user interface

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0-9

The way a person interacts and commands a computer, tablet, smartphone or other electronic device. The user interface (UI) comprises the screen menus and icons, keyboard shortcuts, mouse and gesture movements, command language and online help.

The Bar Was Set Low

The user interface is the most important and least-understood area in the tech industry. Every application has only a handful of basic functions that users need all the time, yet they are often buried in unintuitive submenus. Worse yet, once bad examples are set by major vendors, others follow like sheep (see Control key). Since popular applications are often hard to learn, users have come to expect that software has to be difficult, when in fact, it could be downright simple if educated designers were involved.

Command Line vs. GUI

The user interface in the earliest computers comprised buttons and dials. Although the first personal computers had screens, the computer was operated by typing text commands. Starting with the Mac in 1984 and Windows 3.0 in 1990, the mouse-oriented graphical user interface (GUI) emerged, which simulates a desktop environment. See GUI and desktop environment.

The Smartphone; a Glimmer of Light

The phone's small screen forces designers to think more about usability, but not always. Smartphone apps can be as obtuse as desktop programs, very often because they are designed in isolation without regard to other similar apps in use. People use many phone apps, but one requires tapping an icon while another requires opening a menu. See good user interface, first-time user menu and dynamic user menu.

Users Hate to Change

Because of the learning curve required to use software, changing apps is not always met with enthusiasm. While the software industry touts "productivity gains" for every new product, the frustration figuring out how to do the same function in a new program creates a reluctance to try something new in the first place.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Voice and natural language input are increasingly standard interface components, and they can be enormously helpful. However, recognizing human speech with all the possible accents is a daunting computational task, but improvements come every year (see virtual assistant). See RTFM, user experience, naming fiascos, Freedman's law, flat UI, Web rage, HCI and HMI.

It Can Change World History The Florida recount in the 2000 U.S. presidential election kept the country in limbo for weeks. The confusing punch card ballot in Palm Beach County gave Pat Buchanan two thousand votes that very likely might have gone to Al Gore.

Give Us A Break! Our dazzling HDTVs do not prevent dopey button naming. This family's salvation was to attach labels on their remote control.

Read the Manual (RTFM) Was there a contest for how ridiculous one could name folders in this camera's memory card (right column)? Is something wrong with just plain Still, Movie, Audio, and Email?

Keep the Elevator Door Open The big red button that catches your eye in this building elevator is for an exceedingly rare fire emergency. Wouldn't "Big Red" be better as a "Door Open" button? Courteous people are always scrambling to stop the door from closing on someone, but "Door Open" is rarely in a prominent location.

A Century of Experience Didn't Help With a combined 100+ years of audio experience, Alan Freedman, author of this encyclopedia (right) and his colleague Pete Hermsen, who built a radio at age eight, struggled in vain to balance the speakers on Freedman's new A/V receiver. The manual was worthless (see RTFM).

No Kidding After changing a password on a website, this user-friendly message appeared. Translated: "we don't have a clue how our software got you here!"

"An" Error Could you be a tad more specific. Unfortunately, meaningless messages like this are not uncommon, but it is only due to laziness on the part of the developer.

Gibberish All this convoluted Windows message means is "can't install updates because there is no Internet connection." However, every now and then, Microsoft leads the pack (see good user interface).

More Gibberish Microsoft loves obtuse error numbers, which tells the user absolutely nothing in this case. Bad password? Bad user name? What's going on here?

I Thought My Phone Was a Note II Why not identify the device by its common name? Samsung woke up later on and displayed the model name everyone knows.

Really? This popped up on an old Android phone. The testing of this software was a bit lax.

Da Fup What?? In English, this means "Allow nearby devices to access your device?" See Device Association Framework.

OK. Bad Formula. But Where? This spreadsheet explains the type of error but never states which cells contain the problem. In other words "you goofed but we're not gonna tell you where."

Remotes Are No Exception Remote control designs are all over the place. Even the volume and channel buttons can be anywhere (red arrows point to Volume Up).

Touch Typist Torment Any touch typist not noticing that the Up Arrow key was in the Right Shift key location would return this laptop immediately. The buyer of this machine actually did.

Can't We Agree on Anything Two wireless charging stations. One displays a red light when charging, the other displays green.

Ya Gotta Be Kidding These examples clearly indicate that the programmers writing the code have no clue what could have happened at this point in their programs.

Even in 2020 Why display an error number when this Zoom message means "enable either a passcode or waiting room." Just say it.

Priceless Not related to tech but so silly we had to include it. These instructions were on a charcoal grill.