The Importance of the
User Interface
Lecture-1
The Essential Guide to UI Design:
Chapter 1
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What is UI?
UI design is a subset of HCI
Part of a computer & its software that
people can see, hear, understand, etc.
Two components: input & output
IO devices?
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Is Good Design Important?
UI is the most important part of any
computer system!
Over 50% of code devoted to UI
Users’ productivity improved 25 to 40%.
A company saved $20 000 !
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What comprises good design?
PEOPLE:
- How we see, understand, and think
INFORMATION:
- Enhance human acceptance
- Ease eye & hand movements
HARDWARE & SOFTWARE:
- Capabilities & limitations of HCI
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The Goals of UI Design
To make working with a computer
- EASY
- PRODUCTIVE
- ENJOYABLE
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Examples
Interface screen of Text Properties
Text Editor
University Application form (lab #1)
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14 steps
1) Know Your User
2) Understand the Business Function
3) Understand the Principles of Good ID
4) Develop System Menus
5) Select the Proper Kinds of Windows
6) Select the Proper Interaction Devices
7) Choose the Proper Screen-Based Controls
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14 steps (cont.)
8) Write Clear Text
9) Provide Effective Feedback
10) Provide Effective Accessibility
11) Create Meaningful Graphics
12) Choose the Proper Colors
13) Organize Windows
14) Test
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History of HCI
1) Movements & gestures
2) Spoken language
3) Written language
4) Typewriter
5) Computers: QA, Menu selection, Form
fill-in (Speech & handwriting
recognition)
6) Introduction of GUI
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What is GUI?
Pronounced “gooey”
A graphical user interface (GUI) is a type
of user interface which allows people to
interact with electronic devices such as
computers; hand-held devices such as MP3
Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming
devices; household appliances and office
equipment with images rather than text
commands. (Wikipedia)
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History of HCI (cont)
The first GUI program?
1963, Ivan Sutherland, MIT. Sketchpad
program. Lines, circles, and points
could be drawn on a screen using a
light pen.
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History of HCI (cont)
The revolutionary device in HCI?
1970s, Xerox’s Palo Alto Research
Center, Altus & STAR systems. Mouse
(pointing & selecting).
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History of HCI (cont)
1974, Xerox. Today’s mouse.
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History of HCI (cont)
Apple or Microsoft?
1984, Apple. Macintosh
1985, Microsoft. Windows 1.0
1987, Apple. Macintosh II. The first color
Macintosh.
IBM. System Application Architecture and
Presentation Manager. Graphics OS
replacement for DOS.
1988, NeXT. NeXTStep, 3-d Screen simulation.
UNIX-based GUIs.
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The Blossoming of the World
Wide Web
1960s, Licklider, MIT. Proposed a global
network of computers & moved to DARPA.
1969. ARPANET. 4 major universities.
1974, Bolt, Beranek, & Newman. Telnet.
Commercial version of ARPANET.
1970s. TCP/IP. Common language of all
Internet computers.
1982. “Internet”
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The Blossoming of the World
Wide Web (cont.)
1991, Gopher, University of Minnesota.
First really friendly interface.
1989, European Laboratory for Particle
Physics. Hypertext protocol. HTML
(Hypertext Markup language).
1991, Berners-Lee. World Wide Web.
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Web vs. Internet
Global information space in which
people can read & write using
computers connected to the Internet.
The Web is a service that operates over
the Internet, just as e-mail operates
over the Internet (Wikipedia.org, 2006).
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The Blossoming of the World
Wide Web (cont.)
The first graphical web browser?
1993, NCSA at Univ. of Illinois. Mosaic. First
popular graphics-based hypertext browser.
1994. Netscape Navigator
1995, Microsoft. Internet Explorer
1994. NSF stopped support. W3C formed to
promote & develop standards for the Web.
2003, Apple. Safari 1.0
2004. Mozilla Firefox
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Web Browser Market Share
Which browser is the most popular
(most used) today?
W3Counter
Net Applications
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A Brief History of Screen
Design
1970s, IBM. 3270 cathode ray tube
text-based terminal
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1970s screen
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A Brief History of Screen
Design (cont.)
1970s screens
- Cryptic & unintelligible captions
- Always had to remember what to type
- Ambiguous messages
- Monochromatic, green text on black
background
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1980s screen
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A Brief History of Screen
Design (cont.)
1980s
- Grouping & alignment
- Clear captions
- Command list (+ function keys)
- Instructions had to be inscribed
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1990s and beyond
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A Brief History of Screen
Design (cont.)
1990s and beyond
- Borders
- Buttons
- Menus
- Different font sizes, styles, colors, etc.
- List boxes, drop-down combination boxes,
etc.
- Screens modified
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Q/A
Think about today’s interfaces. What
new features are available?
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HW-0
1) Write your full Name and Group
2) Student ID (Portal login)
3) Choose one good and one bad website
with .kz domain.
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