You may have had an experience with a website whose interface did not meet your needs as a user. The layout of information may have been confusing, or the navigation of the site was difficult to learn and use. You may also have experienced an interface that was quite intuitive, such as a good smart phone interface. Chances are your level of satisfaction in both cases was primarily due to the system's interface design. Interface design can be considered an art, but coming up with a good interface is not just a creative, hard-to-define activity. There are some guiding principles that can help you as a systems analyst to develop interfaces that will create a positive experience for the user. Your text describes a five-step design process that will guide you to develop an interface that adheres to these principles. In this Discussion, you apply these principles to evaluate the user interface of a website.

Identify an e-commerce website whose interface has some design challenges. Evaluate the three parts of the user interface (navigation, input, and output) using the six principles of interface design (layout, content awareness, aesthetics, user experience, consistency, and minimal user effort). To which principles does the interface adhere successfully? Why? In which areas does it fall short? Explain. Choose one problem you found with the interface. Which step of the interface design process should have prevented the problem? Explain.