User Interface (UI)

A user interface is the system by which people (users) interact with a machine. The
user interface includes hardware (physical) and software (logical) components. User
interfaces exist for various systems, and provide a means of:

• Input: allowing the users to manipulate a system, and/or

• Output: allowing the system to indicate the effects of the users'

manipulation.

Generally, the goal of human-machine interaction engineering is to produce a user

interface which makes it easy, efficient, and enjoyable to operate a machine in the
way which produces the desired result. This generally means that the operator
needs to provide minimal input to achieve the desired output, and also that the
machine minimizes undesired outputs to the human.

Ever since the increased use of personal computers and the relative decline in
societal awareness of heavy machinery, the term user interface has taken on
overtones of the (graphical) user interface, while industrial control panel and
machinery control design discussions more commonly refer to human-machine
interfaces.

Other terms for user interface include human-computer interface (HCI) and man-
machine interface (MMI)

PARC UI and Graphical UI

The PARC User Interface (PARC UI is the interface researched and developed at
Xerox labs) consisted of graphical elements such as windows, menus, radio buttons,
check boxes and icons. The PARC User Interface employs a pointing device in
addition to a keyboard. These aspects can be emphasized by using the alternative
acronym WIMP, which stands for Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointing device.

In computing and telecommunications, a menu is a list of commands presented to

an operator by a computer or communications system. A menu is used in contrast
to a command-line interface, where instructions to the computer are given in the
form of commands (or verbs).

Choices given from a menu may be selected by the operator by a number of

methods (called interfaces):

• Depressing one or more keys on the keyboard or mouse

• Positioning a cursor or reverse video bar by using a keyboard, mouse, or
remote control D-pad
• Using an electromechanical pointer, such as a light pen
 • Touching the display screen with a finger
• Speaking to a voice-recognition system

A computer using a graphical user interface presents menus with a combination of

text and symbols to represent choices. By clicking on one of the symbols, the
operator is selecting the instruction that the symbol represents. A context menu is a
menu in which the choices presented to the operator are automatically modified
according to the current context in which the operator is working.

A common use of menus is to provide convenient access to various operations such

as saving or opening a file, quitting a program, or manipulating data. Most widget
toolkits provide some form of pull-down or pop-up menu. Pull-down menus are the
type commonly used in menu bars (usually near the top of a window or screen),
which are most often used for performing actions, whereas pop-up (or "fly-out")
menus are more likely to be used for setting a value, and might appear anywhere in
a window.

According to traditional human interface guidelines,

menu names were always supposed to be verbs, such as
"file", "edit" and so on. This has been largely ignored in
subsequent user interface developments. A single word
verb however is sometimes unclear, and so as to allow for
multiple word menu names, the idea of a vertical menu
was invented, as seen in NeXTSTEP.

Menus are now also seen in consumer electronics, starting with TV sets that had
then-new on-screen displays in the early 1990s, and extending into computer
monitors, VCRs, and DVD players. Menus allow the control of settings like tint,
brightness, contrast, bass and treble, and other functions such as channel memory
and closed captioning. Other electronics with text-only displays can also have
menus, anything from business telephone systems with digital telephones, to
weather radios that can be set to respond only to specific weather warnings in a
specific area. Other more recent electronics in the 2000s also have menus, such as
digital media players.

Sub-menus
Menu and expanded sub-menu Menus are sometimes hierarchically organized,
allowing navigation through different levels of the menu structure. Selecting a menu
entry with an arrow will expand it, showing a second menu (the sub-menu) with
options related to the selected entry.

Usability of sub-menus has been criticized as difficult, because of the narrow height
that must be crossed by the pointer. The steering law predicts that this movement
will be slow, and any error in touching the boundaries of the parent menu entry will
hide the sub-menu. Some techniques proposed to alleviate these errors are keeping
the sub-menu open while moving the pointer in diagonal, and using Mega Drop-
Down menus.

Forms
Webform

A webform on a web page allows a user to enter data that is sent to a server
for processing. Webforms resemble paper forms because internet users fill
out the forms using checkboxes, radio buttons, or text fields. For example,
webforms can be used to enter shipping or credit card data to order a
product or can be used to retrieve data (e.g., searching on a search engine).

In addition to functioning as input templates for new information, webforms

can also be used to query and display existing data in a similar manner to
mail merge forms, with the same advantages. The decoupling of message
structure and underlying data allow both to vary independently. The use of
webforms for this purpose avoids the problems associated with explicitly
creating separate web pages for each record in a database.

Webforms are defined in formal programming languages such as HTML, Perl,

PHP, Java or .NET. The implementations of these languages often
automatically invoke user interface idioms, such as grids and themes,
minimizing programming time, costs and risks.

Windows Forms

Windows Forms is the name given to the graphical application programming

interface (API) included as a part of Microsoft's .NET Framework, providing
access to the native Microsoft Windows interface elements by wrapping the
existing Windows API in managed code.