On UI

[Irobeth]

I'm starting work on a senior project (as well as for work) Web2.0 app.
My goal is to produce a Social Networking application (see: Category:Online social networking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) built in Flash9 that looks and feels (and works) like an OS Desktop.

Seeing as it's all on paper and code, the interface is still in the air.

I want to make a user interface that people identify with, that's easy to understand - and gets all the information it needs to across.

With that, I have some questions for the public:

What do you like in a User Interface?
What do you hate in a User Interface?
What makes it 'usable'?
In your use of an OS, what makes you feel comfortable? What makes you feel like it's too complicated?


If you want to answer, please include how familiar you are with a computer - I'd like responses from every class of computer user.

Thanks in advance for taking your time to answer if you do.

[kimcicle]

When my operating systems class went over UI and accessibility, there's one golden rule to making a good UI.

Make sure that no matter what the user wants to do, he can get there within 5 clicks.

[WiLLiSTER]

What I like: Being able to do practical things quickly. Check things, change things, etc. They should be easy to get to.

What I dislike: Not knowing where things are. When you expect something to be in a certain spot and it's not there.

What makes it 'usable'? Usable could be anything. As long as it gets the job done. If it does what it's supposed to do, great. If you can implement other things however, such as extensions or add-ons, that's even better.

In your use of an OS, what makes you feel comfortable? What makes you feel like it's too complicated?
I like to be able to change and customize things. Make it my own but with ease. I hate messing with technical things that mean nothing to the average user (ie. the registry) Spreading the same thing out over multiple places can also be a pain if they are all associated and work together.

My familiarity with computers? Uh, I suppose I'm pretty familiar. I do a lot of repairing and stuff and I'm pretty familiar with both Windows and MacOSX. Not really sure how to answer that.

[Irobeth]

Originally Posted by Anti_gilbert

What I like: Being able to do practical things quickly. Check things, change things, etc. They should be easy to get to.

What I dislike: Not knowing where things are. When you expect something to be in a certain spot and it's not there.

What makes it 'usable'? Usable could be anything. As long as it gets the job done. If it does what it's supposed to do, great. If you can implement other things however, such as extensions or add-ons, that's even better.

In your use of an OS, what makes you feel comfortable? What makes you feel like it's too complicated?
I like to be able to change and customize things. Make it my own but with ease. I hate messing with technical things that mean nothing to the average user (ie. the registry) Spreading the same thing out over multiple places can also be a pain if they are all associated and work together.

My familiarity with computers? Uh, I suppose I'm pretty familiar. I do a lot of repairing and stuff and I'm pretty familiar with both Windows and MacOSX. Not really sure how to answer that.

for clarification, 'usable' is your ability to enjoy using the OS.

thanks for the input so far;

Also, an aesthetic question:
For a default interface scheme - Dark or Light?

[DjRandom]

You know since this is a social site you could also include a base template feature for people to create their own custom UI's and share it between friends for a more "in the action" sort of feel.

I like smooth looking UI's myself ones that if im half asleep i can still manage to get around.

What i hate distracting ads that wont go away (ie the ones that scroll down as you scroll the page down.

[Irobeth]

Originally Posted by DjRandom

You know since this is a social site you could also include a base template feature for people to create their own custom UI's and share it between friends for a more "in the action" sort of feel.

I like smooth looking UI's myself ones that if im half asleep i can still manage to get around.

What i hate distracting ads that wont go away (ie the ones that scroll down as you scroll the page down.

No ads, ever.

[WiLLiSTER]

"Also, an aesthetic question:
For a default interface scheme - Dark or Light?"

Default dark. I love depthcore's color scheme.

depthCORE.com

[rmz]

Read this, it's by far the best resource on UI design I've ever encountered:

User Interface Design for Programmers - Chapter 1: Controlling Your Environment Makes You Happy
User Interface Design for Programmers - Chapter 2: Figuring Out What They Expected
User Interface Design for Programmers - Chapter 3: Choices
User Interface Deisgn for Programmers - Chapter 4: Affordances and Metaphors
etc. Links to subsequent chapters are at the end of each page.

The golden rule of UI design is to simply do what the user expects it to do.

For a very brief example, If you want something to be clicked on, design it so that it looks like they're supposed to click it, i.e. make it look slightly 3D like a raised button.. Make them WANT to click it. If you have something clickable that's completely flat and looks like a noninteractive text label, you have a usability problem.

Just read the first few chapters of that and you'll learn tons

[phuzion]

Originally Posted by rmz

For a very brief example, If you want something to be clicked on, design it so that it looks like they're supposed to click it, i.e. make it look slightly 3D like a raised button.. Make them WANT to click it. If you have something clickable that's completely flat and looks like a noninteractive text label, you have a usability problem.

I didn't know that the usernames underneath the thread titles were clickable until 2 months after 7.0's release, and I had been working here for a few months beforehand as well.