Refuse to imagine, let us down-to-earth design!

A good idea brings vitality to a successful website. Sometimes, however, creative ideas or solutions are more likely to be done on the basis of imaginary work--and assumptions are often dangerous. So how do designers tell customers that they are actually using a down-to-earth strategy and that the goal is the most appropriate? The following exercises will help you learn how to explore and document all aspects of your design, helping your customers eliminate their doubts about your ideas and encourage them to participate in the design process.

Identify clear goals

Some people always think they know what the purpose of building a site is, but they refuse to establish a direct, quantifiable goal. Ambiguous goal narratives force customers to extrapolate, and customers tend to think things in the right direction, and too much anticipation often leads to disappointment--and as a result, the trust that you have built up is ruined. The goal of "sell more" and "raise the rate of exposure" is less than good, and they are too vague to be instructive.

The improved acceptance criteria exercise (modified acceptance criteria exercise) is the simplest and most effective tool I have found to build clear and powerful goals. Savvy developers use acceptance criteria to explain why a task is being performed and how they fit into the big picture. With just a little optimization, you'll be able to capture the design goals perfectly.

Sample requirements:

We want to redesign our website, because we need more traffic and a new image, we want to become the industry's more respected enterprises.

Sample target Template:

We hope __________ because ____________ then ___________.

Sample Objective:

We want to increase the number of visits by 20% because we want to have a higher exposure and then we can build eight new customer channels each month.

We want to change the present image, because we want to make the customer feel more cordial, then we dare to increase the service charge by 10%.

We want to write four articles in the industry each month, because we want to contribute to the industry, and then we can find two partners a month.

Consider how the process of distinguishing between "means", "reason", and "outcome" makes the goal of the project's owner clear, and it explains why they have these goals and how they intend to achieve them. Establishing acceptance criteria for design is an excellent way to dig deeper, potentially unknown, requirements. It helps designers and project holders make better decisions to avoid the "no speed" scenario in future design execution. Please revise the objectives until the relevant parties to the project agree and understand these objectives.

Extra reminder: Set up a few more goals to make it easier for you to capture level two or even level three goals, but don't let things get out of hand-all sites need a handful of high-level goals.

Organize pages

People tend to love sites that don't need them to think more. The user's energy is used to solve their own problems, and should not be wasted in figuring out how to use the site.

Card classification is a good way to arrange the content of a website. To use card sorting, list all the pages on your site and write them on some index cards. Then, put all the cards on the table and move the card position until all directories and subdirectories are archived in the most reasonable manner.

If you can't do the card sorting yourself, or if your team doesn't have time to do it, you can also try using a datasheet to discuss online. Here's an example of a New Zealand investment company web site created in Google Docs with some virtual data.

An example of card classification using data tables

If your project is designed to redesign a site, you should first look at the site's access statistics to find out which pages have more traffic and less. The advantage of this is that it can be inferred which part of the design is not enough and which part is too much. Then, tighten or merge similar pages, simplifying complex pages.

Even after the formal design process, good card sorting practice can greatly improve the usability of a website and content transfer efficiency. This is a smart training to keep the site relevant and effective. To learn more about this, see the Usability.gov card classification (in English), the card classification on the page (English), or read this monograph on the Classification of Cards (English).

Extra reminder: Get people who are unfamiliar with the company's business to help with card sorting, helping to uncover popular stereotypes and get unexpected feedback

Spreading page

Next, we need to understand the visual prioritization of the design in depth. Here we use attention maps (Attention map) and do a little arithmetic.

The attention map specifies a set of goals for the page and assigns an attraction index to each goal. The total number of points should not be too much, enough to allocate, so that between points can be easier to compare and reference each other, but also not too little, so as not to allocate too much too close to the points. The purpose of this is to give you an in-depth understanding of the links between the goals and to establish a sound level of content.

Sample number allocation:

Four goals, allocated 15 points altogether

Sample results:

Service Introduction: 7 points

The benefits: 4 points

Industry article: 2 points

Related news: 2 points

Attention maps are more efficient than simple priority lists because they also visually reflect how much space each goal occupies on a page. Since the "service introduction" points are 3 points higher than the "benefits" (almost twice times), all of you can be sure that the "service introduction" needs to attract a lot more attention.

Use the attention map to divide the importance area on the page

By sketching out the design options that meet your goals, fit the content organization, and meet your attention map, you should be concise, forthright and strategic. Maybe you can have a lot less searched troubles.

Extra reminder: When you're done, try reversing the sketch or looking at it from the mirror to see if it's still available. Shang your own sketches (including the Odd mirror sketch) can help you come up with a series of new ideas.

Develop individuality

A strong prototype (archetype) can establish a direct and powerful emotional bond. The so-called archetype refers to a series of personality characteristics and behavioral characteristics, common in a group of common language or have a common history of ethnic groups. Each archetype has its strengths, weaknesses, gifts, and fears. As you freely apply all aspects of this human trait, people will resonate with your design from the bottom of your heart. This helps to strengthen memory and build trust.

Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson, a Book of Heroes and Outlaws (the Hero and the Outlaw), powerfully covers 12 prototypes of almost every aspect of human civilization.

These prototypes include:

Pure Innocent

Seeker Explorer

Sage Sage

Hero Hero

Outside the law of outlaw

Magician Magician

Ordinary people Regular Guy/gal

Lover Lover

Jester Jester

Caregiver Caregiver

Creator Creator

Ruler Ruler

If you choose an alien (think Harley Davidson, a motorcycle brand), start criticizing your own behavior against the character of the alien. Maybe you'll think of a lot of new and interesting ideas, and you'll be surprised.

The characteristics of the outside of the law:

Longing for revenge and/or revolution

Trying to destroy all the useless things.

To hate myself for being powerless or slighted.

Try to disrupt or shock the public

I want to give people absolute freedom.

is often mistaken for the devil.

Have a criminal inclination

If you can keep these "personalities" in a different design, and consider how to use them in the field of interacting with the customer, then pay close attention to the customer's response. Then you can build a strong brand.

Extra reminder: People often mix the company's personality with his own personality. Identify the personality of the project holder or other important person in order to differentiate personal characteristics from the company's personality.

Define what is appropriate and complete

The design of features can directly support and enhance the content. Unfortunately, it is not easy for all audiences to have a coherent and correct understanding of the features that are being put into visual style. It is a good idea to list the negative features to create the violation boundaries. This helps you to understand the specific appearance of a particular design and provides you with a standard for quantifying and criticizing the design.

A good way to do this is to identify the opposing features that can significantly affect the design effect and place them on the slider ruler, as shown below:

Example of slider ruler for defining negative design features

With the characteristics of the scale, designers can really appreciate the content of the site to provide users what kind of feelings. If the designer's idea of "active" is too strong, with a "Cool vs active" yardstick, it is easy to determine his "strong" degree and then make a modest adjustment. The criticism that is produced is far more constructive than the mere phrase "too strong".

Add, delete, and modify the feature ruler as needed. But keep in mind that criticism must be quantifiable and can be discussed. Features such as "high technology" are too dependent on the designer's personal taste and opinion, and 1000 of them have 1000 different "high technology". Sometimes, a feature like "high Technology" is essentially a combination of other features. "High technology" can include "modern", "simple", "formal" and so on-these are the characteristics that can be placed on the ruler and are defined and discussed by people who have no design background.

Bonus NOTE: After the project is completed, evaluate which features are critical to the success of the project, and track the features that you regret not putting in.

Design with confidence

Reliable and comprehensive understanding of site goals, content organization, page layout, personality development, properly completed and so on, can create an environment for you. In this environment, you and the project holder have a trustworthy and rigorous discussion and accurate record of ideas. By working together, you will make fewer mistakes, suffer fewer annoying surprises, accomplish targeted exploration, and ultimately create better designs.

The caption is drawn by Kevin Cornell

Post-translation sense:

It's embarrassing. The article is too advanced. Someone has previously sent a translation, more difficult to understand than the original ... (The translator is angry, ha ... Everyone is to learn to communicate ~) hope that you see my version of the time is not too confused.

Welcome to the message discussion, this is actually a very worthy of serious discussion topic. Do not think that in China we can not do this "special focus" of the so-called "high-end" design. Is it high-end? They are all practical tips for communicating with customers and arranging their own work. Not whether you can do high-end, but whether you want to. Even if you do not high-end, "want to do high-end" than "stoop" to deserve more praise.

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