Horde User Interface Design
Notes and potential procedures for good design. http://www.lukew.com/ff/ and http://designingwebinterfaces.com/ are the source for many of these
Patterns/component libraries
Design Consideration
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?754
- Pattern Recognition: allows us to identify relationships within information. (the data).
- Story Telling: gives us a way to organize data into something meaningful by focusing on a big idea and supporting messages (the synthesis).
- Visual Hierarchy: gives us a way to tell the story effectively (the means).
- Empathy: allows us to make the story memorable and impactful (the meaning).
Behaviors
Local factors
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?752
- Connection speed (broadband penetration)
- Index size (scale of local language content available)
- Task behaviors (bargaining in shopping)
- Infrastructure (transportation, electricity)
- Language characteristics (left to right, right to left, alphabetic vs. non, length)
- Desktop penetration
- Mobile penetration
- Literacy rates
- Demographics (age skew)
- Cultural symbols (icon semiotics)
- Visual conventions (color associations)
- Work conventions
- Cultural dimensions
- Expected visual density
Sketches
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?747
- In some organization, developers are doing design. How can we deal with this?
- Parallel design: have several developers attempt to solve the problem at the same time. Parallel design means we get to hear from everybody
- 5 Sketches: saturate the design space, mash up the ideas, get to a pretty good solution, analyze it, and deliver a written statement
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?749
- We are taught to think that drawing is about making things look realistic.
- But drawing is really about getting ideas down on a page. Think of it as another vocabulary that enables discussion.
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?748
- Clients want great experiences and they want them fast
- Traditionally designers use wireframes to explore designs but they only focus on a single page of the experience at a time.
- We need a process to explore ideas without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail. It needs to reveal the best of multiple options and gets everyones input and buy-in.
- Sketching: explore and find lots of ideas (exploratory sketching) or gain convergence (refinement sketching).
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?750
- Use quick sketches in the early stages of a project
- Ensure you do lots of sketches so many ideas come forward
- Discuss and edit the sketches collaboratively
- Build consensus and buy-in through this process
Swimlanes
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?745
- UX swimlanes outline a birds eye view of a story, scenario, or component for sponsors, designers, businesses, and engineers.