A method for providing a user interface and control apparatus

The present invention relates to a method for providing a user interface and operating device. In the inventive method is generated a first input signal to the actuation of an operating element (5) for a first time interval (.DELTA.t1), and generates to the actuation of the operating element (5) for a second time interval (At2) a second input signal, wherein the second time interval ( At2) ​​is longer than the time interval (.DELTA.t1) is. The inventive method is characterized in that after the initial operation (t0) of the operating element (5), a message is output that different input signals are generated in dependence on the duration of the actuation of the operating element (5). Moreover, the invention relates to an operating device for carrying out this method.