Interface Design

The Art of Interface

Dressing for success is a major part of professional achievement. your smile, your demeanor, and your outward appearance play an enormous role in how you are perceived and thus able to move through the world.

A Web site, too, must be dressed for success. A site's interface is the first thing visitors will react to when they reach your Web address. In order to make the visitor's experience one that encourages him or her to explore your site fully you must make the best possible impression.

One aspect of interface is similar to outwardward appearance. Even though the true beauty or wealth of a person may lie within - by and large if they do not present themselves in an appropriate fashion, their beauty may be passed over. Interfaces must be visually appealing and follow logical, accepted presentations for people to be attracted and willing to interact. Much of this is gained through the quality of a Web site's graphic design.

But a pretty face isn't everything. Think about how you interact with others. you've probably heard that you can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar - and it's true! This is your personal interface. If you're a curmudgeon at work - unfriendly or moody - people are going to avoid you. If you're pleasant, easy to work with, and open to input from others, you'll find that you can win a lot more acceptance and work more efficiently.

In Order to make your Web sites work you're going to have to pay attention to the outward appearance and the personality of your site. Enough time has been spent designing interfaces - whether it's computer software or multimedia presentation - that time-honored methods have been developed which can be employed to address both the structural appearance and inner personality of a Web site.

The Five Features of Interface Design

Interface design can be broken down into five essential areas to make it accessible to the broad range of people surfing the Web...

It is not only important to know the basics of general interface design, but how these concepts interrelate and operate with the new media environment. An interface can be designed for an individual application, but new media environments demand a different kind of thinking. The Web is not linear and it is not sef-contained. One must think not only of Web site design, but but one must also be able to navigate out to other sites as well. To not offer virtual doorways out onto the Web leaves the commercial designer at risk of limiting visitor's choices.

The stuff sites are made of:

• Metaphor
• Clarity
• Consistency
• Orientation
• Navigation
  
  

The impact of good design on your business
... a few words about branding

For any business to become truly successful, it needs to create positive brand recognition for its product. This is especially true in small businesses, where there may be thousands of similar companies vying for the customer's attention. The easiest and most fruitful way to think of a brand is as an IMAGE that the audience remembers.

This means that successful branding of a service or product is a matter of creating an image that is Positive, Relevant, and Memorable. First and foremost, you want to create an image of your product or service (or company, for that matter) that is positive.

You want to create an emotional association (such as happiness or fun) with the product. According to researchers, there are two basic ways that you can create these associations.

The first way is through direct experience. In this approach, a customer's experience with the product or service impacts on the way that they see it -- i.e. a positive experience means a positive association. This can be very important if you are trying to reach repeat customers.

It is usually hard to use direct experience to brand a product or service using just a web site. However, remember that a person will often judge your company based on their experiences with your web site. Therefore, it is very important that you make their experience a favorable one -- one where they can get their information quickly and easily.

A second approach to branding that can be used more easily in a web environment is to create indirect associations. This can be done in a number of ways. The words you choose to describe your products, the name you give them, and the graphics/pictures that you use on your web site can help to create an emotional association.

The first step is to determine what qualities you wish to project -- do you want to focus on the reliability of the product, or the speed, or the money possibilities?

Once you have made this basic, vital decision, then you need to look for words, descriptions, and graphics that will project these same qualities. If you look at the naming of car models, you can see some good examples of this -- A Dakota, for
instance, creates an association of wild ruggedness, while a Mustang projects the image of spirit and speed.

Remember that there are also many other factors that will also indirectly affect how your company and product are branded. The way that you interact with your customers is one of the most important of these. Make sure that your company reflects the same qualities that you want to have associated with your product or service. Otherwise, you may be sending your customers conflicting messages.

For instance, the name of your product might be CHEETAH, but if it takes three weeks for you to respond to emails, your brand will probably NOT be associated with speed!

Branding your product or service can be a difficult process. Often, it will take many repetitions of a message before a brand becomes recognized. It is therefore very important that you put thought into the process before you start selling your image.

Marketing ideas - Beyond the search engines...

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