20 Jan Thinking about your own experience observing software upgrades, what ?are some examples of effective processes used to simply and memorably ?introduce new features? If you were designing

2 hours ago

Eva Gaivoronski

RE: Week 3 Discussion

Top of Form

Hello Class,

User Interface design focuses on predicting what a user might need or want to do within the interface to complete tasks such as registrations, bill payments, shopping, school class selection, and countless other activities.  When creating and upgrading an interface, the designer should build with the idea that they tie together interaction, visual, and information architecture into one space.

Design Best Practices

As recommended by usability.gov, the foundation of designing or upgrading an interface should be based on simplicity.  From the individual's perspective, the user interface should be invisible, with nothing unnecessary except the must-have elements.  Consistency across the interface ensures the learning curve does not change from one page to another, and colors and textures should be used strategically to draw attention to where the user needs to act next. (User Interface Design Basics | Usability.gov, n.d.)

Considering designing a new interface, personal experience and observation have taught me that it is equally important to understand what the competitors are doing with their interfaces before taking any actions on creating your own.  The concept is UI familiarity, a psychological behavior where users are more likely to visit, like, and use websites they are comfortable with. (Payyanur, 2021)  Hence, so many sites seem to be copies of one another because the companies are trying to have zero learning curve and maximum comfortability with users.  In adding a new feature, the suggested process would be to build a prototype and test it across participants of varying ages and competencies.  Repeating the process until a large enough sample size is collected and then cluster analyzing results to identify the most identified issues or suggestions.    The second step of justifying the change or upgrade is to show the benefit that the change will bring to the company in the form of data mining, customer experience, revenue growth, or a solution to some other key issue the company is trying to address.

A second scenario in user interface design I have observed is the opportunity to relaunch or rebrand a failing company.  At times, it can be wise for a company to recognize when they are no longer viable in the perception of the consumer or user and take the opportunity to reinvent itself with a brand-new interface.  This would be a last resort suggested action as it goes against most of what user interface design teaches but can be effective if done correctly where the only other option is continued negative results.  

References

User Interface Design Basics | Usability.gov. (n.d.). https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-interface-design.html

Payyanur, G. (2021, December 11). Using the power of familiarity in design – UX Collective. Medium. https://uxdesign.cc/familiarity-in-design-70df1979f80

Bottom of Form