Why I do it (by TheUiGuy)

I have an innate curiosity about the workings of the universe, and much of my time learning various subjects including science, technology, mythology, religion and recently, civics. I'm the type to complain about the design of a parking lot and ask "what was the developer thinking?" and then spend the next 20 minutes redesigning the thing.

This is why I am a User Interface Engineer for software. Because of all of man's endeavors, we are only beginning to crack the surface of true usability of this nightmarish thing called computers. My goal is to prove that usability enhancements not only improve the software and the brand-loyalty, but also contribute to user's general well-being/health and the company's bottom line.

I don't get holistic about it. I just know what its like to be on the end of a door whose designer decided to leave out all visual cues as to which way the door opens... only to push on the wrong side and have to pretend that I meant to do it, so I don't look foolish. And nobody thinks to themselves "Wow, that door designer really should have applied a visual cue to the door so that people don't make asses out of themselves"... nope, its always your fault, right?

So, my philosophy is that 9 times out of 10 if a user fails a task in the physical or software world it is because the designer failed to communicate clearly. I hope to help alleviate this during my work even if it means failing once in a while.

But beyond all that, there is a massive evolution of software due - one of those "peak events" that redefine current categories of thought. It will be on the heels of a hardware evolution of the same ilk. It's difficult to say what it is, but in the next 10 years you probably will be interacting with software in a very different way, and I hope to help define the tenants of the interaction.

Welcome to our new author!

I would like to welcome "The UI Guy" to our blog! After a few days worth of discussion, I've decided to add Ari to our authors.

Welcome Ari to UI Guy Blog and we look forward to your help in producing the best UI help available.

Complexity vs. Simplicity

Finally, I get some time to talk about UI stuff. :-)

I'm going to talk today about Complexity vs. Simplicity and when you should use one over the other.

Example
Imagine if you had a car with just as many buttons as an airplane, would you even attempt to put up with it? I mean, all you need to drive a car is the wheel, your peddles, and the shifter. You don't need a button to increase power to one wheel over the other or a knob to control how much fuel goes to the engine in addition the amount of pressure you put on the gas peddle. All you need to get to work in the morning are those first three things I mentioned. This would be the discussion that goes into developing a car's UI. This is a great example of when to use a complicated UI versus a simple UI.

Now when you are flying an airplane, you are going to have a pilot who's been trained to use the complicated UI a plane offers. Now, he's used to that, but if you were to put the average joe in the flight deck, you'll have a problem.

Pros and Cons of a Complicated UI
A complicated UI can be just as benificial as a simple UI in some cases. The Complicated UI can give you much more control over your application, we are out of cars and planes now, than a simple UI. The down side of it is that you limit your users to just a much smaller group of people because not everyone will be able to use. Your taking your user group to trained and smart people.

Pros and Cons of a Simple UI
A simple UI is by far the most commonly used UI in products we use today. The only real down side to the Simple UI is that it gives you little to no control over the product you are using. A good example of this would be Apple's Mac OS X. There's a reason why developers haven't started to develop on Apple, that's because you are severly limited due to a restrictive, some what automated, interface. Windows is more complicated, giving you more options to manipulate the computer as well as the UI.

How do I know when to use which?
Pretty simple actually, analyse your audience! The people who will use your product should tell you that information. If you are going to be releasing to the entire world, use the KISS (Keep it imple, stupid) method. If you are going to be releasing the product to a small amount of users or the product is complex to begin with, no since dumbing down the UI, in that case, I would say go complex. Honestly, it's entierly up to you or your client to decide so make sure you check with them.

Welcome!

Hello all! I just though I would introduce myself. 

My name is Ryan and I'm currently working for Avanade Inc as a Solutions Developer in the South Region. I started doing UI when I was in college and I will be taking it up here in Avanade as well as my career progresses. 

I'll be giving my spill about UI Design, UI Principles, and just other interesting facts about UI creation. 

My target audience is to people looking into getting in the UI design track or those just looking for a little more inspiration on their UI creation. 

I hope that this blog will become as helpful as I intend it to be and I encourage comments from others to help me pick my focus wisely. Please comment to this with some stuff you would like to see and I will consider it for my focus of this blog.