User Interface Design and Usability for Programmers Report

This report delves into the critical aspects of user interface (UI) design in the context of software applications, particularly focusing on the needs of programmers utilizing Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). It emphasizes the importance of user-centered design (UCD), an iterative process prioritizing user needs throughout the design phases to create highly usable products. The report addresses the challenges faced by programmers using Command Line Interfaces (CLIs) and advocates for the adoption of GUIs to simplify the programming process, especially for those with varying levels of coding experience. It outlines essential interface design guidelines and principles, including user control and freedom, system status visibility, real-world similarity, standard and consistency, error prevention, a light UI, flexible UI systems, aesthetic design, and clear message conveyance. The report justifies the significance of each guideline in enhancing usability and concludes that adhering to these principles leads to increased user satisfaction, improved system vision, and effective interaction acknowledgement. The report provides a comprehensive overview of UI design principles, offering valuable insights for developers aiming to create user-friendly and efficient software applications.

Running head: USER CENTERED DESIGN
User Centered Design
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
The need for Programmers to use a GUI Application:..............................................................2
Interface Design Guidelines and Principles:..............................................................................3
Justification for the Provided Guidelines:..................................................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................6
References:.................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
For the present software applications, the UI design is one of the critical aspects. The
UI actually stands for User Interface (Shneiderman et al. 2016). The user interface is the
graphical representation of any type of applications. A common type of user interface can
include several of important components including the buttons, texts, sliders, images and
other important items with which the user is able to interact (Krogsæter, Oppermann and
Thomas 2017). The other important components that are considered for the UI design are the
layout of the screen, transitions and animations in the interface.
For preparing an appropriate UI for the users it is very much important to focus on the
user-centred design. The user-centred design is a process of iterative design and in this type
of design process the developer gives the priority to the users and their needs in all the phases
of the design process (Organ et al. 2018). The main aim of user-centred design process is
developing a highly usable products for the users. In this report a research will done
regarding the type of user interface used for the software applications. Specifically, in this
report the research will be done on “Programmers can use the Graphical User Interface
applications for the application development purposes”.
The need for Programmers to use a GUI Application:
Currently, most of the programmers develop several of applications through the CLI
or the Command Line Interface. In this type of programming the programmers need to
several of commands and codes for preparing the applications (Shah and Skyttner 2017). For
the experienced programmers this is not a big issue as they have gained enough knowledge to
use the appropriate commands whenever it required. This can be a problem for relatively
inexperienced programmers who does not have proper knowledge of all the commands. At
the time of programming, the logical thinking of the programmers plays an important role

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but, in many cases, there is difficulty for the implementation of the logical thinking of the
programming due to the complexity of the command line interface. Also, for different type of
programming languages the overall set of commands are different. This again creates
complexity for the programmers. Thus, it is important to have a common GUI so that overall
programming can be made easy (Potterton et al. 2018). This will be also a great solution for
the peoples who do not have vast knowledge in coding but have excellent skills in logic
development behind the programming. So, for this reason it is very much important to
implement a usability guidelines and principles so that usability of the systems can be
improved.
Interface Design Guidelines and Principles:
Here, it is important to develop an appropriate user interface for the programmers so
that the current issue can be resolved. In this aspect, some important guidelines and principles
are presented which can be used for interface design purposes.
 User Control and Freedom: User control and freedom is one of the important
principles that must be followed for the UI design purposes (Dudley and Kristensson
2018). This offers a specific digital space where the users will be able to take
backward steps and will be also able to redo the previous steps.
 System Status Visibility: For a good user interface it is important that it will always
inform its users regarding the system operations. By providing the information
regarding the system operations it will be easy to understand for the users to analyse
the status of the system (Oulasvirta 2017) which is important for an GUI application.
 Similarity among Real World and the System: During the development of a user
interface it is important that the designer will utilize the concepts that can be found on
real world based on the targeted users. Here, the developers also need to present all

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the information in a logical order based on the expectation of the users and it should
be derived from the real-world experiences. Thus, it should be followed for the
developing the user interface.
 Standard and Consistency: The developers also needs to ensure the standard and
consistency is maintained throughout the user interface while developing it (Lewis
2016). Here, the designers need to ensure that both of the graphical elements and the
terminology is maintained across a same type of platform.
 Prevention of Errors: For designing a perfect UI for the users it is very much crucial
that the overall errors are always minimal. It is not very appropriate that the users
discover any type of error in the user interface of the system. Thus, the developers
must always ensure that there are no errors in the user interface design which is one of
the important principles for designing the UI.
 Light UI: Another important principle for the UI design is that the developers should
make the UI as light as possible for the users (Greenberg, Godin and Whittington
2019). Here, the UI developers needs to minimise the overall cognitive load from the
UI and it can be achieved by maintain the relevant information in the UI rather than
creating a complex UI system.
 Flexible UI System: Proper navigation is the important factor for creating a great UI.
So, it is important to ensure that the navigation is fast enough which can be achieved
by less interacting with the UI (Sanders 2018). To ensure that the users are having less
interaction with the UI function keys, abbreviations, hidden commands and micro
facilities can be used. It means that the user will be able to customise the UI as per
their requirement. So, the developers need to ensure that their UI is flexible enough.
 Aesthetic Design of the UI: Achieving an aesthetic UI design is another important
principle for the UI design. In this aspect, the developers need to ensure that the

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overall clutter is minimal. There should be no unnecessary information in the UI. So,
the UI should be displaying only the necessary information which will make the UI
design minimal and aesthetic.
 Conveying Proper Message to the Users: Most of the users who interact with the UI
does not have any knowledge regarding the UI design. So, any type of message from
the UI should be conveyed to the users while having minimum complexity
(Kantorowitz 2016). There can be any notifications or errors that can be generated by
the UI. Thus, the error message or the notification message must be conveyed to the
user in a proper fashion so that the user can understand the message.
Justification for the Provided Guidelines:
The first guideline for the user interface design was user control and freedom. This is
important as in many cases the programmers need to modify their programs and needs to
undo their operations. As this function will be provided to them, they will be able to easily
modify the program as per the requirement which will provide improved usability
(Punchoojit and Hongwarittorrn 2017).
Status visibility is also important so that the programmers can ensure that the actual
programming running fine with all the important considerations which will again provide
improved usability for the users.
Also, a consistent UI is important for proper understanding of the system. It ensures
that the users will understand all the functions and that is extremely important for the
programmers.
Error free UI will always provide the improved usability to the users as there will be
no chances of fault occurring while the system is being used (Palos-Sanchez, Saura and
Debasa 2018) and all the important operations can be executed successfully.

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Light UI is always better as it will ensure better interaction of the users with the user
while the overall program will become fast which is another reason of improved usability for
the users.
Flexible UI ensures that the users will be able to make changes in the UI as per their
requirement. This is an extremely important option when a programmer is using the GUI for
the programming purpose as it helps to navigate the overall UI relatively faster (Wang et al.
2016) which is another improved usability.
As the aesthetics UI design ensures minimal clutter in the UI design and there is no
unnecessary information in the UI, overall UI becomes responsive which improves the
usability of the system.
Lastly, as all the messages generated by the UI will be provided to the users in an
effective manner the users will be able to determine easily what steps they need to take for
further action (Bragin, Dubanov and Rechitskiy 2017). So, confusion among the users will be
cleared and it will definitely improve the usability factor.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion it can be concluded that appropriate UI design is important
so that improved usability can be achieved from the systems. In this report several of
important guidelines has been presented for the user interface designing purposes. The
designers who will be following the above demonstration guidelines can achieve several of
key benefits and advantages. While this guideline is followed, it effectively ensures that the
overall of number of the users will be increased. Also, the overall satisfaction of the users
while using the system will be increased sharply. Another key advantage in this aspect is that
overall vision of the system will be clarified to the users. Further, if these guidelines are
followed properly then another primary benefit that will be achieved is that interaction

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acknowledgement will be present there. It means for each and every reaction there will be a
meaningful reaction.

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References:
Bragin, A., Dubanov, A. and Rechitskiy, A., 2017. User Interface Design for a Web-based
Image Processing and Analysis System. In YSIP (pp. 27-31).
Dudley, J.J. and Kristensson, P.O., 2018. A review of user interface design for interactive
machine learning. ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems (TiiS), 8(2), pp.1-37.
Greenberg, S., Godin, T.I. and Whittington, J., 2019. User Interface Design Patterns for
Wildlife-Related Camera Trap Image Analysis. Science.
Kantorowitz, E., 2016, September. Two Step User Interface Design. In Proceedings of the
European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (pp. 1-2).
Krogsæter, M., Oppermann, R. and Thomas, C.G., 2017. A user interface integrating
adaptability and adaptivity. In Adaptive user support (pp. 97-125). Routledge.
Lewis, J.R., 2016. Practical speech user interface design. CRC Press.
Organ, D., Dick, S., Hurley, C., Heavin, C., Linehan, C., Dockray, S., Davoren, M.P. and
Byrne, M., 2018. A systematic review of user-centred design practices in illicit substance use
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optimization. Computer, 50(1), pp.40-47.
Palos-Sanchez, P.R., Saura, J.R. and Debasa, F., 2018. The influence of social networks on
the development of recruitment actions that favor user interface design and conversions in
mobile applications powered by linked data. Mobile Information Systems, 2018.

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Potterton, L., Agirre, J., Ballard, C., Cowtan, K., Dodson, E., Evans, P.R., Jenkins, H.T.,
Keegan, R., Krissinel, E., Stevenson, K. and Lebedev, A., 2018. CCP4i2: the new graphical
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Interaction, 2017.
Sanders, L.A., 2018. User Interface Design in Virtual Reality Research (Doctoral
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Wang, L., Antoun, C., Sanders, R., Nichols, E.M., Olmsted-Hawala, E.L., Katz, J.M.,
Falcone, B. and Figueroa, I., 2016. A Systematic and Multidisciplinary Approach to
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