8 Characteristics Of Successful User Interfaces

核心提示： There are of course many different types of software and websites, all produced for different markets and audiences. What looks ‘good&rsquo

There are of course many different types of software and websites, all produced for different markets and audiences. What looks ‘good’ for any one particular audience will vary. This means that you should fashion the look and feel of your interface for your audience. Also, aesthetics should be used in moderation and to reinforce function. Adding a level of polish to the interface is different to loading it with superfluous eye-candy.

Google are known for their minimalist interfaces that focus on function over form, yet they clearly spent time polishing off the Chrome user interface elements like buttons and icons to make them look just right as evident by the subtle gradients and pixel thin highlights.

7. Efficient

A user interface is the vehicle that takes you places. Those places are the different functions of the software application or website. A good interface should allow you to perform those functions faster and with less effort. Now, ‘efficient’ sounds like a fairly vague attribute — if you combine all of the other things on this list, surely the interface will end up being efficient? Almost, but not quite.

What you really really need to do to make an interface efficient is to figure out what exactly the user is trying to achieve, and then let them do exactly that without any fuss. You have to identify how your application should ‘work’ — what functions does it need to have, what are the goals you’re trying to achieve? Implement an interface that lets people easily accomplish what they want instead of simply implementing access to a list of features.