Interesting Interface

I know the interface lecture was last week but I found it quite interesting so I thought I’d do my final blog on it.

According to Wikipedia an interface is vital in enabling a user to interact with a system. “To work with a system, the users need to be able to control the system and assess the state of the system.”


A successful interface takes into account familiarity and usability. Jakob Neilson takes web design usability to the extreme and I don’t think this is the right way to go either because its snuffs out all that is creative and interesting. The more people familiarise themselves with interfaces the easier the things are to use! (Increasing usability obviously!) The way people familiarise themselves is through learning. Jakob Neilson wants to assume we are all dumb (or lazy) and don’t want to learn which will ultimately produce web pages that are the same and are boring and not interesting….. just useful.

I leave you with a website that would I’m 100% sure Mr. Neilson would have a fit over. Its interface is so unfamiliar I had a very hard time getting around it. After a little play around I realised that is was a visual replication or a web page reflection of the drop down tool bar. Now you would think that this is familiar and very usable… it’s a major part of most of the programs on a computer for gods sake. Have a look fellow class mates and see what you think.

P.s Insight is a clothing company by the way and they also run that short film competition 300 seconds. Just thought I’d familiarise you a bit so you didn’t completely jump into the deep end.

www.insight51.com