User Interface

Do you ever wonder why some apps feel easy to navigate, while others leave you frustrated and confused? The answer lies in user interface design.

Imagine you’re using your phone to check your emails, scrolling through the Gmail app and effortlessly deleting all those messages cluttering your inbox. Thanks to Google’s thoughtful interface design, everything about the app makes sense. You can toggle between inbox tabs, swipe emails away to archive them, and bulk-select emails for efficient organization. This functionality feels intuitive. The user interface of the Gmail app behaves how we expect it to behave, and this ensures our experience is smooth and enjoyable.

The user interface (UI) is the space where humans and computers interact. It’s the part of the machine, computer, or software that handles input and output (as opposed to the back end where all the computing takes place).

For example, the UI of a laptop includes the keyboard, screen, and trackpad. These physical input and output devices allow you to use the computer by entering text, clicking on items, and viewing what's going on. The laptop’s UI also includes graphical elements on the screen, such as menus and icons, that allow you to use the computer’s operating system. Essentially, UIs allow us to effectively control and operate software or computerized devices.

The goal of UI design is to make it as easy as possible for people to understand and use computers. The better the UI design, the less input is required to produce the desired output. Imagine if, instead of quickly tapping the delete icon to remove an email from your inbox, you had to navigate through several settings and menu items to find the delete option. This would require significantly more input for the same output. By designing programs with user needs, wants, and behaviors in mind, designers can create UIs that save us time and make our lives easier.