Technology in use: The importance of good interface design

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design (IxD) are fields that acknowledge that understanding users' is at the core of successful design for all interactive products. User-centred design is about developing products that are easy, effective and enjoyable to use from the users' perspective. Furthermore, interactive products with engaging usable interfaces positively influence user experience and performance. On the other hand, we could question if there is a user interface to an application or interactive system that is equally effective and appealing to all types of users. The paper briefly introduces relevant concepts and presents a number of approaches to interface evaluation that support design and development of usable interactions. Conducted empirical research in different application domains paves the way to design methodologies for efficient assessment of different interfaces and forms of interaction. Since developed evaluation approaches proved successful, they could be reused by other researchers in the field due of their systematic structure.