The Web User Interface

The Web User Interface

Web interface design is essentially the design of navigation and the presentation of information.

Proper interface design is largely a matter of properly balancing the structure and relationships of menus, content, and other linked documents or graphics. The design goal is to build a hierarchy of menus and pages that feels natural, is well structured, is easy to use, and is truthful.

The Web is a navigation environment where people move between pages of information, not an application environment. It is also a graphically rich environment.

Web interface design is difficult for a number of reasons. First, its underlying design language, HTML. Next, browser navigation retreated to the pre-GUI era.

Web interface design is also more difficult because the main issues concern information architecture and task flow, neither of which is easy to standardize. It is more difficult because of the availability of the various types of multimedia, and the desire of many designers to use something simply because it is available

It is more difficult because users are ill defined, and the user’s tools so variable in nature.