Comparison and Contrast of typing Software User Interface Designs

A good user interface design in a typing program is important for typists, who train both for profession or maybe recreation. This short article will discuss in brief the user interface design of a typing program offered on Google’s Chrome app store. Along with the user interface design, I will discuss pros and cons for a good typing program.

User Interface Design of typing programs

Typing programs are meant to support people in their ambition to become better typists. A typing program’s user interface design should therefore not only be functional, it should be engaging and easily learnable. In short, a typing program’s user interface design should balance the rather dull typing exercises necessary to become a good typist. For example, you could add a challenge and intrigue factor to the user interface design. Think of a user interface design that has the letters float across the screen in random intervals. This may be more intriguing and draw attention. In addition, a typing program may also provide various difficulty levels to provide challenge. This could be accommodated in the user interface design by allowing for flexible layout depending on an accommodating various skill levels. The combined challenge and intrigue may contribute to a “fun” user interface design that still allows for professional training.

Too much of a good thing - bad User Interface Design

I’ve given a few examples of how to improve a typing program’s user interface design. But there are also a few things that should be avoided in a typing program’s user interface design. A fun user interface design can become quite poor with only a few changes. The example above gave the scenario of a user interface design that had letters floating across the screen at various speeds and times. One downside to this user interface design would be that it may cause users to spend more time concentrating on seeing the letters than on actually typing. If the user interface design allowed the letters to float across the screen in single file, then it would remedy the issue, but consequently also lessen the challenge of the previous user interface design.

When designing a user interface for typing, single letter patterns should be avoided. While such a user interface design is helpful for beginning typists, it does not help them train word and word memory (typing the same letter pattern numerous times will train muscle memory). So, the goal in any user interface design is again to make the interface design fun, easy to use, practical, and flexible - in short, it is a “User” Interface Design.