Designing The Interface For Use

DESIGNING INTERFACE

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“Like putting an Armani suit on Attila the Hun, interface design only tells how to dress up an existing behavior.” – Alan Cooper

TRANSFORM YOUR FLOWSMaking pages out of boxes and arrows

A task analysis

From Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, this is a task analysis for a website for Sundance film festival, featuring a schedule

planner

Each task could have a page

First Yahoo 1994

1995: first graphic logo

Remind you of something?

Including the schedule creator tool…

Wizards: Many boxes,many pages

Use Wizards:

‣ When users want to accomplish a goal that has many steps. Wizards are good at making sure you don’t miss a step.

‣ When the steps must be completed in order. Wizards are linear, so it’s impossible to complete them any other way.

‣ When the task is seldom performed. Wizards can seem slow and plodding, so they are best used in tasks you do only once in a while, like setting up a printer.

‣ The audience is not technically savvy and is likely to be confused by a page with a lot of choices on it. A Web site can have novice users, and a wizard makes complex tasks seem easy.

‣ Bandwidth is low and downloading a single big page could take forever, or the tasks require several server calls, which would also slow the page’s load.

‣ The task has several steps in it, performed only once a visit, such as checkout.

DESIGN A WIZARDTask:

WHAT SHOULD BE A WIZARDDiscuss:

You can group tasks together

Control Panel

You see them on software in preferences, set occasionally, by experts

On the web, they are often account settings

DESIGN A CONTROL PANELTask

WHAT SHOULD BE A CONTROL PANELDiscuss

TOOLBARSBring the settings and the thing modified together

What if we put the tasks with the thing they were modifying?

It’s a toolbar

Tools here Item affected here

Toolbars

Tools here Item affected here

And here

And here

Photoshop: toolbars on steroids

The web uses toolbars more sparingly

ToolbarsTools here

Item affected here

A simpler design is better for

infrequent use.

GROUP LIKE ITEMSLocation, palette

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DRAW A PLACE SETTING – 30 SECONDS

Fork, spoon, knife

An Interface is like a table setting, the tools you need are next to the food you eat. Content is the meal.

Two videos sites.The “meal” is the video, and the tools to consume (or play with) it

are arrayed around the main meal.

(P.S. There are toolbars too)

Why is the response so far from the invitation?

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ARTICLE OF CLOTHING:WHAT TOOLS WHERE?

Task

ZONE YOUR PAGE

When designing the page, group items by similarity and similarity of task (navigation items together, editing items together)

Give them visual importance based on user number, usage frequency and importance to business.

‣ Create “zones” for functionality groups.

‣ You can group them by putting white space around them, or use lines

‣ Remember to keep tools close to the thing your working on

Zone this page

ZONE YOUR HOMEPAGE

HOW TO MAKE A WIREFRAME IN 30 SECONDS

Draw a rectangle

Add global elements

‣ Next, add the key zones

‣ Start with a list of elements, perhaps written on post its. Group them, then find them homes on your page.

‣ The fill in the actual elements

FINALLY, ANNOTATE

Consider

‣ Where does the content come from? If you have a list of related articles, specify how they’re related. Are they the most viewed? Most viewed from that section?

‣ What is the nature of the content? Does it vary greatly in length, size, language, and type?

‣ Is the element required or optional? What happens if the element doesn’t appear on that page? Does the layout change?

‣ Is the element conditional? Does it vary based on other factors? For example, do administrators see additional links? What happens if an article doesn’t have an associated image? What if it does?

‣ What’s the default or expected state? Ideally, what’s supposed to happen on the page.

‣ What are the alternate or error states? How does the design change when things don’t go right?

INTERFACE INGREDIENTSWhat goes in your wireframes?

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HEADER

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TODAY’S CLASS

CORE PRINCIPLES & CONSIDERATIONS

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THE LANGUAGE OF INTERFACE

LayoutObjectsTypeColorLineHierarchyRelationships

INTERACTIVE (DOING)Affordances HUDFeedbackModesInputNavigation

GRAPHICAL (UNDERSTANDING)

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INTERACTIVE INTERFACE DESIGN

DOING

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THE LANGUAGE OF INTERFACE

AFFORDANCES

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THE LANGUAGE OF INTERFACE

BUTTONS LOOK PUSHABLE

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THE LANGUAGE OF INTERFACE

BUTTONS WITH MEANING

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THE LANGUAGE OF INTERFACE

LINKS LOOK

CLICKABLE

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THE LANGUAGE OF INTERFACE

LINKS HAVE HIERARCHY

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ON SUBTLETY

When you don’t want to interrupt an action, be subtle (think of footnotes). If they are reading, don’t bother them.

When you need to prompt an action, subtlety will send you to the poor house.Tell your users what to do. Clarity is relaxing, not annoying.

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A QUICK BUTTON COMPETITIVE

ANALYSIS / CRITIQUE

GO TO 3-4 WEBSITES AND FIND 2 BUTTON / LINK INTERACTIONS YOU REALLY LIKE. 2 THAT YOU DISLIKE.

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HEADS UP DISPLAY

Heads Up Display:

Information user needs

nearby to be effective

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HEADS UP DISPLAY

AN EMAIL HUD

All HUD, no content

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HEADS UP DISPLAY

A SOCIAL

HUD

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FEEDBACK

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USER FEEDBACK

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INPUT

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FORM PRINCIPLES

FORM PRINCIPLES

Consider ContextSet expectationsUse appropriate inputsGive sift and clear feedbackAsk for lessAB test

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FORM PRINCIPLES

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ACTIVITY: DESIGN YOUR SIGNUP FORM

15 MIN.

1. Individually design a sign-up form for your project.

2. Think about the following element:

1. Name (first/last?)

2. Username/nickname?

3. Password (enter twice?)

4. Terms of Service (link/display?)

5. Sign up with Facebook/Twitter?

6. Optional demographics?

7. Over 13?

STRUCTURE OBJECTIVES

INDIVIDUALLY

NAVIGATION

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Navigation: IA made visible“Like putting an Armani suit on Attila the Hun, interface design only tells how to dress up an existing behavior.” – Alan Cooper

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Most IA is invisible

A lot of work no one sees‣Synonym rings‣Controlled vocabulary

If it was seen, it would be too much to understandWe show only a part via navigation

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The magic number?13 tabs– no one saw them. Six tabs, everyone saw them

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But not everything is simple

masthead

Global links

Folders

Mail tools

ad

Other properties

upsell

Web search

Related Services

tip

inbox

ads

ad

Related Services

upsell

Mail toolsLog out

inbox Write mailAnd there isn’t even content!

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Navigation orders complex pages

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Understanding NavigationMessage and Access

Where Am I?

Wh

at's N

ea

rby?

What's RelatedTo What's Here?

Global Navigation

Lo

ca

l N

avig

atio

n

Content Lives Here,With ContextualNavigation Inline

Or Separate.

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Global navigationWhere you are‣Brand/masthead

Where you can go (site offering)‣Top level categories

Safety nets‣Where’s my (shopping cart/account/help???)

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Global Navigation ‘03 vs ‘12

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Global navigation, Blogs

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Global navigation ‘03 vs ‘12

71Local Navigation

I’ve started down the path…Now what?‣What are the categories of items?‣What are the siblings of what I see?‣What are the subcategories?

72Local Navigation 2003

Secondary navigation is now temporal

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Local Navigation

75Contextual navigation

Inline linksRelated itemsDocument management

76Inline links

77Related items

78Pagination

Useful to reduce page download speed and cognitive overload.

Annoying for printing.

Impossible to predict what you’ll get

Users would rather scroll than click

79Ad negotiation

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Print/email/share

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Facets as filters

82Sort

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Secondary Navigation

Site MapsIndexesTable of Contents

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Have you ever seen this page?

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How about this one?

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How about this one?

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You can make it helpful

“After testing several different sitemap designs on users, I decided to try putting one on every page of my small Columbian web site. I then decided to track how often it was used for navigation. It turns out the sitemap is used for over 65% of all navigation done on the site.” -- Usability Report by Peter Van Dijck of poorbuthappy.com (Guide to Columbia)http://www.webword.com/reports/sitemap.html

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Conventions

It is certainly probable, then, that placing these objects in expected locations would give an e-commerce site a competitive edge over those that do not…

-- Examining User Expectations for the Location

of Common E-Commerce Web Objects

Usability News

4.1 2002

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ConventionsIf 90% or more of the big sites do things in a single way, then this is the de-facto standard and you have to comply. Only deviate from a design standard if your alternative design has at least 100% higher measured usability.

If 60-90% of the big sites do things in a single way, then this is a strong convention and you should comply unless your alternative design has at least 50% higher measured usability.

If less than 60% of the big sites do things in a single way, then there are no dominant conventions yet and you are free to design in an alternative way.

-- Jakob Nielsen, November 14, 1999 Alertbox column

"Identifying De-Facto Standards for E-Commerce Web Sites“ © 2003 Heidi P. Adkisson

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Conventions

Some things are becoming de rigorDeviate when you’ve got something betterNot because you are bored

"Identifying De-Facto Standards for E-Commerce Web Sites“ © 2003 Heidi P. Adkisson

91Now combine

Follow expectations based on conventionsDesign a hierarchy based on task importanceErr on the side of simplicity

EXERCISE: COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OF NAVIGATION

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Q&AHEADER