would include the
calculation and estimate of the users need, objectives and experience. All
three aspects have their own significance in a certain manner. [52, 55]
The users need to know the explanation about the system, so that he has the
knowledge about the system at hand and he knows how to use it
appropriately.
Simplicity is one of the key principles that should be kept in mind for
designing UIs. The simpler to interpret the design, the more inclined the
users will be to use it. [40]
A UI should be made by keeping in mind the fact that the users are new to
the system and they will try out different options in order to achieve what
they desire. In doing so, they can make a lot of mistakes, hey can enter
wrong data or go to a wrong page. In this scenario, a system should be able
to cater to all the needs and errors that a new user can possible make, so
that they are not lost when using the actual UI. UI is therefore, very critical
in this region. If the user is involved in the process of making the design,
then the possible mistakes can also be pointed out, and hence, proper
guidance can be placed for the user to perform the action that he actually
intended to do.
The UIs should also be interpretable, the designs of the systems that are
widely used all over the world have the quality of being simple and easily
interpretable. Users always prefer a system that they are able to use
intuitively. [16, 43]
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

5 Conclusion

If a software system is able to design a good set of UIs that are created
under the golden principles of software quality, then it is likely that the
software system will be widely appreciated and used by the intended
audience. Among those principles are efficiency, conciseness, portability,
consistency and reliability, but in reality there is a never ending list of the
rules and principles that can generate an even better set of UIs. For
achieving the high goals of progress and effective communication of the
software systems perspective, the UIs should be designed under close and
calculated supervision of the stake holders, and the end users should be
involved in the process of construction and design. Requirements gathering,
although, are separate dimensions, but it plays a vital role in designing the
UIs. It can be seen that the systems that are successful today comply with
the software quality standards and they also involve users in the process of
UI development. This is of primary importance that the user knows what
system they are seeing versus their expectations and the UI designer knows
what the user is expecting from them. This all is possible, only if the
software quality standards are kept under consideration and the constant
feedback is taken from the user.
6 Future work

There are many possible ways in which the compliance of UI design and
software quality can be checked. An intelligent software system can be
developed in this regard. The system should be able to review the UIs for
any errors. It should have the knowledge of the type of the software that is
at hand. In this scenario, given the case that the software is aware of the
type of system that the UI is going to represent, it can check for any
features that are too odd for the system.
In addition to this, the system should be able to see how the designer is
making the choice of colors, whether they are too sharp or irritating to the
eyes of the user. The designer should also take care that good user
interaction styles are followed to create a good user friendly interface.
It can also check the UI set for notation consistency. In order to perform all
the above actions, the system should be given a clear set of data of the
systems that are successfully running and maintaining the UIs.
This system will be able to add more ease at the designers end for
designing error free UIs that comply with the software quality measures
and the user preferences.
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User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

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35
User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

A. First appendix

1. Figure 1: shows the usable design.
2. Figure 2: A representation of Gmail interface.
3. Figure 3: A Representation of Yahoo mail interface.
4. Figure 4: A Representation of Hotmail interface.
5. Figure 5: A Representation of ebay interface.
6. Figure 6: A Representation of Amazon interface.


Appendix A:1
User Interface Design- Methods and Qualities of a Good User Interface Design

B. Second appendix

1. Table 1: Represents Golden rules to be followed in creating an effective
interface design.
2. Table 2: represents the list of Golden rules and each website discussed was
compared to check whether the rules are satisfied or not.
3. Table 3: represents the usage and satisfaction of the Golden Rules by the E-
Commerce websites

Appendix B:1