Interaction Design: Week 5 Outside of Class

This weekend I read Chapter 1 of Interface Design. Here are my notes:

User interface (UI) design brings together a team of specialists in order to create a successful interactive experience for the user

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS IN THE UI TEAM

interface design is a complex process involving the UI design team, the target users and the client
it is an iterative process, with phases of user research, ideation, testing, building, and further testing
graphic design is not about designing a graphic; it is about designing effective visual communication
aesthetics is an integral part of the users' experience of any interface

it guides them towards key interactions in the UI, allowing them to achieve their goals

NEITHER MARS NOR VENUS

information architects create the interactive structure
user experience (UX) designers create the experience
developers create clean UI code
graphic designers communicate the UI's visual hierarchy, functionality and interaction

a great designer will work within the constraints of the brief - such as budget, accessibility, target user, and available technology - shaping the visual elements of text and image to communicate the content and navigation

T-SHAPED DESIGNERS

t-shaped designers have deep specialist knowledge of their own discipline
the vertical body of a capital 'T' represents this specialist knowledge
the designers also develop a secondary contextual knowledge of how other disciplines work, and a broader tertiary understanding of socio-cultural, political, ethical, ecological, economic, and technological contexts
in the T metaphor, these secondary and tertiary levels of non-specialist knowledge form the top bar of the capital T

DESIGNING FOR INTERACTIVE FLOW

If the UI is well designed, the user's experience is a positive and subconscious enjoyment of the interaction
but if the UI's design causes problems, the flow is disturbed and the user is jolted out of that immersion
three questions that should be kept in mind are:

THE GRAPHIC DESIGNER IN THE FLOW

in the existing conceptual framework o fate UI design process, there is a tendency to place the graphic designer at the end of the flow under a title of 'visual design.'
however, the graphic designer can make valuable contributions to the look and feel of the UI right from the beginning of a UI project

This diagram shows which design specialism should take the lead for that part of the process.

USERS ARE KING (NOT YOU)

a smooth interactive flow is the result of thorough research, implemented into clear information architecture
the client is not the actual end user
the desires of the client and the needs of the user must be balanced so that the client gets a return on their investment (ROI), and the user is provided with a satisfying interface
this can be achieved by conducting deeper user research, involving the user at each stage of the design process in one way or another

This diagram show where the USER fits into the design process - the user needs to be a constant focus in the design of a UI

DEFINING THE USER

so, who is a user, in terms of UIs?
Product designer Philippe Starck has a method of re-humanizing the people that his team designs for
he insists that his designers refer to them not as 'users', but with terms such as 'my friend', 'my partner', 'my mother', or 'my father'
by personalizing the user in this way, Starch forces his designers to instill in the otherwise abstract user a human persona
in this way, designing for their goals will be easier, as their personality can be catered for

DESIGNING PERSONAS

a user persona is an important tool in the designer's toolkit
it is an archetype (not a stereotype) created to represent the target user(s) in a form that will inspire the design team
personas are essentially a character sheet created from information gathered during research into the UI's typical users
Persona components:

Interaction Design