12 best steps for Software Design

12 best steps for Software Design

Many companies cannot understand why the software they designed did not achieve the expected results, nor why users encountered unexpected errors. According to David Crow, Microsoft's Canadian availability consultant, and Jay Goldman, managing director of radiant core, a software development company in Toronto, there is no worse usability testing than waking up. At a recent free and open source software seminar held at the sinnega school in Canada, the two described 12 steps to bring the software design back to normal.

Step 1: Admit that you have problems

"It is impossible for you to design software with good availability on your own," said Goldman ." They advocate the use of character roles to design such fictional characters to simulate different types of users who may use websites or products in the target user group. The "informal" approach to improving availability may also work, such as informal customer interviews and working with technical support staff.

Step 2: Recognize that users are more important than yourself

Crow put several slides at the meeting, showing three different types of chairs for public places, and then asked the audience what kind of design they prefer. Naturally, they are radish and vegetables. He said: "This problem still exists in application software development. Find out who is using the product you designed ."

Step 3: recognize the importance of Excellent Design

Goldman quoted Steve Jobs as saying: "design should not only focus on the appearance of products, but also on how products are used ." Crow pointed out that this sentence is worth remembering, considering that Mac-based hardware sales are making a comeback.

Step 4: carefully check the deficiencies in user experience

Crow and Goldman invited the audience to come and help them draw lines and lines together, so that everyone could understand that even a simple figure would use a lot of logic and question some basic assumptions. That's why they think that comic books may be useful software development materials.

Step 5: Acknowledge the nature of your problems in front of others

All you have to do is get user feedback and talk to users on an equal footing, which helps to figure out why applications are useless. Goldman said: "taking this step (often speaking with users) requires a lot of courage, but once you make public your own shortcomings, you will take a big step towards success."

Step 6: Prepare to remove these defects

Crow takes Microsoft's Office 2007 as an example. When the company adds more features and features to its word products, start to use the "COMPRESSED" toolbar on the interface (that is, two or more toolbar can be accommodated in the same line on the screen); when word 2003 is delivered, the toolbar has been increased from 12 to more than 31. Crow said: "five of the top 10 feature requirements require that Office provide more than one version of the toolbar ." In contrast, the latest version uses the functional area, which has a set of main toolbar to help you find the required tools.

Step 7: Seek help

Even large organizations with rich resources like the Mozilla open-source foundation have begun to publish a prototype of the next Firefox browser on their websites. This may scare some enterprises away, because they are worried that their design solutions will be seen by competitors. However, Goldman and crow believe that this can be rewarded.

Step 8: list all users who have been hurt, and then improve the design for the other party

Goldman draws on several levels from practical, reliable, available, convenient, satisfactory to meaningful. He said: "We need to assess which grade we are in. Most software is close to the "convenience" class ."

Step 9: apologize directly

Unfortunately, sometimes it is counterproductive to ask users for feedback. If you haven't improved the product design, let's wait for the worst case to happen! Crow said: "It is best not to cut off relationships with users. Otherwise, they will certainly not become regular customers and will tell all their friends about this ."

Step 10: constantly improve the design

Usability testing is not a periodic task: observation, analysis, and design.

Step 2: realize that if there is no user, everything will be useless

Goldman mentioned cuecat as a poor usability design: the handheld device scans the bar code in the magazine and then sends it to the URL. "It does not solve the problem for users. The user still needs to use the computer ."

Step 2: Let love pass out

The software community has a wealth of valuable experience for future users, including Yahoo's user interface library and tango.free?top.org. This is a key factor to promote the vigorous development of the software industry. "We as designers are obligated to share best practices with others," crow said ."