Introduction to User Interfaces and Experience Designing

Introduction to User Interfaces and Experience Designing

Interface Designing or Interaction designing is the b ranch of information technology that focuses on the interaction between the computer and the in front of it. In the world driven by the consumer opinion and demand, the device's or software's interface can be the main factor which decides its success or failure. 

The success of the iPhone in 2007 could be considered as one significant example of the fact. Before the iPhone, the most significant smartphone OS was Microsoft's Windows Mobile, which had more features, already developed application and device ecosystem. In 2007, customers choose new and young iPhone from Apple instead well developed and feature-rich Windows Mobile from Microsoft driving once the market monopoly to bare 0.02% market share in just 10 years. The main reason behind the change was the iPhones' innovative yet simple user interface over the Windows Mobile's complex and complicated one. 

First Windows Mobile UI

First iPhone UI

Steve jobs 2007 iPhone Presentation is all about usability and user experience https://youtu.be/vN4U5FqrOdQ

History of the User Interface and Experience

At the beginning of the history of computers, interfaces were very primitive technologies such as switch panels and punch cars. By the decade of 1970's, simple switch panel had been evolved into a keyboard which is adapted from the traditional typewriter. With the keyboard, the command line interface was introduced to the world where the user was supposed to instruct the computer and communicate her intention by typing a pre-selected word into the keyboard. This mode was popular till the beginning of the 1980's where the computers capable of handling graphics came into being. 

In 1981, scientists working for Xerox PARC developed a novel concept of communicating user intentions to the computer. Instead of typing a word, the developed a method where different available commands of the system were indicated on the screen in the form of a small image and the user can choose the command she wants to run by using a pointing device attached to the computer. This was the introduction of the Graphic User Interface (GUI).

The basis of Xerox's GUI was the concept of WIMP, where Windows, icons, Menus and Pointers. Each available function or the command was represented y a small image named as an 'icon' and related icons were grouped within 'Windows'. Extended commands were listed in "Menus" and Icons and menus can be activated by an interface element named pointer which can be moved with the cursor key found within the keyboard. 

With the Introduction of GUI, users no longer had to  remember list of commands and typed into the keyboard to get things done. As available commands are visualized in the display, the usability and the user-friendliness of the interfaces were greatly increased with GUIs.

In 1984, Apple computers released their first computer named Macintosh, which contained and extensively built GUI. Along with the Macintosh, a new hardware was introduced to allow the use4r to move the pointer on the display and interact with the system. Based on the looks of it, the new device was named the 'Mouse', which became popular as 'Gestures' which start becoming the third prominent interface style. 

With the introduction of portable computers such as XAD by O2, the point and click interface was extended to use a pen0lkike a device 'Stylus', which acted as a replacement for the mouse in smaller form factor devices. In 2007, Apple replaced the styles with the finger with the introduction of the iPhone and introduced a novel way to interact with the serviced by moving a finger on the touch screen instead of point and click, which became popular as 'Gestures' which start becoming the third prominent interface style. 

Diverting from the traditional visual based interaction, Microsoft introduced voice command option to its popular operating system Windows with the beginning of the 21st Century and the Technique was immediately picked up by other industry giants such as Apple, Google and Amazon who went into developing the technology further. As a result, another innovative way of interaction was introduced to computer users which allow them to 'talk to the computer' using natural language. Based on this technology, a new class of computing devices were introduced to the world which does not sport a display and carries out its whole communication with the user through speech synthesis and voice recognition. This technology was named popular by amazon with the introduction of its popular 'Eco' line of products based on Alexa.

Apart from the above major interface styles, multiple, purpose-built interaction technologies were introduced to the world and more technologies will be introduced in the future. In 2014, Elon Musk founded the venture named 'NuraLink' which continue its research hoping to interface computer input and output directly into a person's nerve system with great success. If the venture succeeds, it will again revolutionize how a human would interact with a computer allowing people to use their own mind to command and communicate with a computer.