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You are here: Home / Terminology / Online Questions Related to ‘User Interface’ or “UI’

Online Questions Related to ‘User Interface’ or “UI’

03/06/2014 by Bob Bailey Leave a Comment

The most common questions on the Internet about user interface issues are the following in order of search frequency: [keywordeye.com/]

  1.  What is UI?
  2.  What is UX design?
  3.  What is a user interface?
  4.  What is a UX designer?
  5.  What is UI design?
  6.  What is user experience?
  7.  What is usability?
  8.  What is usability testing?
  9.  What is user experience design?
  10.  What is a UI designer?
  11. What is user interface design?
  12. What is interface design?
  13. What is web usability?

We combined those related to ‘user interface’ together, and then provided the best answers given by the top three search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo). The following five questions were related to the ‘user interface’.

  • What is UI?
  • What is UI design?
  • What is user interface design?
  • What is interface design?
  • What is a UI designer?

We put the answers to the ‘user experience’ and ‘usability’ questions in different posts. What is a user interface, or what is UI? ‘UI’ is obviously an abbreviation for ‘User Interface’. A user interface is the system by which people (users) interact with a machine. The user interface includes hardware (physical) and software (logical) components. User interfaces provide a means of

  • Input, allowing the users to manipulate a system, and
  • Output, allowing the system to indicate the effects of the users’ manipulation [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface]

The ‘user interface’ should not be confused with an ‘application programming interface’ (API), which specifies how some software components should interact with each other. [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface] User interface (UI) is the aspects of a computer system or program which can be seen (or heard or otherwise perceived) by the human user, and the commands and mechanisms the user uses to control its operation and input data. A graphical user interface emphasizes the use of text, pictures and sound for output, and a keyboard or pointing device such as a mouse for input. [dictionary.reference.com/browse/user+interface] In information technology, the user interface (UI) is everything designed into an information device with which a human may interact. This includes the display screen, keyboard, mouse, and how an application program or a website provides interaction and responds to it. [searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/user-interface] The UI (user interface) is the junction between a user and a computer program. An interface is a set of commands or menus through which a user communicates with a program. A menu-driven interface is one in which you select command choices from various menus displayed on the screen. A command-driven interface is one in which you enter commands. The user interface is one of the most important parts of any program because it determines how easily you can make the program do what you want. [webopedia.com/TERM/U/user_interface.html] A user interface, also called a ‘UI’ or simply an ‘interface’, is the means by which a person controls a software application or hardware device. A good user interface provides a ‘user-friendly’ experience, allowing the user to interact with the software or hardware in a natural and intuitive way. [techterms.com/definition/user_interface]

Filed Under: Terminology

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