Several concepts of interactive design and user experience

1. Interactive Design

Alan Cooper's classic definition of interactive design:

Simply put, interactive design is the behavior of artifacts, environments, and systems, and the design and definition of the elements that convey this behavior.

The interactive design first plans and describes the way things behave, and then describes the most effective forms of conveying this behavior. Interactive design is a discipline that pays special attention to the following topics:

Define product forms that are closely related to the behavior and use of the product

Predict how the product's use affects the product's relationship with the user and the user's understanding of the product

Explore dialogue between products, people and contexts (material, culture, and history) (Riemann and Forlizzi)

This understanding is a bit obscure, Alan Cooper "about Face2.0", some time ago in Zhejiang also saw some, but because of the time is urgent, can not seriously read, I would like to have time or should be a good review, bicespring in the interactive design: not what and what. He also put forward his own understanding of the interactive design, found that it is more in line with my view:

Interaction design refers to the process of analyzing, predicting, defining, planning, describing and exploring the interaction mechanism between a product and its users.

Simply put, it is the process of designing and defining how a user can use a product to reach its goal and accomplish a task.

And there's a definition that looks something like this:

Interaction design refers to the interaction between a designer and a product or service, user-experience based human-computer interaction is designed to take into account the user's background, experience, and feelings in the process, so as to design a product that conforms to the end user, making the end user happy when using the product, in accordance with their own logic, Effective completion and efficient use of the product.

The purpose of interactive design is to make products easy for users to use.

The realization of any product function is done through the interaction of the human and the machine. Therefore, the human factor should be embodied as the core of the design.

Another article of his product, experience, user and designer concept "inside the designer inside several positions of the Division of labor." This I also very much agree with:

Designer (Designer)

corresponding to the three levels of the product, the designer of the product can be divided into three types (positions): Visual designer (Visual Designer), Interaction Designer (interaction Designer) and program designer (Programs Designer).

If sorted by job content, these three positions are from the very first. Visual designers are responsible for the appearance of the product design and creativity, that is how the product looks, to convey to the user what kind of feeling; The interaction designer is responsible for the design and creativity of the product behavior, that is, how the user interacts with the product, and how the product responds to the user's actions; The programmer is responsible for the realization and originality of the product function, That is, the operating mechanism of the product, how to make the product run more efficient.

In fact, although I have many times in the wrong use of this concept, but it is also in the understanding of some of his meaning, I understand that the interaction design is currently limited to the field of web design, Alan Cooper said "the Web has made interface technology more than ten years backwards." Because of the limitations of web technology itself, the interactive designers who do the web, most of them are doing user behavior analysis, discovering the problems in the interactive process and correcting them, can innovate and design the interactive concept as a whole, because it requires not only a deep theoretical foundation and considerable programming skills. Can and needs the support of the technical environment and tools, web design process, I often mention some of the process, operating habits, visual transfer lines, and so on, to do now, I found that the field of interaction should not be limited to this small scope, he should be independent, specialized research to study user behavior, how users interact with the product, And how the product responds to the user's actions; At the same time, he is a communication role, as a visual designer and program design Communication Bridge. The purpose of interactive design is to make products easy for users to use. The realization of any product function is done through the interaction of the human and the machine. Therefore, interactive design in the product design process accounted for a large proportion of the one.

2. User experience, the English name is called User Experience, abbreviated as UE, or UX.

it refers to the full experience of a user accessing a Web site or using a product. Their impressions and feelings, whether they are successful, whether they enjoy it or not, whether they want to come back/use it again. They can tolerate the extent of the problems, doubts and bugs.

Oh, this is also I used a very bad word, now corresponding, are a bit ashamed, then UE do what, UE in the company's role is what, this can refer to Baiya article: the answer: UE is what kind of a department, describe your heart UE? , perhaps understand this, later, you will not be able to easily use a good user experience what words to casually stall some you can not solve the problem. Personally, I think the user experience is the most difficult, he needs the researcher to the website or the software user interface usability has the thorough understanding and the research, and should be very sensitive, to the user psychology can grasp accurately, the thought needs very rigorous, can very good discover the question the key point as well as proposes some objective solution method. It also needs to be organized to articulate the issues. About the user Experience designer's positioning, this article may refer to.

3. Information architecture, English is called Information Architecture, abbreviated as IA.

It is a process of collating information and mediating the needs of information systems and users, mainly to make it a combination structure that is organized, categorized, and has a browsing system.

Such structural design will allow users to access the content of information more directly, so that the user's task is easier to complete, it can be said to be in the structure and classification of art and science, can help us find information and management.

4. UI-User Interface

Graphical interface-Graphics User Interface

In the process of interaction between people and machines, there is a level, that is, what we call the interface.

From the psychological point of view, the interface can be divided into sensory (visual, tactile, auditory, etc.) and emotional two levels.

Effective interface design is often a predictable process, and design goals are developed by the developer based on their understanding of user needs. The simplicity of the interface and the willingness of users to use it means that the design needs to be tailored to the limitations of the hardware.