Intro to Design and UX — The Good Bits

This was a casual talk given at a local meetup about the Interaction, Interface and Information Design areas.

It's more or less a collection of learnings I've gathered over the years of working as a Digital Designer. I might do a more formal version of this talk at a bigger event later..

Transcript

1. DESIGN AND UX Quick intro to
2. whoami @SEREEENA DESIGNER BNZ DIGITAL
3. Let’s start with some ~misconceptions~
4. WHAT PEOPLE THINK DESIGNERS DO People think our job is to make things look good. And while it’s true, visual design is often the last, and most straightforward part, of design.
5. WHAT DESIGNERS THINK WE DO We touch on a things from HCI to Psychology… the design field is rather overlappy.
6. WHAT WE ACTUALLY DO We ask annoying questions. Are you sure that’s the problem? What if it’s the symptom of a deeper underlying problem? Will our solution make the problem worse? What are our assumptions? How do we prove/disprove them?
7. Everything we do in tech can be placed on a spectrum of user awareness.
8. User awareness Code Interaction Design Interface Design Information Design Sound + Motion Graphic Design Content Task flow, System behaviour Components that indicate controls for data manipulation Visual and abstract organisation of content; structure Audio & Movement Shapes, Symbolism, Colour, texture DESIGN
9. User awareness Code Interaction Design Interface Design Information Design Sound + Motion Graphic Design Content Task flow, System behaviour Components that indicate controls for data manipulation Visual and abstract organisation of content; structure Audio & Movement Shapes, Symbolism, Colour, texture DESIGN TODAY:
10. USABILITY RESEARCH LEAN UX (PROTOTYPING, WIREFRAMING, INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE, UI DESIGN-AFFORDANCES!-, VISUAL DESIGN, TYPOGRAPHY, ICONOGRAPHY) PRINCIPLES !
11. The first tenet of design— USER IS KING
12. The first tenet of design— USER IS KING Bear in mind: your user may not be the person who pays you. Know the difference between your client and your end user. If your end users suffer, your client suffers. So as a designer, your end users should be your first and foremost concern. And if they can’t use your app, then what’s the point? Or even if they can use it, but it’s frustrating enough that they don’t want to -- then what’s the point? That brings me to my first topic:
13. USABILITY
14. USABILITY ↑ ACCESSIBILITY
15. USABILITY Five things:
16. No one has a good time using software they don’t trust. TRUST
17. Trust is hard to build and easy to destroy. TRUST
18. • Be honest and transparent (cool it with the dark patterns) • Be consistent • Make actions reversible TRUST
19. Every new feature has a cognitive overhead on the user. EASE OF LEARNING
20. It’s easy for us to get siloed in our own apps. EASE OF LEARNING
21. • Make functionality discoverable • Have helpful error messages • Leverage common patterns EASE OF LEARNING
22. No one is a blank slate. We all have learnings and programmings from our environment and culture and that tells us what to expect.
23. • Make functionality discoverable • Have helpful error messages • Leverage common patterns — shifts mental capacity from solved problems to unsolved ones EASE OF LEARNING
24. People don’t care about fancy stuff. EFFECTIVENESS
25. People want to complete their tasks. EFFECTIVENESS
26. • Don’t get in the way • Keep animations minimal • Visual distance matters EFFECTIVENESS
27. And is it ENJOYABLE?
28. RESEARCH
29. 1. Understand the PROBLEM SPACE • Why is this a problem? • What are our assumptions here? • How does the context affect it? • How have others solved similar problems?
30. CONTEXT MATTERS. PROBLEM SPACE
31. CONTEXT MATTERS.
32. 2. Understand the SOLUTION SPACE • What user metric will we move? • When do we call it a success? • Will our solution make it worse?
33. KEEP THE SUCCESS METRIC SIMPLE. SCOPE CREEP ⇒ COGNITIVE BLOAT SOLUTION SPACE
34. Groups of people exhibiting similar behaviours. PERSONAS
35. Paint a picture of your userbase and the different ways they use your app. PERSONAS
36. PERSONAS • Test your own team • Compare your demographics to your userbase to reveal inherent biases you may have Credit to Kat from Powershop!
37. Unconscious biases are real— and will eventually hurt our products and businesses.
38. TEST
39. • Validate internally • Test externally — Get out of the building! • Get people involved early LEAN UX
40. • Design by committee? Tackling a problem with all of your toolkits LEAN UX
41. If your only tool is a hammer, you’ll treat everything as a nail.
42. If your only person is a designer, you’ll solve every problem with UI.
43. If your only person is a developer, you’ll solve every problem with code.
44. If your only person is a business lead, you’ll solve every problem with conversations.
45. If your only person is a [job title], you’ll solve every problem with [job description].
46. TACKLE THE PROBLEM WITH YOUR WHOLE TEAM Trust your team to be masters of their own toolkits. Introduce the problem to everyone, early. Save yourself headaches later on.
47. PRINCIPLES ! Take these home with you
48. • Accessibility ⇒ Usability • Stay out of people’s way • Hierarchy ⇔ Needs • Keep testing, keep measuring, keep learning • Provide visual clues and signposts • Context matters GOOD BRAIN THOUGHTS
49. • Validate your assumptions • Actions must be reversible • Constraints are not always bad • Minimalism is not always good • Avoid decision fatigue by leveraging common design patterns GOOD BRAIN THOUGHTS
50. THANKS ! Questions ? Flick them to @Sereeena