Many resources regarding the UI always mention that the evaluation of user interface is highly subjective process. So my question is what is the exact meaning of "subjective process" in the context of UI and why the evaluation process is subjective process ?
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- 1sub·jec·tive (səbˈjektiv): Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. "his views are highly subjective." google.com/search?q=subjective+definition– Robert HarveyCommentedApr 21, 2020 at 18:20
- 1I’m voting to close this question because it is about the definition of common English words– mmathisCommentedApr 21, 2020 at 19:41
- @mmathis I am talking about the word subjective in the context of UI not generally .– JooCommentedApr 21, 2020 at 19:42
- 2It means the same thing in a UI context.– Robert HarveyCommentedApr 21, 2020 at 21:06
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2 Answers
@RobertHarvey provides the meaning of a subjective process in his comment.
However, as to why evaluation is such a process, I wouldn't generally say that UI is purely a matter of subjective judgement. There is a wide amount of research and experience about what makes good UI.
It is more true to observe that the vast majority of people designing UIs, and even moreso the people assessing UIs as end-users, have next to no training or experience in such design or assesment. It all then appears thoroughly subjective.
Another thing to note is that, without training and given a surfeit of choice, users may attempt to evaluate and distinguish UI on spurious grounds. So the process becomes subjective, not because it inherently is subjective in important respects, but either because evaluators don't know what to look for, or because the objective things they are looking for are all satisfied so they become increasingly fussy and arbitrary about their criteria for distinction.
Another thing to note is that with UIs, there is often a conflict between the preferences of untrained and trained users. The naive administrator may be drawn to fancy colours, whereas the experienced administrator will more readily detect the operational efficiency when applied to likely administrative tasks - once the naive user becomes experienced, their preferences will tend to converge with those of other experienced users.
- So can we say that the UI evaluation process is subjective because there is no certain evaluation criteria with a certain quantitative analysis to evaluate the UI ? Rather the evaluators uses many criteria to evaluate such as criteria related to counts as for example how many errors are done in a week after the user has been trained to the system or criteria related to the time as how long does a user takes to learn and be productive to the system ?– JooCommentedApr 21, 2020 at 19:42
- @Joo, I'm just not sure I'd use the word. UI more often violates documented principles, than it falls foul of ephemeral opinions and tastes. To be describing UI evaluation as "highly subjective", suggests it's the other way around - that UI more often falls foul of opinion, than that it violates documented principles.– SteveCommentedApr 21, 2020 at 21:02
Because this user interface is what you are going to show that person at this company in order for him or her to do that task.
This is where "creative design" is at its purest. You have to work with the target user community, perhaps consider the legacy systems and workflows they are using now, and come up with something that is functional for them.
