An old rookie. Understanding UX and Product flow

Engaged in front-end development so far has been more than 4 years of time, from a small rookie all the way to rely on self-study, to the present finally an old rookie. Of course, the work of the front-end is unavoidable to have a little understanding of the product and user experience. Talk about this recently, and follow your own ideas to summarize UX-related content. You can discuss it with a lot of comments.

Let's start with a few concepts (positions):

PM: Product manager's shorthand, i.e., products managers, is the company's responsibility for product management, product manager is responsible for investigating and according to the needs of users, determine what products to develop, choose which technology, business model. and promote the corresponding product development organization, he also according to the product life cycle, coordinate research and development, marketing, operations, etc., identify and organize the implementation of the corresponding product strategy, as well as a series of related product management activities.

UX : User Experience's shorthand, the UX, the more appropriate explanation should be for the user's experience with the product, and the main work for the UX designer is to study the users ' experience of product use, to study the user's habits, to study the user's psychological model, So that the product can better fit the user's use, applicable to the user's experience, and even guide the user's experience and habits. Then its goal is to make the user's comprehensive experience of the product reach a relatively high level.

So, as a result, the UX should contain more concepts, so the concepts below should all be serviced for the UX.

ID: Interaction design, which is interactive, this position is more focused on how to display their work in the user interface (UI) of the information performance, reflected in the user operation process, reflected in how users interact with the website, app and other products. There is a process for interacting with users and sites, and there is a clear visual flow that enables more effective communication between developers, developers and products. It also enables PM UX to control the user's experience from a clearer perspective. That is, in PM's view, when users use the product, there is a clear flow of use and interaction. It's also more conducive to the unification of the entire website, App, and even the entire company's product experience. The result is a better way to improve the interaction and experience of the product from a higher perspective.

UI : User Interface Shorthand, that is, UI, is actually a beautiful design interface, users like it, of course, is to be on the basis of the above several work can.

The rest also includes, user researcher, visual design, etc., for different companies, may have different positions, even if the same position, may also be biased, such as UX, in some companies may be a person concurrently ID UI or even user research, but some companies can be divided into a variety of positions are relatively thin, But in general, these jobs may not be, but the work is still to be done.

So below I will be my understanding of the work flow of these positions, a simple summary.

1. Boss or company level have an idea, we want to make a product a.

2. PM in this idea of the boss, began to do some specific product considerations, such as what modules, why there are such modules, why these modules and services. Some of the content in a module is about what kind of presentation to show. At the same time, to consider the use of a business model, the future of how to profit, and how the market promotion.

3. In the way of presentation, there may be a/b/c and other ways of presentation, then which method of presentation is more appropriate?

4. The user researcher began to appear, the use of existing user research data, or their own design and use of the scene, their own design of questionnaires, the use of potential user groups and the use of psychological research, to form a convincing data report, under what circumstances use a scheme better, the specific proportion of how much higher, After adjusting to a scenario, this scenario can lead to a better aspect of what it is and what the impact is.

5. After the user researcher has identified the use of a better scheme, the "interaction designer" should be on the pitch.

6. Since a page is not static and requires interaction between the user and the page to complete the process, which interaction method is more acceptable to the user and has a more positive experience? This is what the interaction designer should do. For example, the Registration form page, there is a minimum of three input boxes, of course, in the current user experience, input content, click Submit, page refresh, through the server to verify that the form filled with the content is legitimate, this way is already antique, should be thrown into the museum. However, they are both front-end validation and hints, as well as a variety of different ways of interacting. For example input error, prompt the user, in a place unified prompt? or prompt at the bottom or right of each input box, when prompted, do you want the message to disappear when the wrong input box is focused? Are all the information filled in correctly when the OK button is clicked, or can it be clicked at any time? After the click is to refresh the page after the prompt, or directly into, or not to refresh the login successful direct jump? And so on, should be counted as the work category of the interaction designer.

7. When all of this work is confirmed, the visual designer has begun to play. At this point, the need for visual designers to complete the final and direct contact with the user of the page, but the United States is not beautiful, ugly this personal-related subjective things, only by the designer of the design trend, fashion design style of grasp and their ability to reflect. Of course, the style that policymakers like also has a big impact on the results.

8. At this point, all the work is finished, and began to enter into the actual development work, but in the actual development work, the above series of steps, will continue to repeat, but the less repetition, the better, no one is willing to rework, right?

9. Look at this process, do not know whether there is an idea, interaction designers and user research are in the case of A/b such a choice, then the choice from where? Pm. The source is PM, so you don't have to think about the communication between the boss or the company and PM. Then PM can be a person part-time so much, the answer is of course, if the company has the power, there are resources, then more subdivision of the work can bring better results, if the company resources are not allowed, then a person can be part-time so several title, but we need more time and cost to try the wrong.

10. Each process has, then whether there are any criteria to judge the work is good or bad? It is better to be the output of individual personnel, such as PM should be PRD, product requirements document, of course, before this should have business requirements document (BRD) and market requirements document (MRD), so PM not only to focus on the product itself, but also to focus on business and market, Because the entire life cycle of this product should be PM responsible, not just the part of the development. and user experience and user research, you should use a variety of ways to study the user eventually formed a similar to a research report, to have practical data to guide development and PM to make decisions, and interaction designers should work with PM to produce an interactive prototype, if it is the best of high-fidelity. That ui/visual design, it should be produced.

11 Finally, before development, there is a need for sketches/wireframes, interactive Prototypes, visual and many other supporting documentation.

12. Of course, all the outputs mentioned above and the outputs required before development are not fixed. Have to combine their own company and the actual situation of the product to make a choice, but do not make excuses for the choice, should be taken, the abandonment of the abandonment.

This is some of my own understanding, there may be a lot of understanding not in place or even the wrong place. Please be very generous to point out.

Finally, a comparison between UX and UI is posted.

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An old rookie. Understanding UX and Product flow