8 Characteristics Of Successful User Interfaces

核心提示： 2. ConciseClarity in a user interface is great, however, you should be careful not to fall into the trap of over-clarifying. It is easy to add de

2. Concise

Clarity in a user interface is great, however, you should be careful not to fall into the trap of over-clarifying. It is easy to add definitions and explanations, but every time you do that you add mass. Your interface grows. Add too many explanations and your users will have to spend too much time reading through them.

Keep things clear but also keep things concise. When you can explain a feature in one sentence instead of three, do it. When you can label an item with one word instead of two, do it. Save the valuable time of your users by keeping things concise. Keeping things clear and concise at the same time isn’t easy and takes time and effort to achieve, but the rewards are great.

The volume controls in OS X use little icons to show each side of the scale from low to high.

3. Familiar

Many designers strive to make their interfaces ‘intuitive’. But what does intuitive really mean? It means something that can be naturally and instinctively understood and comprehended. But how can you make something intuitive? You do it by making it ‘familiar’.

Familiar is just that: something which appears like something else you’ve encountered before. When you’re familiar with something, you know how it behaves — you know what to expect. Identify things that are familiar to your users and integrate them into your user interface.