An image forming apparatus is connectable to a PC and has an operation panel disposed on or in the vicinity of the image forming apparatus. When a request for acquisition of a user-interface image is received from the operation panel, the image forming apparatus creates, by using an instance, a user-interface image to be displayed on the operation panel. When a request for acquisition of a user-interface image is received from the PC, the image forming apparatus creates, by using another instance, a user-interface image to be displayed on the PC. The two instances belong to the same class.