Part 1: User interface, information visualization and icons

Hi Aaron, can you tell us your background and how AM+A came into being?
It's a pleasure to be able to speak with you, Nettie.

My background was originally in physics and philosophy, but I reached "escape velocity" after my undergraduate education at Princeton University and landed in Yale Art School, where I studied graphic design. In fact, it was in art school that I learned to program computers in 1966 and became the world's first professional graphic designer to be involved with computer graphics.

I started AM+A to be able to provide the benefits of good visual design to the world of computer technology. AM+A began with the help of a large DARPA (US Defense Department) grant to improve the way programming languages themselves are displayed. We always focus on core challenges of user-interface and information-visualization design.

Our mission is to help people, anywhere, anytime, anyplace and any technology, make smarter decisions faster. I've helped develop our theory, our philosophy of intelligent design, and our design process. I also helped educate and train our clients, and even competitors, over the years in our approach.

I continue to lecture and give tutorials to the industry,  always urging them to think a bit more outside the box about design. Over the years, I've introduced professional conferences to graphic design theory, semiotics, baby-face design (small displays for mobile devices and information appliances), culture dimensions of globalization, knowledge visualization, and even cyberpunk science fiction.

What is "user interface" and "information visualization?"
By user interface, I mean the experience users have with computer-mediated communication. User interface components that must be designed well are these: metaphors, mental models, navigation, interaction, and appearance.

Metaphors are the basic ideas communicated through words and images, but, also, through sound or physical form. Examples of metaphors are general concepts like the "desktop," which gained widespread use through the Apple Macintosh, or even specific items, like the Trash Can, to refer to deleting contents. Whatever is memorable, appealing, and effective can work as a metaphor.

Mental models are the organization of all contents, of data and functions, usually oriented to the user's view in user-centered design.

Navigation involves all of the techniques for guiding people through the mental model using menus, dialogue boxes, control panels, buttons, etc.

Interaction concerns all the input and output techniques. For example: Do people use keyboards, mouse clicks, or a microphones to express their wishes? Do people see something highlighted to enable them to know that an item has been selected?

Appearance characteristics concern all of the perceptual cues and aesthetic quality of the user interface, including visual, verbal, auditory, and tactile dimensions. For example: the colors, typography, symbols/icons, layout, musical tones, and voice qualities are all part of appearance characteristics.

Information visualization is a part of good UI design, including the design of tables, forms, charts, maps, and diagrams. They help us to understand structures and processes.

What are the benefits to having a good user-interface design?
Good user-interface design has a direct influence on how easy it is for users to learn, remember, use, and enjoy computer-based communication. Good user-interface design can attract more customers, and it can keep people coming back. It can also reduce calls to help desks and enable more efficient, less costly product development.

What are some symptoms of user interface problems?
You can tell if your user interface has problems if...

• People cannot find the content quickly that they need.
• The information is organized in ways that seem odd or cumbersome.
• The UI is not designed to account for the differing needs of novice, casual, and expert users.
• People must go through distorted, contorted, and/or dysfunctional rituals to achieve their objectives.
• People get lost, annoyed, confused, bored, or discouraged frequently. Contents appear in ways that seem "alien" or strange, even after introduction to the contents.

How does a systematic approach in designing user-interfaces reduce costs?
Often in complex systems of parts, designing templates and "clip materials" enables team members to work faster, more consistently, and with more uniform higher quality of deliverables.

Systematic approaches in user interfaces can take place in any of the development steps I mentioned earlier. In the case of designing layouts, for example, by designing systematic modules or templates, it becomes easier for everyone on the design team to know which typefaces to use, which colors, which ruled lines and which symbols or other graphic elements. Portions of the design task can be nearly automated. This systematic approach enables people to estimate time better which also leads to more efficient project management.

Why should a company endeavor to move its applications to the Web?
There are compelling reasons to move applications to the Web (moving from "thick" to "thin" clients):

Broader Audience: Customers can access internal systems as well as end-point sales people. (However, this may require the lowest-common-denominator solution.)

Soft Releases: No installation distribution, update control, and centralized administration all offer tremendous advantages.

Remote Access: Managers working at home, contractors and trainees accessing content, and access from the field, factory, or office all offer benefits.

However, because web interaction is often different from previous user-interface controls, significant differences of planning, design, and implementation must be taken into consideration. Clients often want to know:

• Will I have to dumb down my application?
• What technology should I use to build it?
• What UI (user interface) can I get with a given active technology?
• Who is using this technology right now?
• What questions should we ask when researching a given active technology?
• Where does the interactivity go?

The desired UI may influence the technology; but the technology also constrains the UI. Active technologies (dHTML, Java, JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, etc.) create a more modern usable (and useful) interface, but they incur significant costs in bandwidth, audience, and development effort.

Alas, all of these issues are intertwined: design, user experience, development costs, and feasibility.

Continued...