What does UI mean?

UI is the abbreviation of User Interface. UI design refers to the overall design of human-computer interaction, operation logic, and beautiful interface of software. Good UI design not only makes the software personalized and tasteful, but also makes the operation of the software comfortable, simple and free, fully reflecting the positioning and characteristics of the software.

The rise of immaterial design gave birth to UI design

What is UI

Software design can be divided into two parts: coding design and UI design. Everyone is familiar with coding design, but UI design is still a very unfamiliar word. Even some people who specialize in website and multimedia design do not fully understand the meaning of UI. The original meaning of UI is user interface, which is the abbreviation of English User and interface. Literally, it consists of two components: the user and the interface, but in fact it also includes the interactive relationship between the user and the interface.

Interface design. In the long history of software development, interface design has not been taken seriously. People who do interface design are also called "artists" in a derogatory sense. In fact, software interface design is just like industrial styling design in industrial products, and it is an important buying point of the product. A friendly and beautiful interface will bring people comfortable visual enjoyment, shorten the distance between people and computers, and create selling points for businesses. Interface design is not simply an art painting. It needs to locate the user, usage environment, usage method and design for the end user. It is a purely scientific art design. The standard for testing an interface is not the opinion of a certain project development team leader or the result of a vote by project members, but the feelings of the end user. Therefore, interface design must be closely integrated with user research. It is a process of constantly designing satisfactory visual effects for end users.

The current situation of UI design in China

Currently, UI is still a relatively unfamiliar word in China, and even some designers do not know much about this word. We often see some recruitment advertisements that say: Recruiting interface artists, interface art designers, etc. This shows that the domestic understanding of UI is still limited to art design. It is believed that the work of UI is just to draw lines, and lacks an understanding of the importance of user interaction. On the other hand, in the software development process, there is still a tendency to focus on technology but not on technology. application phenomenon. Many businesses believe that the core of software products is technology, while UI is only a secondary auxiliary. This can be reflected in the ratio and treatment of personnel.

But this is not the true value of UI design, but a necessary process for the development of UI design. Let’s take the material product mobile phone industry as an example. When mobile phones first entered the market, they were not only incredibly expensive, but also had no other functions except making calls. Since technology was the dominant force at the time, everyone focused on signal, standby time, lifespan, etc., and paid little attention to the product's shape and rationality of use. Things have changed, and now technology has fully met the needs of users. Therefore, in order to create selling points and increase competitiveness, merchants attach great importance to the appearance design of their products. In addition, they frequently launch SMS, color screens, Hexuan, MMS, cameras, etc. In this way, the product's beauty, personality, ease of use, ease of learning, humanization, etc. have become the selling points of the product. Software products develop in the same way as physical products. In the past, due to the limitations of computer hardware, coding design became synonymous with software development. Beautiful and friendly graphical interfaces and reasonable and easy-to-use interaction methods were not fully paid attention to. In fact, the software of this period was called software programs, not software. product.

With the rapid development of computer hardware, past software programs can no longer meet user requirements. In the fierce market competition of software products, it is far from enough to have powerful functions to defeat strong opponents. Fortunately, some far-sighted national enterprises in China have begun to realize the huge selling points that UI brings to software products, such as Kingsoft's Shadowmaster, PowerWord, Internet Explorer, and NetLogo. Because of their emphasis on the development and status of UI, Kingsoft has The product is second to none among similar software products.

The UI department of Lenovo Software actively carries out user research and usability testing, combines ease of use with aesthetics, and launches successful UI examples such as dual-mode computers and the Happiness series, winning Lenovo the title of third in the world in consumer PCs, etc., etc. .Practice has proved that as long as each merchant invests only a small amount in product aesthetics and easy-to-use design, they will achieve great output. Its input-output ratio is much greater than the investment in functional leading development.

Where is China's UI going? The birth of CHINA UI

We have to admit that at this stage, China is far behind Western developed countries in many fields. How can we catch up and surpass it? They are the historical mission shouldered by our generation. In the field of software products, there are no limitations in technology and materials like physical products. The core problem of software products is people. Improving the personal capabilities of software UI designers and reducing the gap in personnel are the primary and key issues for the development of China's UI.

At present, domestic colleges and universities have not established a relatively complete UI design major, so the key to improving the ability of UI designers is to provide a good learning and communication resource environment. There are already many communication design websites in China that introduce industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, painting art, multimedia flash, etc. However, UI design has not received due attention and is only placed in a column of digital design or graphic web design. , this only resource is not enough to cultivate excellent designers. There must be a place for UI design learning and communication with fast information, rich resources, first-class design level, and professional authoritativeness to meet the needs of the growing number of UI designers. .