Interactive design of Internet products: excellent operation and entrance design

Article Description: Interactive Design Practical Guide Series (1) – Operational entry clear.

"The operation entrance is clear", refers to the product any one function must have the clear, the reasonable entrance. "Operation Portal" refers to the transfer element between different modules within the product, for example, in Web Products, button control, input box, text chain, etc. belong to the operation entrance; "Clear" refers to the visual sense of the entrance is clear, identifiable, "reasonable" refers to the appearance of the entrance is in line with the user's operating logic, timely.

The reason for the "operation of the entry point" is that the user in the process of using the product, often followed by the analytical behavior of the logic. To the product itself, must have the corresponding operation prompt to guide the user to obtain the information most effectively, restores realizes the level is the clear, reasonable operation entrance. If the home page is the portal of the entire website, then the Operation Portal is the hub of connecting each subpage. The ultimate goal of designers is to enable users to accomplish their expected tasks in the shortest possible time by optimizing these hubs.

For web-based e-business, the core value is information resources, and whether these massive data can be reasonably pushed to the user, it is the key to the survival of the product. The design of the operation portal can even be seen as "indirectly to the classification of information resources through the optimization of the guidance Way"--this is much like the book label Management in the library, the user can sign the book which they want to read according to the different class target. The consequences of failure of the operation portal are often catastrophic, functional failure, location concealment, information interference ... Will give users a serious sense of frustration, so that their despair in the vast ocean of information. Therefore, a clear and reasonable operation of the entrance design, is the product "effectiveness" of the protection, but also the user experience of respect.

So, in the concrete design how to do "Operation entrance clear"?

1, strengthen the focus, weakening the surrounding

Star Ye, "Tong Pak-Fu Point Chou-Heung" in the wonderful fragments, a "beautiful" in exchange for many monsters spectacular looking back Altchichang mm glimpse-"Beauty this thing is to need to compare." Web products are the same, especially the vast amount of information e-commerce sites, derived from the information architecture of various types of functional portals are quite complex, deployed in every corner of the page, a careless is overlooked. There are usually two ways to solve such problems: one is to increase the number of entrances, that is, "wide net", the same function of the entrance has more than one, in order to increase the use of functional modules, but this method has a large hidden danger, the latter will be detailed analysis; the second is "strengthen the focus, weaken the periphery", that is, visually the entrance module highlighted out, The use of exquisite layout, and appropriately weaken the surrounding information display, increase the weight of the two comparisons, objectively increase the accuracy of user identification.

For example, the Earth's most familiar Google home page:

www.google.com

The rich art logo as the only color element effectively captures the viewer's visual center, the input bar and button take the heart position of the page as a function core, which allows the user to accurately understand the information logic of the page through the first vision--"input keyword" + "click button" = " Everything you want ".

Let's look at a counter example, figure:

Download.pchome.net

Face such a download page, face such an eye-catching big button (Mark ②), believe that even the telecommunications users, will be very generous support under netcom ... However, after clicking on the pop-up is downloading browser window, crash and then carefully look, and finally found in the gorgeous advertising bit curled up next to a "immediately download" (labeled ①)--Suddenly, countless users by this "takers" philosophy of the design deeply shocked!

2, the entrance information clearly easy to identify

As mentioned above, the increase in the number of imports, although to some extent to improve the use of functional modules, but also a fatal flaw-the entry information is not clear. Because the "entrance" is equivalent to the user's "choice", the more the entrance, the more choices, "Too much choice equals no choice", which will inevitably cause users to use the product when the doubt: these links and buttons seem to be the same ah, which should choose? Therefore, according to the content of the page itself strictly control the number of the same function entrance, to ensure effective identification, so that users quickly find the right entrance.

This time with our lovely brother product "Alipay" for example, to see the changes before and after the details change:

Before the revision

After the revision

By contrast, we can see that there are multiple portals with the same functionality in the Admin page, which is likely to create unnecessary confusion for novice users, and in the new version, each feature module has only one portal, which is clear and concise.

In addition, for the entry element itself, it is necessary to prompt the user with the functional properties of the portal by means of a suitable presentation form. For example, a standard button control, users will know "can click", but what happens after the click of interactive behavior, need to use other visual elements to information prompts (such as the text on the button or the logo icon), tell the user the current situation and feasible operation plan, this point some similar life "instruction design ”。

The image below is the registration area on the home page of ebay, with button text and auxiliary text information, and novice users can clearly understand the meaning of these two button representatives.

Www.ebay.com

3, according to the user to customize the right entrance

Interactive design away from the user research is behind closed doors, in the design of product operation entrance, at the same time, to fully consider the needs of different users. The user divides the dimension to be many, "about Face3.0" according to with the product correlation degree divides it into "the novice", "the intermediary user" and "the expert". These three types of users do not understand the product in a consistent way, operational behavior habits are also very different, if the other dimensions of its subdivision (such as "have no purpose", "Sex age", etc.), will be quite complex, in the further optimization of the product, should take into account the operation of the entrance to the applicability of different users.

"In the interaction and interface design, how to use the same interface to meet the needs of novice users and expert users is one of the long-standing problems." Although most intermediate users tend to remain in this category, novices are not always novice. It is difficult to maintain a high level of technology, so the expert door is also changing rapidly. Beginners and experts tend to become intermediate users over time as they change faster. "(the third chapter about Face 3.0), so qualitative research and quantitative analysis of the user will appear especially important." However, in any case dividing the user population, there is a bit of commonality is from the beginning to the end-the ultimate goal of product Operation Portal design is to enable users to quickly and effectively complete the core requirements.

Summary

To sum up, for the information complex E-commerce site, the excellent operation entrance design looks like "The Stargate" in the science fiction movie, can let the user arbitrarily to arrive any space, enjoys the perfect interactive experience; Similarly, the failure design also can let the user as if falls into the Greek myth horror Kerry Cretan labyrinth, depressed cannot extricate oneself. "Clear operation and entry" is one of the commonalities of all excellent interactive products, and it is also the responsibility of every designer to "think of users".