Miuka notes
Above:
After graduation, I entered the internet industry to engage in design work. A topic about how to design a good product has always been "how to improve the user experience".
In fact, user experience is not a new word, nor is it just a technical term that needs to be mentioned in the design industry.
The word user experience was first widely recognized by user experience designer Donald Norman in the mid-1990s.
In recent years, the progress of computer technology in mobile and graphics technology has made human-computer interaction technology penetrate into almost all fields of human activities, especially mobile devices, which are more and more widely accepted. This has led to a huge change-the evaluation index of the system has expanded from a simple usability project to a richer user experience. This makes the user experience (user's subjective feelings, motives, values, etc.). ) has received considerable attention in the development of human-computer interaction technology, and its attention is comparable to the traditional three usability indicators (efficiency, benefit and basic subjective satisfaction), even more important than the traditional three usability indicators.
In the process of website design, it is very important to combine the interests of different stakeholders-marketing, brand, visual design and usability. Marketing and brand promotion personnel must be integrated into the "interactive world", among which practicality is the most important. This requires people to consider marketing, brand promotion and aesthetic needs at the same time when designing websites.
User experience provides such a platform to cover the interests of all stakeholders-making the website easy to use, valuable and enjoyable for visitors. This is also the reason why the early user experience works focused on the website user experience.
The full name of this book is Elements of User Experience-User-centered Product Design, which is divided into eight chapters. 163 pages of paper is not too much, and it can be read in half a day. This time, I finished reading this classic book "Introduction to User Experience" with my friends by organizing a group reading meeting. I compare it to a must-read book to understand the user experience and improve the design thinking skills. After reading this book, I summarized a note as a new comb and review.
Think from life: In our daily life, user experience is often ignored, which leads to many embarrassing consequences in life and work. Whether it is electronic equipment or public facilities, it is estimated that everyone can think of many bad examples at once.
Many designers and producers seem to focus only on what the product will be used for, but ignore the most important point: "how the product works", user experience refers to "how the product is related to the world and works", and how users "touch" and "use" it. It emphasizes the user's experience in the process of use. "Is it difficult?" "Are you eager to learn?" "How do you feel?"
From the idea of product design in the past to the idea of emphasizing user experience design, the former is easier to design from the sensory and functional aspects of products, and it is easier to form the view that "shape obeys function". The latter often solves the comprehensive problem of application environment: it is necessary to give consideration to both visual and functional problems, and to solve other problems faced by products. The more complex the product, the more difficult it is to determine the method to provide users with a good experience.
The elements of user experience are divided into five levels: presentation layer, framework layer, structure layer, scope layer and strategy layer.
This is the most basic architecture, and only on this architecture can we discuss the problem of user experience and what tools to use to solve the problem of experience. At every level, the problems we have to deal with are abstract and concrete. At the lowest level (strategic level), we only care about how the website/product meets the goals and strategies of the enterprise and the needs of users, while at the top level, the decisions we have to make become more and more specific, involving more and more details.
Each level is determined by the level below it. When our decision is inconsistent with the top and bottom, the project will deviate from the normal track and produce a "bottom-up" chain effect.
The main concern is the needs of users outside the enterprise (what do users want from us? ) and our own expectations/product goals/business goals for the website (how much profit we have gained from this website, how much market share we occupy, etc.). )
Two questions
Three goals
What do users need from this product? We don't design for "idealized" users, but we need to know who they are and what their needs are. Through the study of user groups, we collect their information by user research and usability methods, and finally create a user role model.
If a project has no milestones, it is very troublesome to see the scope of the project and not know when it will end. Because documentation is needed to define requirements, there are two reasons:
1. Know what you want to build: Write down what you are building in detail, and everyone will know.
2. Know what you don't need to build: If you can't manage your requirements effectively, you will fall into a terrible scope spread.
Function and content
From the strategic level of "why to develop this product" to "what to develop."
The scope layer determines all functional requirements or functional specifications. At the beginning of the project, the word stands for requirements and describes what the system should do. At the end of the project, the word stands for functional specification and describes what the system really accomplished. The correct order is that functional specifications should be written after functional requirements.
Define requirements at the scope level.
The level of detail of a requirement depends on its scope. The best source of demand is to ask users and dig up demand from users.
In the scope layer, it is essential to write functional specifications. Documentation can't solve the problem, but the definition can, so it needs to be clear and accurate enough.
Why write a functional requirements document?
For a project with a lot of content, a lot of information of the content is recorded in a content list, which may be boring, but it can let every member of the team know what they will do for the user experience.
How to determine the priority
1. Sometimes a strategic goal may correspond to multiple demands, and sometimes a demand may meet multiple strategic goals. So we need to consider not only whether these requirements can meet our two goals, but also "feasibility". Some will not be realized due to technical limitations, and some need to be put into the next version due to limited time. Few functions exist independently. Only by considering a certain feature and other parts can we get a coherent and unified overall product.
2. Conflicts with strategic planners often occur. If you can ensure that the characteristics they are concerned about can be expressed in another form and meet their needs, then solving the problem will be much smoother, which requires any member of the team to master communication skills.
Similarities and differences between interaction design and information architecture
About interaction design
1. The user's view of "how interactive components will work" is called a conceptual model. For example, the conceptual model of "shopping cart" in a typical e-commerce website is a container. This conceptual model will affect its visual design and interface language. However, it may be valuable to put the metaphor of the corresponding object in the real world into the conceptual model, but don't copy it word for word. Never "overuse".
2. Interaction design will deal with errors at each level to ensure that a higher proportion of users can have a positive experience.
Information architecture
As long as there is information to be transmitted between people, it must be selected and organized to ensure that others can understand and use it. Information construction studies the process of how people perceive information and pays attention to whether the information presented to users is reasonable and meaningful.
Classification system of information construction;
1. From top to bottom, the structural design is carried out from the strategic level. But the limitation is that important details are ignored.
2. The bottom-up architecture method is driven by the scope layer, which shows that Ken can lead the architecture to reflect the existing content too accurately and cannot flexibly adapt to the changes or additions of future content.
3. The adaptable information architecture is easy to use. It can accommodate new content as a part of the existing structure or add new content as an integral part.
4. The basic unit of information architecture is a node, which can be as small as a number or as large as a library. At that time, we were dealing with nodes, not pages, documents or components.
Common hierarchy types
1. Matrix structure: allows nodes to move along two or more dimensions.
2. Natural structure: It does not follow any consistent pattern and has no strong concept of "classification", which is more suitable for entertainment or educational websites that want to encourage free exploration.
3. Linear structure: According to the rural media you are most familiar with, coherent language flow is the most basic type of information structure.
Organizational principles:
The organizational principles you use at the top of the product should be closely related to "website goals" and "user needs". The lower level, content and functional requirements in the structure will have a great influence on the organizational principles you adopt.
Language and metadata
1. controlled dictionary
Controlled dictionaries are a set of standard languages used by websites, which help to establish consistency in all content and provide clear resources to ensure that everyone can use the user's language. Another more elaborate application method is to create a "dictionary of similar words" to provide common words that are not included in the standard language of this website for selection.
It is very important to "use the user's language" and "maintain consistency".
2. Metadata
Information refers to information that describes content in a structured way.
(1) Your website can dynamically link a group of pages related to a certain topic, and no one needs to do anything extra, as long as their metadata always uses the same phrase. (2) Good metadata can provide more reliable search results than basic full-text search engines, and help users find information in websites more quickly.
Roles and processes
The main documents of information architecture and interaction design are schematic diagram and visual presentation structure, which is the most efficient way to express the relationship between branches/groups/components.
A visual dictionary is a system that provides graphic structures from very simple to very complex. (similar to the workflow we commonly use in our work now)
Three elements: 1. Interface design II. Navigation design 3. Information design.
1. The ability to provide users with something belongs to "interface design".
What interface designers need to do is to select the correct interface elements that can help users complete tasks, and make them easy to understand and use in an appropriate way. What needs to be done: important things can be seen at a glance, and don't pay attention to unimportant things.
2. Providing users with the ability to go to a certain place belongs to "navigation design";
Several common navigation systems:
(1) global navigation (you can get there from global navigation wherever you want to go)
(2) Local navigation: In this framework, users are provided with access to "nearby places".
(3) Auxiliary navigation: Provides shortcuts to related content that cannot be reached by global or local navigation.
(4) contextual navigation: also known as inline navigation (a kind of navigation embedded in page content, such as hyperlinks in text).
(5) Friendly navigation (providing users with links they usually don't need)
(6) Website map (giving users a concise and quick way to browse the overall structure of a single-page website)
(7) Index table (alphabetical list with links to related pages)
If you want to convey your ideas to users, it belongs to "information design".
Sometimes information design is visual, and sometimes information design involves "grouping" or "sorting" scattered information. The most important thing is to classify and arrange these information elements in a way that can "reflect users' thinking" and "support their tasks and goals". The interface not only collects user information, but also presents information to users.
abstract
At this level, it mainly solves the problem of placement, solves and makes up for the perceptual presentation problem of "logical arrangement of product framework layer", where content/function and aesthetics come together to produce a final design, complete all the goals of the other four levels, and satisfy the sensory feelings of users.
Deciding how the design is finally felt by people's sensory organs consists of five aspects: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, and what will be included in the design is determined by our product type.
Evaluate the questions you need to ask.
One of the simple methods to evaluate product visual design, this paper puts forward several questions: where does the line of sight fall first? Which design element attracted the user's attention for the first time? Is it important for strategic goals? Did the first thing you noticed run counter to their goal?
Two characteristics of successful design
Contrast and consistency
Color scheme and typesetting
Design synthesis and style guide
No matter how complex the product is, the elements of the user experience are the same. The ultimate task of creating a good user experience is to collect a lot of very subtle problems that need to be solved urgently.
The difference between "successful method" and "doomed method" can be summed up in two points:
These five factors must be considered simultaneously, which is very important to create a successful user experience. It is important to have someone in charge, but it is more important to ensure that all user experiences are valued.
The author compares the process of user experience development to "marathon" rather than "sprint". Only by knowing the type of competition you participate in can you compete in an appropriate way. Sprint is to run as fast as possible and reach the finish line quickly. A successful marathon depends on how effectively athletes control their own speed, until "when to accelerate" and "when to slow down" to win the race or even completely end the race.
Everything related to the user experience of the website is the result of conscious and clear decision. Only in this way can we ensure that the website meets your strategic goals and user needs at the same time.