Blog # 6 - The Importance of good interface design

Interface design is very important to interactivity. It is the layer that is directly between the user and the product. How well an interface is designed can make or break a product. If you’ve ever used a program with a poorly designed interface you’ll know exactly what I mean. This could be anything from a website to a computer game. For example take the difference in interface design between Blender, an open source 3d modeling program and say 3d studio max. Blender is a fine program but its interface is kind of clunky. 3d studio max on the other hand has a much easier to navigate interface. When a user is using a program they can be very finicky and will in a lot of cases pick a program that has a better interface over one that has a worse interface but has more features. What good is it to offer more features for a product if the user can’t find them easily?
Some good interface design principles are taking full advantage of the screen space a program has while not over burdening the user. Also the use of white space accordingly, such as the division between topics in a webpage or for example the separation of tool bars in a program. Another good design principle is to design the layout along a grid, this approach works particularly well for website design.