design

john barr cs205 advanced web programming

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design define design? – a plan for the construction of an object– “form meets function”– many solutions

what are concepts are involved in good design? – functionality– usability– aesthetics– consistency– simplicity– organization

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Design of Everyday Things on Amazon

Give an example of something that is well designed (NOT electronic)

Interactive Design Define interactive design? – a plan for the construction of an service or event– flow– marry goals with user requirements

Interactive Design involves – Cognitive Psychology

• metaphor, affordances, expectations

– Human-Computer Interaction– User Interface Design

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XXX-Centered Design Organization-Centered – assumes prior knowledge– overwhelming at first but useful in the end–  e.g., blackboard, hospital intranet

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XXX-Centered Design Organization-Centered – assumes prior knowledge– overwhelming at first but useful in the end–  e.g., blackboard, Hospital intranet

Technology-Centered – start with bleeding-edge tool

•  e.g., Flash, HTML5, iPod

– build site around tool– learn new skills

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XXX-Centered Design Organization-Centered

Technology-Centered

Design-Centered – Cool, Colorful, Hip– Overwhelming– Hard to Use

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XXX-Centered Design Organization-Centered

Technology-Centered

Design-Centered

problem: forces user to learn/adapt to product

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Human-Centered Design Designed around target audience

Extensive user testing at each stage – generate ideas– validate assumptions– evaluate potential

Focus on tasks & goals – Who is the user? (profile) – What do they want to do? (task)– Why are they doing it? (goal)

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Human-Centered Design Visibility

– User can predict what to do based on visual inspection

Accessibility – ease of information gathering– navigation, search, table of contents, page numbers– chunking – breaking info down into bites size pieces

Legibility – Easy to read– Contrast, Font, Font Size

– Kindle vs. iPad

Language -  short, meaningful sentences -  using simple words

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Human-Centered Design Ethnographic studies – observe, interview, survey

1. Comparative Analysis2. Use Cases3. Participatory Design Session4. Prototype Testing5. Usability Testing6. Design for Errors

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In practice 1. Idea Generation

2. Initial Research

3. The Design Cycle

4. Development

5. Testing

6. Launch

7. Maintenance

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Idea Generation Starts with as a seed and grows when natured – Brainstorm– Bounce your ideas off colleagues

• knowledge about domain• brutal honesty• open to suggestion but stand ground

– Reflection– Simplify to core idea

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In practice 1. Idea Generation

2. Initial Research– Explore existing sites

• Comparative Analysis

– Identify your audience– Develop personas, use cases, & storyboards

3. The Design Cycle

4. Development

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Initial Research Comparative Analysis – Closely examine similar sites– Create a feature matrix– List strengths & weaknesses– Identify defining features

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Initial Research Target Audience– Demographic Information

• Objective, Factual Information• Age, gender, geographic location, education

– Psychographic Profile• Political & Religious Beliefs• Environmentalist, Socially Conscious• Fun Loving, Hard Working• Free-spirited, family-oriented• Lover of Music, Movies, Dance, Wine, Food, Video Games

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What audience are the following sites addressing? Look them up now.

http://www.disney.com

https://www.fidelity.com/growing-managing-wealth/overview

www.NOAA.GOV/

Example: Fidelity web site

Fidelity brokerage customers living in large sities with balances of at least $250,000 who have conducted at least three online strock trades in the last three weeks and who have clicked on the Trade button on the Fidelity home page.

2 demographic characteristics (location, wealth)2 characteristics on interest and history.

What demographics are identified in the following description?

The audience for the LeftyStuff Web site is potential purchasers of LeftyStuff products who have responded to one of LeftyStuff’s banner ads and are interested in items designed especially for left-handed people. Most are adults, equally divided among men and women, between the ages of 25 and 50, who live in the US or Canada, are sports-minded, and have family incomes greater than $50,000. Most have never visited the site before.

Steps in defining the audienceAsk your client the following questions about site visitors:

Who are they?

Why are they at the site?

How did they get there?

How old are they? What’s the range of their ages?

Where do they live?

What gender are they? Mostly men/women? why?

How wealthy are they compared to the rest of the population?

What’s their history of dealing with your organization? What have they done before at your web site?

Are there any common characteristics that stand out?

Exercise

Talk with the people on either side of you and describe the audience for a web site for Mac’s store. Write your description on a whiteboard.

Initial Research Personas & Use Cases (Scenarios)

Alice, 22 years old, just moved to Philly, recent college graduate, barista at local coffee shop, likes Franz Ferdinand, hates sports, owns an iPod

Wants to passively discover good alternative rock bands and small venues/bars in Fishtown. Turns on her iPod, and goes to megsradio.com. Sees list of local bands and their types of music. Clicks on one and one of the band's songs starts to play.

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Initial Research Personas & Use Cases

Nurse collecting medical history at a doctor's office Initial assumption: The patient has seen a medical receptionist who has created a record in the system and collected the patient’s personal information (name, address, age, etc.). A nurse is logged on to the system and is collecting medical history.

Normal: The nurse searches for the patient by family name. If there is more than one patient with the same surname, the given name (first name in English) and date of birth are used to identify the patient.The nurse chooses the menu option to add medical history.The nurse then follows a series of prompts from the system to enter information about consultations elsewhere on mental health problems (free text input), existing medical conditions (nurse selects conditions from menu), medication currently taken (selected from menu), allergies (free text), and home life (form).

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Initial Research Storyboarding

Bobby comes to SITE after doing a Google search for “central new york indie rock”.

He see a link that says “promote your band”.

He is asked to create a login, which he does

He enters a myProfile portal

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Initial Research Storyboarding

Bobby comes to SITE after doing a Google search for “central new york indie rock”.

He see a link that says “promote your band”.

He is asked to create a login, which he does

He enters a myProfile portal

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Initial Research Storyboarding

Bobby comes to SITE after doing a Google search for “central new york indie rock”.

He see a link that says “Promote your Band”.

He comes to a pages that show “Bands we are Currently Promoting” with images, links to free music downloads, lists of upcoming events

He sees a “Start Promoting Your Band” button

This takes him to a “walk through” account creation interaction…

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In practice 1. Idea Generation

2. Initial Research

3. The Design Cycle1. Additional Research

2. Rapid PrototypingWireframes, UI Mockups, Prototypes

3. Test the crap out of it4. Repeat until (some) users rave about it

4. Development

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Repeat initial research steps as necessary (feedback loop)

The Design Cycle Wireframes – paper prototype

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The Design Cycle Wireframes – layout & flow

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Demo%

The Design Cycle User Interface Mockup – look & feel

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Demo%

Prototype

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Demo%

Prototyping Tools

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Prototyping Tools

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The Design Cycle Individual Testing – Collect Demographic and Psychographic info– Ask about experience with related web site– Step through Prototype & Ask Subject to

“verbalize” thoughts– Take notes– Be welcoming– Ask for feedback & suggestions

Scale of testing becomes larger as design progresses.

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Design Cycle Summary Wireframes – boxes & text UI Mockup – colors, images, layout Prototype – HTML & CSS, limited functionality

Testing at after stage Don’t move on until it is perfect Use tools to help you rapidly prototype

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The Product 1. Idea Generation

2. Initial Research

3. The Design Cycle

4. Development

5. Testing

6. Launch

7. Maintenance

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8 Random Tips Design webpages that load quickly

– Keep graphics to a minimum to reduce load times– Compress all images and videos

Simplify navigation

Be consistent with fonts, colors and menus – Choose good color scheme – ask photoshop– Keep sufficient contrast between the text and background.

Use plenty of “white space”

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8 Random Tips Don't overuse flashing/animated graphics.

No pop-up windows – AJAX coming soon…

Provide users with a way to contact you

Preview website on many different platforms – OSs, Browsers, Form Factors

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resources – boxes and arrows

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resources – a list apart

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resources – Bad Designs

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Aside: Virality What does viral mean?

Socially: people recommend to friends

Mathematically: the growth rate is > 1.0 !  (1.1)^n (exponential growth) !  (0.9)^n (exponential decay)

But sometimes a site needs a little PR nudge…

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