Chat On Demand Design

The God of the Bible says, there is light, so there is light. We are not God, product design research and development listed sales can not be so easy, can not say I want to have users will bring users. It must be closely combined with the user's own characteristics to meet specific needs. Wanted to talk about how products attract users, later found that the topic is too wide too deep, attract users of the method contains a lot of product life cycle marketing means, nature is not in the designer's concern, so the title changed to chat on-demand design, discuss how the product to meet the different types of users, due to the theory of bias, No patience to read as long as the focus on the bold part is enough.

Products covered in this article include: Web Page/service, Desktop Creator, and mobile Device/hardware.

User-centered design is the eternal theme of product design. This view is recognized by almost everyone. Now that you want to put the user in the highest position to meet the needs of the user, the designer must understand the user before they know the product. Different user needs also vary, and the user requirements of the difference also gives the same type of different products provide a living space, according to Donald Norman's emotional design theory, user requirements can be categorized as:

Instinct (Visceral)-what Nature does behavior (behavioral)-all about use reflection (reflective)-about The meaning of things

In combination with my understanding, start reading as shown in the following illustration:

the most basic demand is the aesthetic demand (aesthetics), the product first brings to the user is the visual appearance feeling, called the lure. Then there is behavioral demand (features+manipulation), knowing how the product is used, and establishing a link between the user and the product. Finally, emotional demand (emotion), products to help users build their own pleasure, the so-called satisfaction. This satisfaction encompasses the need for appearance and behavior.

Based on the above theory, let's do further digging:

Aesthetic Demand

People are visual animals, whether it is to pick a gift to buy clothes to choose a pet, or show products to find work place objects, in the aesthetic people feel happy always in advance to impress you. It is widely believed that products with good appearance should work better. So how to meet the needs of different users in aesthetic?

Even if people have different, each user attention to the appearance of the details are not the same, but we can still start from the following three:

-Pay attention to the appearance of products, especially in fashion-related, can be a little bit of color and interface effects, follow the company's existing style guide, appropriate combination of excellent industrial design color specifications and the comparison of the trend of product design rules (such as iOS GUI Guidelines), out of the inherent manifestations, Make some dazzling effects and fresh visual styles.

-emphasis on text or pictures and other content of the product, then in the interface layout to do homework, think how to better display content, whether it is text typesetting or image sorting, so that the content looks elegant and graceful. and provide exclusive interface, in full screen to let users focus on the content.

For example, an app recommended application DISCOVR, the interface style of thinking guide schemata and app recommendations combine to make a full house cheer, it is in the aesthetic demand for content to make innovation, changed the past by lengthy text introduction and static picture Introduction PA situation.

-a product that is inherently workflow-oriented, for example, data processing software, manufacturing process management software, to remember that users are with a clear purpose to use, you only need to help them to quickly complete the workflow, should be designed to be simple and efficient design, the exclusion of too many flashy visual interference, from the visual to give people a stable and rigorous feeling, More to meet this type of user needs.

Therefore, it is very important for the product to establish a good first experience experience.

Behavioral Demand

User behavior is closely related to product functions and operations, to grasp the user's behavior needs, it must be from the product function and operation.

1. The demand for product functionality is different in the user's perspective:

-Some users need to focus on a single function, so you should focus on how to focus on the most important tasks in a immersed situation, other unrelated functions or use low frequency functions, all weaken or simply give up.

I do not mention the familiar Google, focus on a certain feature of the continuous improvement of the examples there are many. For example, the GTD software, which is a favorite of doit.im, has been dedicated to providing personal time management tools, all of which are related to GTD, and all updates are designed to help users manage their personal time better.

-Some users like to synthesize products, integrated or complex and powerful, can help them to deal with a series of related issues. Perhaps a comprehensive suite of solutions (similar to In-product's suites, ProductLine concepts) can be used in a product to more easily meet the user's complex needs.

Like Flipboard, it changes the way social news is aggregated. The Internet content is displayed in the form of a magazine that can be aggregated from Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, blogs, e-newspaper and E-magazine. The magazine-style reading experience is derived from the vast majority of the information field and is used to improve the reading experience of ipad users. In addition, there are illustrator such software, mainly vector graphics, bitmaps and integrated text processing and color functions, and even the output of Flash format files, the graphic compatibility is very strong, is an integrated image processing software.

-Some users like customization, what they need to configure themselves, do not need to put aside. In this case, we need to emphasize customization capability and configurable, all functions are modular, components as required encapsulation, API add delete convenient and quick.

Customization in the early desktop software has been very popular, many companies will be based on their own special needs, the purchase of customized products (DATABASE,CRM, ERP, etc.), so that the SOFTWARE product itself can play the function of the module, save money and improve efficiency. Today's many Internet sites to provide Web service also support customization, such as Facebook and the game components on the net, Sina Weibo micro-application, etc., provides a variety of personalized customization, and greatly meet the needs of different levels of users.

2. Operational aspects, the different levels of user skills directly determine the different positioning of the product control design. The classic user-level bell curve determines that most users operate at the intermediate level, with a few exceptions. Some industries in the field of products because of the audience, most users are special user (such as some ECG analysis software users are medical experts), after a short training, users to combine their expertise directly into the expert-level users, which resulted in the majority of the expert-level user situation. In any case, the design of the product in operation should be combined with the characteristics of different levels of users, in a special stage to adopt special design skills.

-Operate entry-level users.

Such users are unfamiliar with the product or their own level of operation is still in the beginning stage, they need to get some operational help, may wish to use the Task Wizard, shortcut tips, Operation demo video and other ways to guide them to start. In addition, the most basic and most commonly used commands and tools in the most easy to see the most convenient location, so that they can gradually find the most basic function of the product itself. For people who don't use their products, operation is more intuitive, concise, Nokia mobile phone's 2-key lock screen unlock is a counter example, at least I have a lot of old people around the children do not understand this process, and even the young people who often use mobile phones will be mistaken, and the iphone unlocked operation is completely different, A simple one to look at.

-Operate intermediary users.

As the bulk of product users, such users in a period of time the use of the product has been the exercise and promotion, they do not need you to prompt some of the control of the operation of the skills, and do not need you to introduce the most basic workflow how to proceed. Designers in the display of interactive control or command tools, to take into account the need to improve user proficiency and improve the operational efficiency of the needs, with visual guidance, strengthen the product use of the process of operation logic and habits, slowly pull it into the expert user level.

-Operation expert user.

Expert users are important for a product. Although intermediary users occupy the majority of all user groups, but expert users are the target of many intermediary users, its existence can greatly enhance the impact of products. For entry-level users, expert user action demonstrations or idiomatic techniques play a positive role in their decision to continue using the product. Expert users are experienced in their own use, or similar products are very familiar with the product itself from a sense of control to obtain great achievements and satisfaction. For example, some of the graphics master and game Tatsu, a crazy mouse click and keyboard beat, excellent works immediately present. Designers in product shortcuts, mouse drag and drop skills, finger touch details, need to spend a lot of energy to meet the expert users, including keyboard shortcuts and operating skills in the consistency between the different products, select the visual effects of the target, mouse-pulling response speed, the Controller button force feedback strength and so on. In addition, the design of some hidden higher-order operations, the expert users will bring unmatched pleasure. For example, some games in the kill skills and touch the product of complex gestures.

Emotional needs

Emotion is one of the most important indexes to measure the quality of the user experience. As emotion directly touches people's unconscious choice of a product, it may be more appropriate to interpret it as an impulse here. Emotions are often judged by the user before a later rational analysis, even though it is often the culmination of routine routines and established perspectives.

Some time ago, Google called on Father's Day on the day through Gmail to give his father a warm blessing, itself is a good idea, but this kind of gesture, so many have been unable to send a blessing for his father (father early death or bad relationship with the father) users embarrassed anger, some users complained. This example can be seen, for some users of the effective demand for other users meaningless, emotional needs are sometimes particularly cautious grasp, do not backfire.

Emotional demand is generally the demand that arises in the process of reflection, which is often manifested as irresistible, maddening and enjoyable. Emotional demand should be analyzed in a certain situation, involving the user's personality, product culture, use environment, interactive scene, concept novelty and so on. It is the deepest demand, is now a lot of pioneering companies in the active mining of products, after all, the intuitive demand has been divided by other products almost.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs has five levels: the first level: physiological needs (physiological need); level II: Security requirements (Safety need); Third level: the need for Return and love (belongingness) Level fourth: Respect for demand (esteem need); level fifth: the need for self-realization (self-actualization need). And I think the emotional needs of users can be categorized as:

-Reliability requirements.

This is a lack of security of the times, quality problems, fake, design defects continue to emerge, people do not know what to believe, do not know how to choose Linlang a wide range of products. Psychological research has shown that consumers perceive different perceptions of income and loss in the same unit. If a small loss occurs, the user will be completely disgusted or even give up the product. Therefore, the user's purchase decision is bound to face the risk of loss, at this time the consistently high reliability of products can be favored.

For the product itself, to provide high-quality services, the appropriate reminder mechanism, allowing users to misuse, timely backup data and help restore, can be in the reliability of the user's trust, and many accurate completion of the user's expected tasks.

-Brand Demand

The general definition of a brand is that a brand is a name, a noun, a symbol or a design, or a combination thereof, designed to identify the product or service of a seller or a group of sellers and differentiate it from the competitor's products and services. The brand brings to the user is the value, the temperament and the culture, its establishment needs the product design to maintain to the outstanding (excellent) unceasing pursue.

Why some users choose Gmail instead of other company's email products, because of the unity of the interface style, the efficiency of the task process, the example of success stories, feedback the timeliness of users, from the image of quality value services in several ways to extend the meaning of the Google brand. In the process of design, if the appropriate increase in brand exposure, emphasis on brand success stories, the rational use of the advantages of the brand, will provide an attractive unforgettable experience.

-Respect for demand

People yearn for their abilities and achievements to be recognized, most people choose to keep fighting, in addition to money reputation, being respected is one of the important reasons. So if the product can reflect the respect and understanding of the user, for the lengthy code and cold machine with a layer of warmth, it is bound to get the user's heart. Respect for the user is reflected in the design of the product details, let the user feel that their requirements are always right, avoid meaningless error prompts, reduce some of the equipment on the input operation (provide the choice or use the default value), to the physiological and psychological barriers users to do specialized design, reduce product function of the flicker ...

-Show demand

including social needs and personal value needs. Social demand is booming in recent years, in hardware, software, services, and applications. The user wants the family, the group, the friend, the colleague's caring understanding, is to the friendship, the trust, the warmth, the love need, is more subtle and more elusive than the reliable, the brand, the respect need. It is related to personal character, cultural education, life habit, region, nationality, religious belief and so on, this kind of need is difficult to realize, cannot measure. and personal value demand to complete with their own ability commensurate with the work, fully develop their ability and skills, this is a need to create, help shape people's expectations of the image, do their best to make themselves perfect. It means full, active, selfless, focused and dedicated to experiencing life and creating life.

The Xbox Live community, created by Microsoft, is the best example of a demand that is internet-based, simply a giant LAN, a full-featured virtual community. Here you can build your own avatar, have profile, buddy list, it is very convenient to interact with other users in the community, support voice communication, short message contact, mutual show game achievements, play a cooperative game. The platform also provides living room entertainment services such as movies, music and television. Integration with Windows OS and Windows Phone7 allows users to showcase themselves on different platforms, creating self-worth.

Therefore, based on the need to display demand, products in the design should be integrated into the personalized, social, collaborative and many other display elements, such as the addition of Facebook, Twitter, micro-blog and other sharing portal to create a reasonable integration achievement mechanism to provide community interaction and network rankings, Through such means to meet the user's display needs from all angles.

The user's demand mining has entered the brand-new stage, the esthetic demand and the behavior demand this kind of surface demand is almost covered by the existing product, and the emotional demand still has many places worth exploring. For example, the nearby tweets feature in Twitbird applications, which can look up information posted by other Twitter users about 100 meters around the current location of the user through LBS service. It is unlikely that these needs will be met in previous products, at most allow users to contact each other or show the state, and nearby tweets will take into account, the release of Twit users will certainly care about what people around, the same location around a lot of things worth sharing and reference, so developed such a function, To the emotional enrichment of the user, let a person feel reasonable and intimate comfortable.

People's demand for products is also evolving, the requirements of different types of products have different emphasis:

Web:

Reliability Reduction Thinking security ease of use

Desktop:

improve user satisfaction improve software Quality installation Configuration convenience product attractiveness (hedonism)

Mobile:

and product depth interaction performance to improve the appearance of the interface and ease of use, based on contextual design

In any case, the product design to meet the needs of users on the road, but also to consider more and further. I will also be in the future articles, pay more attention to the design of the content on demand.

Source: http://dedicky.wordpress.com