Category — User Interface Design

Many Samsung fans were waiting impatiently for the release of the Samsung Galaxy S2, expecting the new user interface design to awe them with some great features. I am not one of those people; I never owned older Samsung smartphones. Nevertheless, I think that the user interface design of the Samsung Galaxy S2 is quite impressive.

Samsung Galaxy’s user interface design is based on Android, which can be an advantage in itself for Android lovers like me. To be more precise, this smartphone is equipped with Android 2.3.3 with Samsung’s own addition to the user interface design called Touch Wiz.

As simple as it sounds, the thing I like most about this device is its display. Galaxy S2’s display is significantly bigger than that of most other smartphones, and it has outstanding (nearly eye-killing) brightness and contrast. The touchscreen is sensitive and supports motion gestures. In this its user interface design is similar to that of the iPhone but it also has some nice surprises. For example, you can mute the phone by flipping.

Another feature of the user interface design that I particularly enjoy is a multitude of virtual keyboards and languages. I sometimes write in Russian, and since Russian contains more letters than English using a virtual keyboard for Russian has always been an issue for me. Galaxy S2 pleasantly surprised me. Entering text in Russian couldn’t be easier. The user interface design is equipped with different options for entering text, like Swype, Android or Samsung. You can switch languages by swiping across the space bar.

All in all, the Samsung Galaxy S2 is said to be one of the best smartphones that came out in 2011. It is incredibly slim, has a neat user interface design and a very powerful processor. Whether or not it is the best I can’t say, but it is certainly a great toy to have!

Social networking websites are dominating the internet. As domains such as Stumbleupon, Twitter and Facebook are becoming portals through which we explore other websites, it’s hard to ignore their business potential. Whether you want to set up your own social network, are interested in advertising through these sites, or are impressed by the layouts of these pages, it’s a good idea to take inspiration from these user interfaces. One way you can explore what elements you should take from social networks is through user interface design tools. With user interface design tools, you can prototype your website design before you invest time in programming. The prototypes you make with user interface design tools can then be shown to end users so they can give you feedback on what works for them.

How to get the most out of your user interface design tool
When you are creating prototypes with your user interface design tools, bear in mind that social networking sites revolve around the user.  This is reflected in the user interfaces of these sites, where users are invited to customize their profiles. When you are working with user interface design tools, you should remember that users can become overwhelmed by the information they have access to. What’s important is that the information is simplified and easy to find. The best websites therefore offer easy-to-use search functions and navigation tool bars. Another element that’s particularly successful in social networking sites is call to action buttons. Remember that sites such as Twitter and Facebook want to encourage their users to participate and provide content for the website. With user interface design tools you can emulate these elements of social networking sites. User interface design tools give you the potential to test out call for action buttons and see where on the screen they have the most impact and what size they should be or what the wording of the calls to action should be.

User interface design tools are all about usability
There are a great many features that you can take as inspiration from social networking sites and create with user interface design tools. The most important aspect is usability. Remember that these sites are focused around the users and therefore simplicity is key. User interface design tools let you focus on the users of your website and can be a great help if you want to see how your users will react to your new site design. User interface design tools can be used to experiment with your ideas and create the most user-friendly experience for your audience.

There are many different categories of user interface design tools. Just as there are many different types of user interface design, so too are there many different user interface design tools. While there are tools for designing many types of interfaces, I want to focus on tools for designing graphical user interfaces for software applications like websites, mobile apps or enterprise tools, in short: GUI design tools. In general, a GUI design tool uses software visualization methods to draft the visual design and/or interactive functionality of an application. These tools can be high-fidelity or low-fidelity user interface design tools, desktop or web-based user interface design tools, and can be stand-alone or integrated with other applications. Some types of user interface design tools are able to prototype the interactive functions of software concepts.

High-fidelity user interface design tools are often used to produce prototypes that are very detailed and close to the look and feel of the final product. In contrast, low-fidelity user interface design tools offer a quick way to visualize software in basic images, usually without much visual design, in some cases allowing the user to ad interactivity to the low-fidelity UI prototypes to use them in usability testing.

Desktop-based user interface design tools are applications that can only be run once software has been installed on a computer. They are platform-dependent, and some can only be used on a limited range of operating systems. They are useful if you wish to work offline and on your own. Web-based user interface design tools allow users to work online, usually without installing any software. This often makes teamwork much easier if the user interface design tool includes collaboration functions, for example allowing multiple users to edit and/or comment on interface design prototypes.

Stand alone user interface design tools are often simpler to use and get started with than integrated user interface design tools. Stand alone tools can also be a more cost-efficient option since integrated tools are usually more expensive and often come with components or functions that may not be needed, especially if you wish to focus on one element of the development process. Integrated user interface design tools usually combine features from different stages of the development process, which may include a requirements elicitation, testing and quality-analysis phase or project management functions.

There are a number of user interface design tools on the market that may be an appropriate option, depending on what elements you wish to focus on and what stage you are at in the prototyping process. The most important thing to remember is that these user interface designs should match your respective requirements and the purpose of your prototyping or design efforts.

In one of my earlier posts I looked at the benefits of using an online wireframe tool, which range from easy access, collaboration and sharing opportunities to absence of maintenance requirements. In this post I will cover potential limitations of a online wireframe tools, how significant they really are and what you can do to handle them.

Many would say that an online wireframe tool’s biggest advantage, its universal availability over the Internet, can pose a threat when the Internet speed is insufficient. That is frequently a reason why web-developers prefer desktop applications: they feel that an online wireframe tool might operate slower than its desktop equivalent. How much of a problem is that in reality? With a bit of research, it is easily determined that the average speed of Internet connection is ever increasing. Only in 2009, for example, South Korea averaged at 14.6 Mbps, being the first, and the US – at 3.9 Mbps, being number 18. A humble 500 Kbps is usually enough to work successfully with an online wireframe tool, which is available practically anywhere in the US and in most other industrialized countries.

Another concern of online wireframe tools’ opponents is that an online wireframe tool is dependent on the Internet connection, and Internet coverage is not universal. According to recent Internet usage statistics data, there are over 2 billion people online in 2011, and in North America alone nearly 80% of the entire population is connected. People can access the Internet from a variety of spots across the globe. Recently years have seen a movement called “travel as a way of life” rise: people can now travel and work anywhere provided they have a laptop. Internet coverage is taken as standard pretty much everywhere. So if you were to go on vacation and had to use your online wireframe tool, you would probably have no difficulty.

Another issue I would like to address is how an online wireframe tool deals with sudden access interruptions. No doubt, at times equipment fails or Internet problems occur. What happens to the results of your work then? One of the ways that some online wireframe tools have chosen to deal with this is that they allow users to continue working until the connection is restored. All the changes are kept in the browser, and as long as the browser is not closed, the project will be saved as soon as the connection is back. Other online wireframe tools have a frequent auto-save function to keep potential loss of work at a minimum. Even if the power went out and the user had had no chance to save the work, it will be stored safely on the server in the same condition present at the moment of last access.

One of the anticipated directions  with regard to the major operating systems is the unification  between desktop OSes and their mobile counterparts.  One does not need to be a soothsayer or have a crystal ball to make such a statement as there are already clear indications that this is currently underway. The developer previews of the upcoming Windows 8 borrows the ‘Metro’ user interface design introduced in Windows Phone 7 for a dual mode OS that is optimized for both desktops and tablets. As for the Macintosh platform the latest iteration ‘Lion’ has ported a number of ideas taken from iOS over to the desktop. The result of this is that some Mac apps that are optimized for Lion end up with a user interface design that is also tablet friendly. Arguably the best example of this is iPhoto ‘11, which when viewed in Lion’s full-screen mode features a user interface design that could be mistaken for an iPad app.

How can one put the Mac OS X user interface design on an iOS device?

The trend seems to mostly be one of desktops taking user interface design lessons from their mobile counterparts. However there appears to be some user interface design elements from the desktop that at least some users want on their mobile devices. Users of jailbroken iOS devices, for example, can now tweak their device to clone the user interface design of Mac OS X by way of a mod called Ultimatum. This goes beyond just the look of the user interface design as Ultimatum is more than just a theme. In terms of functionality Ultimatum gives users a fully usable Mac OS X menu bar, dock (scrollable in this case), Finder windows, widgets, login lockscreen and more. So far Ultimatum has only been shown running on an iPhone though the app might be more useful running on the larger screen of the  iPad.

According to respected analysts smartphones (tablets too) represent the future of computing. The user adoption figures for these mobile devices is nothing short of staggering, thanks largely to Apple and Google’s Android. Their more portable form factor and streamlined, intuitive user interface design has already revolutionized the way we use the web. According to Morgan Stanley 2015 will be the year were these mobiles devices will become the foremost way we surf the internet. Already many major websites, such as Amazon have introduced tablet-optimized versions with user interface designs that, arguably, possess better usability than their standard desktop counterparts. Characteristics of these mobile inspired user interface designs include cleaner, less noisy UI design with bigger buttons and less fat, if I may call it that.

Two aspects that may be considered major drawbacks of mobile devices are screen size and, more significantly, processing power. With tablets screen size is not that much of an issue as with smartphones, which require more thoughtful user interface design to make the most of the smaller screens combined with our fat fingers. The other limitation is in processing power as dual-core 1Ghz CPUs with their 1.5 gigaflops are only as powerful as the fastest computer from 1985! Chip company Adapteva has unveiled the Herculean 64-core Epiphany IV chip capable of 70 gigaflops at a miserly single watt of power! This could herald the day when mobile devices are able to incorporate the most exquisite and processor hungry user interface design elements that we have become accustomed to on our desktops.

One of the biggest challenges facing the quasi-schizophrenic dual user interface design approach is that developers and UI designers will have to go back to the drawing board. The user interface design of standard Windows apps is simply not optimized for tablets. However, more and more popular websites are releasing tablet-friendly UI designs and this trend could spread to stand alone apps as well. The latest iteration of Mac OS X already points to this direction with its full screen mode. For example, the user interface design of iPhoto ‘11 in full-screen mode running on the iPad via remote screen sharing looks like an iPad app and could theoretically be touch-enabled.

Getting the user interface design of apps to work across both UI designs is just one challenge. There is another technical challenge facing developers and that is whether Windows 8 is running on Intel x86 or ARM-based processors. ARM-based processors have a much lower power consumption which is why they run most smartphones and tablets. This is already evident in the upcoming Internet Explorer 10 which will come in two flavors with a plug-in free (read Flash-free) version for Metro. An interesting piece in The Guardian likened Metro to a kind of overarching meta-app effectively rendering other apps as functionality extended plugins. Metro has such a distinct user interface design that it is hard to tell where one app starts and the other ends.

This seamlessness is bound to create a more unified user experience but could also, on the other hand, make it harder for developers and user interface designers to stand out from the crowd. When it comes to usability, conventions are there to be followed. The “über-application” approach of Metro could mean avoiding the usability pitfalls of the first iPad apps (such as low discoverability, read-tap asymmetry and accidental activation). Of course a lot still remains to be seen as to how apps optimized for the Metro UI design will pan out but Microsoft have positioned themselves in a strong position to offer Apple some competition.

Linux is usually the first thought that comes to mind when one thinks of a free and legal operating system. For a lot of consumers one might even be able to switch the word Linux with Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution. Despite the strengths of Unix-based OS and modern user interface design one of the major drawbacks of Linux has been the dearth of software options, at least relative to Windows and Mac OS. However both of these options cost, if one intends on procuring them legally!

The ReactOS, one could say, is effectively the lovechild of Linux and Windows. It is open source, like Linux, but is a re-write of the Windows kernel. The project effectively began in 1996 at a time when Linux didn’t have user-friendly distributions like Ubuntu (and, it must be noted, a much less complex iteration of Windows). The project, lacking a Mark Shuttleworth type benefactor like Ubuntu, is still only an alpha release though plans are underfoot for a beta release within a couple more iterative design cycles.

In terms of user interface design the ReactOS looks like Windows 2000 with a sprinkling of UI design elements ported over from Linux (such as icons). This makes it immediately accessible to most users who are already familiar with the functionality and user interface design of the Windows operating system. I’d even venture to say that to many a user the UI design would be indistinguishable from an earlier version of Windows, particularly now that Windows XP, Vista and 7 are out there.

As a Mac user I will be following up on ReactOS if only to activate the dual-boot functionality of Mac OS X without having to fork over a wad of cash for a Windows license proper.

Reading tech news of late gives one the impression that the PC is going the way of the dodo. “Post-PC” has become a buzzword to describe this current computing zeitgeist that we are supposedly in. Computer manufacturers themselves seem to be throwing the towel as HP, the world’s biggest PC manufacturer, announced it was following IBM’s lead and exiting the consumer PC business altogether. The suggestion seems to be that the PC industry might have peaked and that there is not much more in the way of innovation, both in terms of hardware and user interface design. Buy a Dell, an HP, or a Samsung laptop and chances are that there is not much separating them. As some players leave the PC business others are keen to enter it. Razer, the computer peripherals maker, has announced what they are calling the world’s first true gaming laptop. The likes of Alienware, Origin, and the discontinued, HP-owned, VoodooPC may take offense at that statement but then again the Razer laptop truly brings something new to the table. Gaming PCs till now have tended to be specced up versions of standard PCs albeit with fancy casing.

Already from the outset the Razer Blade laptop takes an uncompromising approach by being 0.88 inches thin where most gaming laptops are bulky. The touchpad is also placed conveniently to the right of the keyboard, which makes better ergonomic sense than the standard touchpad-below-keypad configuration. Although this may not be much of an issue during every day computing but is crucial for usability when it comes to gaming. The trackpad itself is also very novel, particularly with regards to user interface design. I know I can see the thought bubble forming in your head wondering what user interface design has to do with a touchpad? And surely the ergonomic advantages can’t change the user interface design of the laptop? What is novel is that the touchpad is a touchscreen featuring a custom user interface design. The Switchblade UI is a customizable “all-new innovative user interface designed from the ground up to make your gaming experience more efficient, intuitive, and exciting”. Above the multi-touch panel are 10 dynamic buttons that can be set to shortcuts etc. The possibilities of the Switchblade UI are endless and would be a welcome addition on any laptop.

To date, the iPad has had no trouble pounding its tablet competitors into submission, sometimes  even extinction.  The most recent evidence of this phenomenon is the demise of Hewlett Packard’s webOS Touchpad, a mere seven weeks after its release. The webOS flop, despite critical acclaim for its user interface design and functionality, was an embarrassment to Hewlett-Packard, and it has left many wondering if there will ever be a viable tablet that can take on the iPad.

Speculations as to why the iPad reigns supreme over the tablet kingdom vary, but many suspect that the iPad’s success has more to do with Apple’s loyal fan base than with the superiority of its functionality or user interface design.  Apple has the uncanny ability to capitalize on its rabid base of users’ undying willingness to eat up any dish the company serves, tablets included. On the other end of the spectrum, many believe that PC users still fail to see the point of a tablet when they already have a laptop and a Smartphone. This failure of the user to identify the tablet’s importance creates a kind of tablet gap, a dark void in which companies try to solve the PC user’s tablet-related existential crisis with various tablets to no avail. Designers stuck in the tablet gap seem more adept at churning out products that PC users just don’t want to buy.

The void created by the tablet gap has become a thorn in the side of Apple’s competitors, but Google may have found a legitimate solution to the problem. In tandem with its moves to buy Motorola Mobility, a hardware manufacturer, it is rumored that Google will also be releasing its Ice Cream Sandwich iteration of Android as early as this fall. If the rumors prove to be true, the one two punch of new software plus hardware manufacturing capabilities just might be the missing link between the Smartphone and the laptop that Apple competitors (and PC users alike) have been looking for.

The Ice Cream Sandwich platform is a follow-up to the Android platform and will allegedly unify the Android Gingerbread user interface design (available on Smartphones) and the Android Honeycomb user interface design (available for tablets) in order to make the features of all platforms available on all devices, a multitasking, multi-interfacing interface. Consequently, PC users may be able to see the benefit of a tablet that runs the Ice Cream Sandwich update, opening themselves up to the idea that tablets can be useful and functional, not just frivolous. If Google can create the right tablet hardware to case this software ice cream dream, they may be able to take a big chomp out of Apple. The tablet world could get a whole lot more interesting in the coming months.