How To Design A Great User Interface
From the post:
The goal and only purpose of a user interface (UI), as the name implies, is to create an experience for the user.
Many automated solutions exist to make UI design simpler and faster; however, the designer must understand some basic rules of how to design a user interface. Because the focus is centered on the potential user, the user’s needs must primarily drive all design choices.
What are the needs of the user?
- To accomplish the task with relative ease
- To complete the task quickly
- To enjoy the experience
The single most important characteristic of the UI is that it has to work well and work consistently. Secondly, the UI must carry out commands and respond quickly and intuitively. Lastly, but still very important the user interface should be visually appealing to the user.
Projects like Egas may give you a boost in the right direction for a topic map authoring/navigation interface but you are going to be ultimately responsible for your own design.
This post and the related ones will give you an opportunity to understand some of the primary issues you will face in creating a great user interface.
If you have no other take away from this post, notice that “impressing the user with how you view the paradigm” isn’t one of the goals of a great user interface.