270 likes | 374 Views
User Centered Interface Design. Making things easy for your users...and yourself. The following things have probably happened to you…. Because you’re stupid? No. Lack of user input results in poor design decisions. How does this happen?!?. YOUR USERS.
E N D
User Centered Interface Design Making things easy for your users...and yourself
YOUR USERS You (the programmer) are not your users.
The best way to design your interface: Follow the 5 E’s of Usability *Effective *Efficient *Engaging *Error Tolerant *Easy to Learn
How do I know if my design is user-friendly? Do some quick and simple usability testing. Usability testing is setting a series of tasks for people to complete and noting any problems they encounter.
Goals of a Usability Test *Determine design inconsistencies and usability problem areas within user interface. *Establish baseline user performance *Validate concerns *Save $$
Before/After Example: Groupon • Immediately asks for the user's email address • Plain and basic • Conveys next-to-no information about what a user could "save 50 percent to 90 percent" on. Before
Before/After Example: Groupon • Contemporary sidebar navigation that breaks down popular categories for savings and deals • Beautiful, large photography • Search feature After
Before/After Example: USAToday • Cluttered mass of text-based links. • The visual content was practically an afterthought -- after all, of the two largest images on the homepage, one is a display advertisement located at the bottom of the page. • The logo feels dated and the color scheme uninviting, utilizes primarily blue text on white background Before
Before/After Example: USAToday • Utilizes best practices relating to layout and site navigation • Visually appealing, with clean, crisp images of newsworthy stories. • Offers users the ability to scroll horizontally through the top stories just as you would a print magazine. In fact, the entire experience is very reminiscent of a tablet app, and the site now outshines its competitors. After
Usability testing is like test driving a car...for your design. Would you buy a car without test driving it first?
You can test ANYTHING • Hand drawn sketch • Forms • Wireframes • Screenshots • HTML prototype • Live site • API • Ct. Management System • Software • New Programs
How do I conduct a usability test? My friend Matt explains how. • 3-6 people, in your typical user demographic • Ask them to do a task, without telling them where to navigate to • The user is never wrong! If they don’t go to the right place, ask them why they made that particular decision and use the feedback to correct your design. • The biggest design mistakes will be pointed out by most of the participants, such as “I can’t read the text” or “I don’t know where to go next”.
Profit Swim in piles of money because you saved your boss time and money and your users love your design.