Basics of Web Authoring and Design

Elements of User Experience : Software Interface

Surface

Visual Design: The look of the finished product.

The surface plane is the final step of building a website. Surface plane is concerned with sensory design and the presentation of elements in the skeleton plane. In this plane, you will use the various visual design theories to create a website that is visually appealing to your audience.

Skeleton

Interface Design: Arranging the elements to enable users to interact with the functionality of the system.

Interface design is concerned with users' ability to do different things on the website. Good interfaces use visual hierarchy or other visual design methods to draw user's attention to important buttons, elements, or content. Consistency is incredibly important in interface design.

Standard interface elements include: radio buttons, checkboxes, text fields, dropdown lists, list boxes, and action buttons.

Information Design: The presentation of information in a way that facilitates understanding in your audience.

Information design is centered around communicating information and ideas to the user. Information design involves aspects of grouping and arranging pieces of information, deciding how to present visual information, or navigation throughout the page.

Interface design and information design come together to inform the page layout.

Structure

Interaction Design: Defines how the system behaves in response to the user.

In interaction design, designers look at the possible user behavior and how the website will react to each behavior. Users have an ideal conceptual model of how a website should react to different behaviors based off previous experience using websites or other applications they have encountered.

Scope

Functional Specefications: A detailed description of the "features" of the product.

Functional specifications describe the overall functionality of the website. It is recommended that you are positive, objective, and specific when writing the functional specifications for your website.

Strategy

The strategy plane is the fundamental building block of your website. This plane is concerned with the questions of what does the user want or need to get out of the website and what do you, as a designer, want to get out of the website.

User Needs: The goals for the site that come from our users.

Users have their own reasons for coming to the website and since they are our audience, it is important that we take their thoughts and desires into consideration.

Garrett recommends different strategies for addressing user needs:

Segmenting Users

- This is when you divide users into subgroups based on their shared characteristics. Some subgroups to use are age, gender, education level, experience with technology, etc.

Creating Personas

- This is when you create one or more fictional users, complete with their name, picture, and background details. This helps you get an idea of who you are targeting with your page and what common features they share.

Conducting User Research

-This is when yhou learn about users through conducting surveys, focus groups, interviews, task analysis, contextual inquiry, or user testing. More than one of these methods of conducting user research can be used. The more you use, the better understanding of your audience and their needs.

Site Objectives: The goals and objectives for our site

Just as users have their reasons and needs from your website, you also have your own objectives and goals in mind. These site objectives come from combining your original exigence for creating the site with the user's needs.

Garrett recommends different strategies for determining site objectives:

Identify Business Goals

- This is where you articulate the purpose(s) of your website.

Consider Brand Unity

- This is ensuring that the website is consistent with your visual brand and the individual message you are trying to communicate.

Set Success Metrics

- This is establishing benchmarks (or a timeline) for meeting user needs and site objectives.

User needs and product objectives can be described within a formal strategy document.