What is User Friendly Design?
Everyone these days want to create a “User Friendly” website. This makes me ask “What do you mean by User Friendly?” “User Friendly” is over-used and under defined. What maybe friendly to one person may not be friendly to another person. This is why we at Vira Designs prefer to use “User Appropriate” instead of “User Friendly”.
Most software’s in 1970s were Inside-Out where the functionality were created first and then the interface. Modern Systems are designed Outside-In where interface is created first and then the functionality are added to the interface to support it.
Vira Designs’ interface designers work on the fundamental software design principle – the 7 ± 2 Rule. According to this rule humans can hold about 7 (plus or minus 2) this in their mind. When we get more then 7 items we get confused.
User Interface has long been considered art then science – that is User Interface are subjective rather then objective. Engineers have found a way to measure the user interface design by using Shneiderman’s Measurable Criteria.
Shneiderman’s Measurable Criteria are:
- Time to learn : The time it takes to learn some basic level of skills
- Speed of UI performance : Number of UI “interactions” it takes to accomplish tasks
- Rate of user errors : How often users make mistakes
- Retention of skills : How well users remember how to use the UI after not using for a time
- Subjective satisfaction : The lack of annoying features
Order of Criteria
There are always trade-offs among criteria. For some a graphically dependent interface is more appropriate to decrease the time to learn which could affect the Speed of UI Performance. These criteria are subjective based on their use. Vira Designs pays a close attention to each of these criteria and prioritizes them based on the project’s needs.