History Main / ViewerFriendlyInterface

* The space ship the protagonists spend most of ''Literature/WillSaveTheGalaxyForFood'' has a control system described as "straight out of a poorly researched movie." As an absurdly opulent model, the pilot's controls are designed to look good to the owner rather than to actually be usable. This results in all those practical dials and switches being removed and everything but the control sticks being run from a touch screen, and some critical systems like weapon countermeasures being hidden in submenus.

* Generally {{averted}} in ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' trilogy. A particular example is in ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'', with Trinity working with a bog-standard Unix command-line interface to launch what is a plausible-looking attack.
** {{Inverted|Trope}} with the famous [[MatrixRainingCode green-scrolling text effect]]. Cypher tells Neo that the Matrix is just too complex to show on a screen and the green text is a simplified version that trained humans can read. Really, this lets the characters simply describe what they see instead of the directors needing to create unique footage. When the characters are using the Construct, a simpler version of the Matrix they control, they can display live video at very low resolution and framerate.

* Used in ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' when Frenzy is hacking into the Air Force One computer.

* The novel ''Literature/JurassicPark'' avoids the movie's extreme graphic display by presenting a basic command prompt. Creator/MichaelCrichton apparently enjoyed the movie interface, as the book for ''Literature/TheLostWorld1995'' uses a highly sophisticated mosaic display. It also [[LampshadeHanging winks and nods]] at the uselessness of the movie's 3D display, since the resident whiz kid is unable to use it, it is horribly cumbersome, and it's actually just a severe distraction as the characters are trying to barricade themselves from the dinosaur attack.

* {{Averted|Trope}}, for the most part, in ''Film/TheMillenniumTrilogy'', with both Blomkvist's and Salander's computers clearly being Apple computers that actually run UsefulNotes/MacOS. All of the software that both of them run are standard Mac applications, with the particular exception of Salander's hacking program being different, appearing to instead be more UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} based.

** Sometimes people will be seen using computers in a fairly normal fashion - for example, Dexter's home computer, which changes around a bit but mostly looks like some brand of Linux, or UsefulNotes/MacOS.

* Even independent films aren't exempt from this! The Website/YouTube film ''Bradley's Summer'', created as a project by middle school students, uses an enormous font in an [=AOL=] Instant Messenger conversation so it is readable to the viewers.

* Early in the show, ''Series/{{Castle}}'' would speculate about the cool TV-friendly software and equipment they were going to use, only to be disappointed by the mundane stuff actually used by the police. The police would then lampshade the trope and Castle falling for it. Later, ''Castle'' started playing the trope straight, showing computer forensics with Hollywood-friendly graphical interfaces.

# During the database search, the items from the DB will be compared side-to-side with the search query on the screen with the speed of several items per second. Which, while may appear superhumanly fast for regular viewer, is actually cripplingly slow for a computer. This doesn't prevent the search from being finished in several seconds though, regardless of the supposed size of the DB and the complexity of the comparison.

[[caption-width-right:300:"How nice of my phone to tell me what button I literally ''just pressed''. [[FridgeLogic Wait]], since when do phones have a button for ignoring a text message?!?"[[note]]On feature phones, pressing the hang-up key would ignore the message -- a helpful function not available to almost all smartphones.[[/note]]]]

* The CBC kids' spy show ''Spynet'' had the main character (a spy) infiltrating villains' homes (normal suburban houses) and hacking their computers (Windows 95). An amusing aversion.

Contrast with UnusualUserInterface. Also see TechnologyPorn, PopUpTexting, and ExtremeGraphicalRepresentation. SuperTrope of PiecemealFundsTransfer, when cybernetic funds are transferred gradually and you can see that process on-screen.

* All UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}} must be huge, and the resolution must be ridiculously low. This doesn't apply when displaying program code, which must be too small to read.
* All applications must be run almost full screen -- there is no multitasking on television. Windows may show in the background, but they might as well be wallpaper for all anyone uses them. Conversely, even where the user is trying to concentrate on doing just one thing, it will not be possible to quite eliminate the off-putting spinning graphics and useless other windows.
* All makers of police database software must put extra effort in making the user interface have pizazz. The UI must have distracting and superfluous widgets, animations, and nonsensical bits of technical-sounding text and random numbers.
* The application interfaces must not conform to any established UI development standards. They must not share common interface conventions even between themselves (for instance, the facial recognition database cannot in any way function like or resemble the ballistics matching database).
* Superfluous animation and sound is required. When sending an e-mail, for example, it is useful to have an animation of the message folding itself into an envelope and flying off into the ether, accompanied by a synthesized woman's voice informing the user that the email is being sent. When searching through any database (such as a fingerprint database), it is useful to flash an image of each search failure just to let you know the program is working. (In RealLife, this would increase the search time by a factor of 10 or more.)
* During the database search, the items from the DB will be compared side-to-side with the search query on the screen with the speed of several items per second. Which, while may appear superhumanly fast for regular viewer, is actually cripplingly slow for a computer. This doesn't prevent the search from being finished in several seconds though, regardless of the supposed size of the DB and the complexity of the comparison.
* [[HighlyVisiblePassword Passwords are never obscured by asterisks as they are typed]]. [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish Passwords are always simple, non-case-sensitive English words]], and never a random combination of numbers and letters.
* Text being displayed, such as incoming email, must appear on the screen one letter at a time, as if it is typed in right then.
* [[BeepingComputers Bleeping sound effects]] accompany every button press, action and event to make sure everyone understands that computer interaction is happening.
* All computers running in a scientific institution display a spinning DNA helix, positioned in a top corner, at all times. Atoms with electrons on fixed paths are a popular alternative.
* If the interface talks, you can expect it to audibly announce every single function and command, no matter how irrelevant or routine.
* Any kind of graphics manipulation software will be positively controlled with keyboard only, and the amount of clicking noises is the sole factor determining the effectiveness of operation. All manipulation is done on rectangles, which are selected automatically and then zoom in to fill the screen, line by line. [[EnhanceButton Arbitrary zooms and other image enhancements]] work instantly and on any input; a single pixel of source from a surveillance camera is just about enough to extract a hidden message written with a substance only visible in ultraviolet light.
* Computer equipment is highly sensitive to concerned looks, grunting "hmmm"s, and crossed arms. Two or three people possessing the above, standing behind the person operating the computer, will immediately unlock just the right functions needed in the software.
* Every operation for the computer brings up a titled progress bar. This bar will be enormous, color-coded, will obscure the entire screen, and will always say something like "Hacking Into Pentagon: 45% Complete." And, most unbelievably for anyone who has used a real computer, [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking this progress bar will be]] [[ExactProgressBar entirely accurate]].
* Computers can tell what type of file you have not just down to the file extension, but ''what it does'', providing such prompts as "Downloading Virus" or "Uploading Medicine." As shown in the example above, computers can also calculate how long things will take and how far you have got even when it is a hit-or-miss event like finding the top secret plans or Cracking Into Pentagon.
* Touch-screens may be prominently involved, though most aren't installed the right way: they're nearly vertical when they should be nearly flat. It has been proven that constantly raising your hand to touch a screen over a long period of time is unnatural and uncomfortable, to the extent that those in the field have dubbed it "gorilla arm."
* The presence of malware on a network triggers effects such as melting, channel swapping and white noise on all monitors connected to the network. Alternatively, the Malware creates extremely flashy displays like an animated rotating 3D skull laughing with the appropriate audio as they do their damage.
* Because ALL your users are important, not just the legitimate ones, people caught trying to hack in will be shown blazing skull graphics and screaming sound effects, rather than say just cutting off their access or reporting the illegal access attempt to the control room.

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* In the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime, Kaiba goes to his HackerCave and uses a computer that follows almost all of the above rules to break into Pegasus's secret database (it does multitask, but then again the screen is 2 by 3 metres). Seeing as it's also commenting on his mood, it might be more advanced than it looks like.
* The Magi from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' use a particularly flashy multi-layered holographic interface, and see fit to blank out every display in [[TheWarRoom Central Dogma]] if something bad happens. Which it inevitably does. With great frequency.

* Another notable aversion in ''[[Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', which doesn't use anything more complex than Windows XP. This includes computer-heavy episode ''The day of Sagittarius'', in which Yuki hacks a multiplayer game on the fly by typing C++ code extremely fast in an enormous amount of command line windows in, yes, Windows XP. What she appeared to have actually programmed is a patch that would modify the game when executed, even while the game was running. On the command line, the second to last command is "C:\> bcc32 -W [=SimInject=].cc", which compiled whatever she wrote, and the last one is "C:\> [=SimInject=].exe", executing it. Aside from all the windows she used to apparently write only one file, [[ShownTheirWork computers do work this way.]]

* Often played for comedy in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' with Gunmen interfaces sprouting a number of whimsical, spontaneously generated, and often personal icons, like when Kamina first tried to pilot the Gurren and the monitors seemed to be displaying a "No Kaminas" sign.
* Many ''[[RealRobotGenre Real Robot]]'' shows seem to have bizarrely simple cockpit configurations... how the hell can you make a [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam giant robot fence with a steering wheel]] or even fight at all in a melee combat using only two joysticks and some pedals?
* The aesthetic of the ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' anime franchise is partly defined by its distinct manner of visualizing the Net and human-computer interaction, replete with oversized flashing letters, completion bars, dials, meters and windows floating in space. Also, the OS wars seem to be over - every single computer display uses the same look.
* Partially averted and partially played straight in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure''. Izzy's laptop is a BlandNameProduct of Apple's products and generally does a good job of behaving as such, but occasionally things in the vein of this trope happen, like Gennai walking across the screen to deliver a spoken message. In the second and [[Anime/DigimonAdventure02 fourth]] films, the computers there are Windows 95/98 and generally act the part, again with a few viewer-friendly oddities like the captured and emailed Kuramon in the fourth appearing on the desktop and being moved by Izzy into a virtual refrigerator sitting in the middle of said desktop, and all the emails in the second Japanese opening up of their own accord upon receipt.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Gundam Evolve 10'', a CG short based off of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ''. Judau is in his ZZ-GR, talking to Roux through a video screen, when a new message starts to appear. An annoyed Roux grabs the new message frame and tries to shut it by physically squeezing it, growling "Stay out of this!" She manages to squash it down into a sound only transmission, but can't keep a grip on it and falls on her butt as it assumes its proper place on Judau's screen.

* The space ship the protagonists spend most of ''Literature/WillSaveTheGalaxyForFood'' has a control system described as "straight out of a poorly researched movie." As an absurdly opulent model, the pilot's controls are designed to look good to the owner rather than to actually be usable. This results in all those practical dials and switches being removed and everything but the control sticks being run from a touch screen, and some critical systems like weapon countermeasures being hidden in submenues..

* Averted in an episode of ''Series/LaFemmeNikita''. The screens have about the font size you'd expect on a real computer, so that things have to be shown in close-up, and the series's computer geek, as VoiceWithAnInternetConnection, first explains to Nikita how to find a process ID and then tells her to type in "kill -9" to make it stop--bog-standard UNIX.

* In the British miniseries ''Series/TheLastEnemy'' every computer reads every single word on the screen in a synthesised voice, ''even those the user typed in themselves''. Apparently TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture default computer settings assume impared vision and are very difficult to change.

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' plays with this. While the "[=CookieOS=]" that controls the cookie robots is fairly normal, it does mean that a completely functional GUI operating system was created specifically for the purpose of controlling the robots.