Interfaces

I've been thinking a lot about interfaces lately.

An interface is "the place at which independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other" 1.

When you interact with your phone you utilize a graphical user interface, or a GUI. This interface has affordances, it has signifiers, and it has feedback.

Because of these, you are able to communicate in a bi-directional manner with an inanimate object.

It tells you (via the interface) what its capable of doing for you. You tell it (via the interface) what you want it to do. Finally, it let's you know (via the interface) that the thing was done.

In software engineering we also have interfaces, and they preform the exact same function as a GUI. A well designed interface informs a programmer about what capabilities are supported, how they should interact with those capabilities, and what they will be given back as a result.

Another type of interface, is written language. The majority of my day is spent communicating in this fashion.

Sometimes I am firing off quick messages in Slack, other times I'm crafting a presentation for an audience I know, other times I'm writing Jira requirements, and still other times I'm working on documentation for some unknown future person to benefit from.

How you write is important. Of course we want to spell things correctly, use good grammar, provide clear examples, and ultimately ensure our message is communicated. But even if you accomplish all of those things, how you visibly structure your writing matters.

Reading the text itself, becomes a type of interface the reader must interact with.

For example, walls of text are difficult to read and in most cases won't be read. Even with appropriate paragraph breaks, the reader has no choice but to read every word of every sentence in order to get the message.

When I read something, I generally read it twice.

First, I skim through quickly, touching on the call-outs within the text. I do this to decide if this is something I need to fully digest now, later, or never.

The second pass, would be reading the content intentionally all the way through.

Your formatting, or as I see it, your interface design, can help facilitate both of these things. For example, the eye is drawn to bold text and

• bulleted
• lists

These naturally draw attention, and if used correctly can help a user of your interface quickly understand the message you are trying to communicate.

Another way to think about the interface of your writing is to organize your thoughts logically along a natural progression. For example, if I need to communicate a change of plans to a group of people, I may structure my interface as so:

Original plan
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas congue ornare rutrum. Ut sed dolor sed magna cursus efficitur. Morbi vitae diam nunc.

New plan
Ut nec aliquet ipsum, eu sagittis augue. Nulla blandit commodo libero eu dictum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Why we decided to change the plan
Duis sapien mauris, dignissim eget sem et, porttitor lacinia nunc. Curabitur fringilla eros quam. Quisque vitae lectus sodales, fringilla orci in, scelerisque mi.

In this interface, the user can skim through and identify quickly that this message is about a change in plans. If they were not aware of the original plan or need a refresher, they know where to start. This provides a level playing field for all readers. If they feel confident they already knew the original plan they can skip straight to the important part, the "new plan". And if they are curious about the reasoning, they can find that information as well.

Some may say that the most important information should be first so that it is not missed. While there is nothing wrong with that approach, I do wonder if its a bit of a lazy way to avoid needing to put thought into your interface design.

People themselves are also a type of interface. Their expressions, body language, speech patterns, listening skills, and world view, all define the interface you are dealing with.

You change how you interact with people based on what you know about their interface. And likewise, people change how they interact with you based on yours.

You can even be trained on strategies for adjusting your interface to be more friendly or successful with others.

Your environment is a type of interface. How easy it is for you to get out of bed in the morning can be influenced by moving your alarm clock from your bedside table to across the room. This is the same as moving a website login button from the center of the page to hidden down in the footer.

All this rambling is to say, interface design matters.

It will either empower you or inhibit you. It will either empower your audience or inhibit them.

When we talk about writing interfaces we talk about good style and formatting. When we talk about people, we discuss social skills and queues. When we talk about environments we discuss designology and the science of interior design.

But the more I think about these things, the more I just see interfaces. Interfaces all the way down 🐢.

I think there's a lot to be shared between the interface design in different disciplines and I want to explore more of this idea that interfaces are all around us in forms I may have never seen before.