User Experience Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for user experience researchers and experts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Please explain:
UPDATE: Leonardo Herrera's answer "The button, and its cousin hyperlink" had been selected as the answer, but a number of users took issue with this answer, so I'm opening the question back up, and have attempted to address the issues raised by adding clarifications to the question itself.
I'm surprised no one has posted this yet:
"The only intuitive user interface is the nipple. Everything else is learned."
I don't know who said it, but I'm pretty sure that's the most common user interface
The button, and its cousin hyperlink.
Well, you really asked more than one question...
Kind of a WAG, but I would say the door knob is the most common user interface in the world.
You probably meant computer interfaces, though. In that case, I'd say the search engine interface.
If you meant most often used, I'd say search engine interface again.
If you meant the most time spent using a particular interface, I'd guess the Facebook News Feed.
Toilets. Lavatories. Pissoirs.
That's my serious answer. We all use them, and we all have to learn how to use them.
There are, as far as I know, two distinct schools of thought as to how toilets should be designed: Western-style sitting vs. Eastern-style squatting. Remind you of anything? ;)
Different users use them differently (males vs. females)
They can be used differently depending on user requirements (I don't think I need to elaborate)
The different types of interface have been designed consistent with the culture of the people who use them (e.g., squatting vs. sitting on something)
It's an interface because it requires some part of the user's body to move and engage with (i.e. touch, or at least get pretty close to) the UI to make the desired thing happen.
Apologies if this comment drags the tone of this excellent post down!
Some oldschool stuff like a standard calculator emulation, a number dialer or a text entry interface like an on-screen keyboard or variations thereof?
What is the most widely used programming API, that would count as a user interface as well, right?
Light switches and faucets seems like other prime candidates as well but then again it's not clear if this is somehow limited to computerized user interfaces ^^ (of where light switches aren't really common yet but I look forward to the chaotic era when I control my bathroom faucet with my smartphone)
That's an easy one.
The most common interface in the world is the command line.
There is no computer, OS, gadget or any other technology with a chipset that can't be accessed from a CLI
The water faucet.
(Or possibly the electric socket - see below)
I read it as about interfaces to complex technical systems - the system providing clean water by means of pipes, pumps, filters etc is certainly complex. And a device to regulate volume per time of water by interaction of typically rotating an element should qualify
In terms of numbers, it's possibly the electric socket along the same lines regarding the system interaction - not sure about the relative number of homes in regions with no electricity lines, but water from a pipe system (as opposed to a well). Also, there is the higher number of sockets that faucets in buildings with both.
