Week 2 Tutorial: What Is Good Or Bad Interface Design?

During this tutorial we explored how to distinguish good and bad interface design. From several comparisons of good and bad designs, I discovered that good interface design comes from the product meeting the user's needs and expectations. Also I learnt that the interface design is also based on the target audience. For example, my group compared an old version of windows movie maker to the latest version. The old version offered more options and customization, whereas the newer version removed most of the options to not overwhelm the user. Now considering windows movie maker is not considered a more professional video editor program, they decided to follow through with this image and simplified the design. The simplified version does make it harder for old users, but new users will not be overwhelmed.

I also did a quick comparison between two generic desktop keyboards, the windows keyboard and the macs keyboard. The windows keyboard opts for a more spaced out layout through separating each of the sections of keys accordingly. The amount of space between the keys allows users to easily distinguish which section they are typing from.The mac keyboard tries to use as little space as possible, this is done through lowering the size of the buttons that are used not as often. Also lowing the space through grouping the keys closer together. However through grouping the keys together it makes it harder to distinguish which keys are part of which section. Therefore the windows keyboard will not interrupt the user's experience as it disregards the style of the keyboard for usability. Whereas the mac keyboard has a better aesthetic, but the keys are small, slippery and closely grouped which may cause accidental mistyping, interrupting the user's experience.

Bibliography:
Duncantang.com,. (2015). Retrieved 25 February 2015, from http://www.duncantang.com/sites/duncantang.com/files/field-images/2014/1217-mac-keyboard-shortcuts.jpg.

Turningpointtechnology.com,. (2015). Retrieved 25 February 2015, from http://www.turningpointtechnology.com/img/KB/STK/260ABPKBG00.jpg