Natural User Interface

Natural user interface, or NUI, is the common parlance used by designers and developers of computer interfaces to refer to a user interface that is effectively invisible, or becomes invisible with successive learned interactions, to its users. The word natural is used because most computer interfaces use artificial control devices whose operation has to be learned. A NUI relies on a user being able to carry out relatively natural motions, movements or gestures that they quickly discover control the computer application or manipulate the on-screen content. The most descriptive identifier of a NUI is the lack of a physical keyboard and/or mouse.

UI Becomes AI

With the growth of more touch-screen and multi-touch devices and hardware extensions, NUI will play a big part. Currently we can do things like drag and drop (intuitive selection), voice prompt (speech recognition), and zoom (multi-touch). But what about an invisible UI that read the movement of your eyes (via web-cam) that could interpret what you were looking at onscreen? I personally have built UI’s where you can use the web-cam to recognize movement and react based on x,y position and displacement (like the movie Minority Report).

Designing NUI

Before designing a NUI, you have to understand how the intended users use their devices. Take into consideration high viewable areas (such as the Golden Ratio) and how hands and eyes move around a limited area. White space will play a key roll in how users navigate your UI  due to how people see and identify items that invoke action. White space is also vital when dealing with touch based technologies. Putting items too close together can cause usability issues for your users. Once you have a firm understanding of your user base, design simple navigation layers and try to keep the layout as fluid as possible. Think of case scenarios where a user follows a specific path and doesn’t deviate from it. Then extrapolate that path and create variants and alternate routes, while keeping back tracking and top level navigation in mind.

Developing NUI

Developing a NUI is very tricky. You have to be able to predict scenarios and create exceptions for anomalies that don’t fall into a typical use case. Then toss on the added nuances that come with whatever hardware technologies you’re imploring into your NUI, such as speech recognition, motion detection, touch (multi, pressure sensing, and acceleration) and soon you find yourself wondering why you ever chose this career path in the first place!

Conclusion

Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) are definitely the next generation of web and application technology and deserve to be treated as such. I mean seriously, how cool would it be to not have to type (ever) and to be able to gesture to your web cam and the mouse pointer follows?  AWESOME!