Prep for tonight
Update your avatar on Design400
- Done? Andrew – yes // Jackson – yes // KatieC – yes // KatieJ -yes // Nicole – no
Reading prompt: What are the most important things designers need to consider when thinking about mobile users/desktop users/accessibility? How does this relate to your class project? Post to class WP site (category: reading) before 5 pm on Wednesday.
- Andrew // Jackson // KatieC // KatieJ // Nicole
- Read and comment (asking questions is good!) on the post of the person who follows you in the alphabet (Nicole, you’ll respond to Andrew’s post ).
Research post: for your project, develop three personas with specific scenarios/tasks. Use your work with your competitor sites to help develop tasks. Tell me what platform/device you are designing for and why. Post to class WP site (category: research) before 5 pm on Wednesday.
- Andrew // Jackson // KatieC // KatieJ // Nicole
- Read everyone’s post.
- Work in these small groups: Katie/Andrew and Jackson/Nicole
Prep for quiz (session 6): develop three-four questions related to the reading or lectures, focusing on concepts/principles that you think are important take-aways from the course. Explain why. Post to class WP site (category: journal) before 5 pm on Wednesday.
- Andrew // Jackson // KatieC // KatieJ // Nicole
- Discuss
Tonight’s discussion / Visual Interface Design
- Housekeeping 1: I need to know how to get in touch with you quickly and y’all aren’t answering email — do you want me to text you?
- Housekeeping 2: review project assessment criteria
- Reading review (above)
- Research review (above) – personas. Talk in small groups. Rework in class. Repost (new post) with category “in-class”.
- Persona elements (usability.gov)
- Personas specific to accessibility issues
- KC personas (pdf, example content and layout)
- Another persona layout (jpg)
- And another (png)
- High-level persona (yours should have at least this much detail before you leave tonight)
- Design strategy template (contains fill-in-the-blanks for personas)
- Personas on Pinterest
- Thinking about tasks
- What are your persona’s goals; what are they trying to achieve?
- What do your personas actually do to achieve their goals?
- What experiences (personal, social, and cultural) do they bring to the tasks?
- How are your personas influenced by their physical environment?
- How does their previous knowledge and experience influence:
- How they think about their work
- The workflow they follow to perform their tasks
- Think back to the toothbrush exercise!
- Let’s develop a flow diagram for brushing our teeth
- “Search” is not a task, it’s a technique or tool; so is browsing
- if “buy a new pair of black dressy flats” is a goal // what are the tasks/sub-tasks, what do I have to “do” in order to meet my goal?
- We need to order flowers for a birthday for a friend who lives in another state. What are the tasks/sub-tasks? Let’s look at ProFlowers.com
- Your re-worked post must have three fleshed out tasks for each persona. All three personas cannot have the same task sub-set.
- Generic tasks:
- Set up an account
- Change avatar
- Find “x” because of “y”
- Contact the app/site developer/owner
- Figure out where a business is located
- Check out the company Facebook page or Twitter/Pinterest/YouTube accounts
- Quiz review (above, quiz will be Monday, not Friday)
From last week’s in-class assignments
- Read Jackson (frustrations) and KatieJ (Adobe) — what did you learn? what are the similarities and differences in their experiences? how will you design to minimize frustration? (We will talk about this – take notes but no need to write a response. Everyone will speak, round-robin-style.)
- Interaction re-do (model: example from prior class): Andrew // Jackson // KatieC // KatieJ (read this for example of how to incorporate class concepts in a reflection) // Nicole (absent) — Kathy provides comments.
Visual design
- Log in to Lynda.com via SPL (kathy)
- module 4- five essential principles of interaction design
- module 6- principles of interface structure (Gestalt, sequence, design patterns)
- module 7- navigation best practices
- design for my mum (maybe)
- Resource: 10 elements of effective UX
Wireframing:
Lab
- In-class assignment: short-term memory test
- In-class/journal: continue reworking your personas.
Your re-worked post must have three fleshed out tasks for each persona. All three personas cannot have the same task sub-set.
Next session assignments
- Read Ch6, Elements.
Read Signifiers, not affordances; Poynter eye-tracking study
Reading prompt: Thinking about your projects, how do these readings help you with your visual design? Interaction design? Post to class WP site before 5 pm on Friday (category: reading). - Research post: test your competitor sites with one of your personas, all of your tasks. Post to class WP site before 5 pm on Friday (category: research).
- Research post: post the low-fidelity wireframes for your project. Post to class WP site before 5 pm on Friday (category: research).
Our virtual class (Friday):
- Watch this video — prepare a response (minimum 500 words) that links video content to your project (and convinces me that you watched it in toto). Post to class WP site before 11:59 pm on Friday (category: in-class).
- Watch this video — use the concepts here to help you refine your wireframes for Monday. Prepare a response (minimum 300 words) that explains how you are evolving your wireframe design Post to class WP site before 11:59 pm on Friday (category: research).
- Review this Slideshare presentation — what concepts/tips resonate with you as a one-person UX team this session? Post to class WP site before 11:59 pm on Friday (category: journal).
Friday’s assignments for Monday
- Read Ch 12-16, Cooper.
Reading prompt: Thinking about your projects, how do these readings help you with your visual design? Interaction design? Post to class WP site before 5 pm on Monday (category: reading). - Research post: post the high-fidelity wireframes for your project. Post to class WP site before 5 pm on Monday.