Human Factors and User Interface

 

The information systems are designed for the users who are human beings. The human beings are the drivers of the information system to meet their information needs. The use of the information system is made through an interactive process between the human beings and the system through which the information system is activated, operated and closed.

 

May times, in spite of the Information System software design being good, the user interfaces are not properly built causing a discomfort to the users.  As it is difficult to consider all the users to build such an interface, the human perception, the human skills and the skill levels, the behavioral profiles and the activities expected in the interactive processes are the human factors of design of the user interface.

 

The use of the information system is accomplished through a visual medium. The user reacts to the printed reports, the graphical presentations or the displays on the screen. The reaction is through the visual and the mental responses to these displays or reports through his perception of the information conveyed to him through size, shape, color, format, layout, orientation and such other characteristics of the display. The human response differs from person to person owing to the varying human perception. Hence, the user interface should try to minimize the distortions which may occur when the displays are made.

 

The quick human response neutralizing the human perception differences is the requirement of the user interface. When most of the users belonging to the same class of human capabilities find the interface easy to operate and it results in the same human response, then the user interface is friendly. The system then is called a user-friendly system.

 

The first step in the interaction is extracting the information from display.  The speed of the extraction of the information will depend on the display design which includes the text size, the front type, the text length, the use of upper case and lower case, positioning and application of color, etc. The speed will be decided by the choice of these factors and its retention in the memory will be governed by the impact it makes on the human beings who are the users of the system.

 

The next factor is skill levels and behavioral differences amongst the various users. The differences in the skill levels occur due to differences in the training, experience and exposure of the people in the business operations. The behavioral differences occur due to personality variations and personality traits.

 

The user interface is expected to assist the four tasks which are basic to all the software or the systems. They are communication dialogue, system execution and control of the process. In the latest technology advances, the interface characteristics are more or less standard. The system execution will be handled through a menu driven feature. It will provide a window based help for reference or local processing. Such windows can be popped up in a number of sequences. The interface will have a point and pick facility to pick the icons which could be general or can be built for the system.