User Interfaces

Interface

An interface is something through which one thing interacts with another thing.

One thing is usually you, the user, and the other is normally something complicated and technical, like a computer. The user doesn’t need to understand how this thing works; they just have to understand how to use the interface. This shields the user from the complexity of the device they are using.

Let us use an example: when you use a smartphone, you don’t touch or interact directly with its processor, network connection and sensors; you only interact with — or use — the touchscreen.

GUI

A user interface that uses pictures or icons is a graphical UI. Modern software designers and developers have worked incredibly hard to create an easily recognisable visual language.

While it may be fair to say that much is owed to Microsoft’s Windows OS for the popularity of the modern GUI, Microsoft cannot claim the idea as their own.

CLI

A Command Line Interface (“CLI”) requires a user to enter commands by typing them in. CLIs are not intuitive to use, requiring a much higher level of expertise.

Hop over to the Windows Command Line basics tutorial and experience what it is like to use a CLI.

Dialogue interface

This is a UI that relies on the spoken word instead of typed commands or mouse clicks. Speech-to-text is already common in software as is speech-to-command software such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant.

Google Assistant allows users to create a Google Home that allows control of many devices in a home environment using voice commands.

Gesture-based interface

Gesture recognition is like teaching computers to understand how we move and express ourselves, allowing the computer to “see” your hand waves or facial expressions. It lets you control devices by making simple movements, like waving your hand, without actually touching them.

Digital cameras can be triggered to take a photo using a range of gestures: waving a hand, blinking rapidly and “smile detection”.