4 Tips for improving UI design productivity

How to improve UI Design the speed? Share some of the common problems and improvements I've observed here. Of course, there are a lot of places to pay attention to, this article first focus on the concept and the part of communication.

as UI Designer's you, should want ??

Understand the fundamentals of engineering practice

Industry NG Rate: Close to 100%

Many people think that creativity and logic are divided between the left and right halves of the brain, designers and engineers use different parts of the ability, so everyone to do their own job well -- I am responsible for the bright and beautiful drawing, The engineer is responsible for writing the alien text on a black screen with a super-loud, engraved keyboard.

But in fact, this stereotype is a little useless (and not necessarily correct) in addition to hindering your progress.

Babel's story has almost been heard, the cause of communication problems is very simple, is to speak of the "language" is different, not the same way of thinking - no matter what the field, to become a leader, must have a high degree of creativity and imagination, and design is very logical behavior.

So what does the designer know about the engineering implementation principle? What parts should I know? It's easy, you don't have to learn how to write code, but you need to know at least:

1. correctly address UI components

As an example of IOS, in Apple 's interface design specification file, each component of the screen has a formal name, and we look at:

this thing is called " Segmented Controls", rather than" the one that looks like a capsule, "can save a considerable amount of explaining time if you can use the correct terminology to communicate. If you want to know more and more accurately, after you have read the above specification document, it is recommended that you continue to study UIKit Catalog.

2. Some effects can not be done, difficult to do, should not do

< Span style= "FONT-FAMILY:CALIBRI;" >  ios 7  When you introduce a design language with a blur effect, Everyone seems to have contracted Gauss's vague addiction. However, this effect is very expensive system resources (principle and time complexity), even  , ios  also to the next year   IOS 8 < Span style= "font-family: the song Body;" It is not willing to be reluctant to open the use of   uiblureffect api To avoid a third party   App  a bunch of blur effects drag system effect can; while in   android  ios   so convenient   api  (please do not hesitate to correct the error).

Sounds like alien language? In the vernacular, many designers do not realize the feasibility of some visual effects in the engineering, but also do not take into account the operational load capacity of various devices, and design a large number of developers will let the puzzlement of the manuscript, finally made it, found that the calculation of the figure of the dead, but also back to change the draft, not worth the candle.

Another example Status Bar:

I've seen too many designers for the sense of design Status Bar with the front view (Foreground), let it become gray or even into color, and accuse developers of such simple things can not be done, in fact , Apple wrote clearly in the document, this thing you only black or white optional, Like this is the effect you should not do.

Suggestion: If you are a college student or graduate student in a design department, I would suggest that you take an introduction to the calculator and the basic data structure, which will UI design is very helpful.

Rigorous implementation of the design process

Industry NG Rate:90%

When I was working with some companies and chatting with my friends, I found out that a team had taken more of a sloppy design process than I had imagined. In general I would recommend that small and medium-sized projects take the following process to perform the design:

This process is allowed to fine-tune, I Yahoo internships often see very large design processes, while other smaller teams are more likely to take the simpler version.

How do you fine-tune it? It is not recommended to omit the steps, but in the green arrows above you can reducethe number of iterations (iterate) to achieve time-saving purposes, and this part will slightly test the product designer,PM experience and gut feeling The

Some people who speak good design will not eat the human fireworks, blindly advocate to study from the user ( User research),Persona started, and then implemented N multiple prototypes (Prototype) before starting to let developers do, follow-up data analysis ?? and so on, as if the whole world only knows this thing.

But in practice, small projects spend too much effort to do these things is basically a lack of cost concept of performance, in the number of users to reach a certain threshold, the data analysis of the mother is also very small, and no statistical reference value. As a result, a small project can actually split the function into Release, first to observe the usage situation and to fix the details (although there is a bit of danger, it is always more appropriate than the day the project never ends).

start with native UI Component Table meaning

Industry NG Rate:80%

in the wireframe phase of the design , the main goal is to get everyone to agree on the "what objects" on the screen, rather than the objects "what is the appearance", that is the mockup stage to pay attention to, so will Wireframe is a very strange thing to draw too beautifully, such as this:

if you draw wireframe so beautifully, you will immediately face three negative consequences:

A waste of time, a complete waste of time.

There are color draft of the external structure, but no color manuscript color system assisted, resulting in a complete understanding of your "well-designed" The UI object.

for customers with no concept of design, PM or the boss will forget what we are in the Review screen on the object, but at this time began to review the design details with you, and so you continue to do color manuscript, only suddenly say before the function forgot to put up.

The 2nd is the focus of this section, in your wireframe , you should use the native object of the system to make up the picture, such as these things:

Avoid the need to draw some "innovative UI" in wireframe, which no one has ever seen in a non-essential situation . A good understanding, intuitive design is all the details complement each other, in the wireframe phase of the lack of color and dynamic effects of AIDS, not to risk the appearance of special objects, that is, your wireframe at most to do so should be closed hand:

In this way, the screen is usually used by everyone The App has seen the form, to understand the picture, you can focus on these features is not the product needs to have.

Less use of pronouns

Industry NG Rate:60%

This communication skill is not difficult to achieve, but if no one points out, it is difficult to find out for themselves.

When we express one thing to be precise, we should try to reduce the "interpretation space" in words, and the use of pronouns can easily lead to wasted time in design discussions, such as "This", " The words "such as" should be used less in professional discussions; instead, you should use the exact nouns mentioned in the first section of this article to express, or describe in detail what you mean.

Well, if you're a designer, hopefully this article will help you to be more streamlined and time-saving in your design communication discussions. PM or Developer, you can also learn by the way, or transfer this article to your designer reference.

Article Source: Excellent set

4 Tips for improving UI design productivity