The right posture for cloud computing interaction designers

This article from the NetEase cloud community

Li Tianli

A lot of designers have been talking to me lately, what's the difference between doing cloud computing interaction design and other designers?

I actually do not know how to answer, can remember the last time TC class project is two or three years ago in school, after work has been doing cloud computing products, not too deep experience to do other products, I really do not say what the difference.

However, in my understanding, the interaction design is virtually the same, the object is the user, the analysis is the user scene, the purpose is to be able to bring users a better experience. User research methods, information architecture design, process design, page layout and so on, I can think of pure professional things are actually similar.

If there is any difference, it may be that the interaction designers of cloud computing have some special requirements for business. Because most of the designers are art majors or psychology and other liberal arts majors (of course, there are engineering majors, such as me and my girlfriends, are computer majors graduated), if you do not take the time to learn computer, network, programming and other related content, for the cloud computing business in the understanding of a certain degree of difficulty, I have recently been asked questions like this.

After the last article, someone in the background asked me a question: What do interactive designers of cloud computing need to learn? Then I'll simply list it ~

Interactive design

First of all, it is the interaction designer, the professional ability of the interaction designer is necessary and high demand. In fact, there are a lot of answers on the interactive designers need to have the professional skills related to the post, again I can also briefly say.

1. Demand analysis capability

No matter what a person wants to do, they must first know what their task is. Is the requirement analysis ability a necessary skill for an interactive designer, and is the requirement reasonable? Do you need to redefine it? Can the demand meet the needs of users? What are the resource constraints on the implementation of requirements? What should be done as an interaction designer? In fact, there are a lot of related problems, we need to be able to get the demand at least in the heart to ask once. Filter out unreasonable requirements, and then be able to tap into the needs of the user goals, clear the product itself positioning, demand priority, project resources, and so on, these are to help designers behind the design and project decision-making.

2. User role and scenario analysis capabilities

Because the interaction designer is the user experience, it is important to be able to correctly understand the characteristics of the user's role and how such a user can use our products in any scenario.

3. Information structure design, task/page process design, interface design capability

These should be considered as the basic ability of the interaction designer, will be required to transform the interface, can master a number of information design, process design solutions, interface design layout reasonable, clear expression, follow the trend of modern design. Sometimes I liken the interaction designer to a magician, because it's really magical (haha, not narcissistic), and it's clear that a whole bunch of intricate logic and processes can be sorted into a bunch of words.

4. Tool use capability

This includes freehand, software use. For the business complex requirements, I am required to use paper and pen to confirm the contents of the software to do, because the paper and pen can be casually painted, is very able to let their thinking divergent and can record the design process of the tool, at the same time for some uncertain needs, alteration is also very convenient. Software use, it is basically able to use Axure and other interactive design software to produce low fidelity, high fidelity prototype, can use process design or brain diagram tools for process/information structure design, these are also the basic skills of interaction designers.

5. Programme balance and implementation capacity

First of all, the solution tradeoff, sometimes we need to make multiple scenarios when divergent ideas, but ultimately to achieve the solution can only be one, as an interactive designer, need to be able to from the user goals, usage scenarios, research and development costs, product positioning and other angles to analyze, Figure out why you have to choose a solution (while making a decision with the various stakeholders), and then introduce your plan to everyone and be able to persuade you to follow your own design plan for execution. A good plan, only truly achieved, can be called a perfect solution, can not be executed or not executed program is never a good solution to the scene.

Professional in general said so much, in fact, the work of the interaction design professional ability requirements are relatively high, because to do technology-intensive products need to spend a lot of energy in demand, business understanding, carding and overall thinking, the real time to design is relatively small, which requires the designer professional knowledge solid and flexible use, Ability to react quickly and try multiple scenarios and more. Now let's talk about the so-called research and development knowledge that interaction designers want to know.

Research and development knowledge

Research and development knowledge include some basic knowledge, such as the front end, back end and other basic research and development knowledge, each interaction design may be as far as possible to understand the better, for technology-intensive products (such as cloud computing) interaction designers, it is necessary to learn a little more, and the content may require more, such as database, storage Storage, computer hardware structure and network, of course, the cloud computing business needs to be able to deeply understand and integrate into the normal work.

1. Front End

Familiar with the use of HTML, CSS, JS and call relationship, will write basic tag language and CSS, familiar with the contents of the box model and the front-end code structure, the browser can debug the desired front-end style, can be developed through the browser mode to locate the BUG between.

2. Back end

Understand the basic object development process and abstract, encapsulation, inheritance, class, object, polymorphic and other basic concepts, such as simple understanding of classes, objects, methods and properties of the concept, in addition to understand the backend research and development will be used in other languages of the basic concepts, you can go through such as Java development, PHP development and other related books.

3. Front and rear end between

Understand the basic front-end Interface invocation method (which can affect the specific interaction design, such as submitting feedback), clear the basic message and notification mechanism (will affect the refresh, message notification), mainly to clear the front-end interaction related content, As the synchronous interface/asynchronous interface has a different effect on interactive feedback (simple description).

4. Networking and Communications

Understand basic network communication protocols, understand basic data transmission process, such as communication transmission process, clear network related basic concepts, understand the network transmission or data acquisition process may have what problem (will affect the interactive feedback), can go over the computer network and communication principles of the basic concepts of these books.

5. Language aspects

Development language, at least a careful study of a development language, such as C, Java can, understand the basic data types and check the way, understand the basic statement, understand the meaning and concept of basic algorithms, understand the basic data structure related content, such as stacks, queues, tables, graphs, etc., as well as polling, traversal, Binary tree and other research and development personnel feel very common sense of the concept, compare the recommended data structure and algorithm principles related books.

6. Databases and storage

Understanding the concepts of different types of database types, understanding the fundamentals of storage, and so on, is appropriate to understand according to your needs.

7. Research and Development project management

Understand basic code management platform use, clear Code branch, version and other concepts, and can easily use command line tools, Eclipse, Sublime, etc. to develop frequently used tools, understand the basic method of front-end debugging.

8. Cloud computing Business

Proficiency in computing, storage, database, network, messaging, network security, private network and other cloud computing business concepts, logic, architecture and business dependencies, as a container-based computing service-related business simple, clear IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, CaaS, microservices and other basic concepts and basic structure, Understand the classification of cloud computing ownership, familiar with cloud computing applications, such as education, games, and so on.

Soft power

In addition to professional support, research and development of live business-related content, at work to deal with complex product collaboration needs a few other key points.

1. Ability to collaborate

Because cloud computing has a lot of business, and every business is basically a research and development department, sometimes doing some business will be related to the cooperation of N departments, all require a little more collaboration ability. There is the possibility that you will meet a variety of people at work, it is necessary to learn to cooperate with different types of people.

2. Power of Control

May be called this word is also not accurate, I would like to say is able to explain and carry out their own design, this is mainly because many times, we will be in the design of the meeting to face a large room of the development of the Boss and Development brothers, when many people will have a lot of ideas and discussions, This is when the interaction designer can lead the meeting, or a design note becomes a technical seminar.

3. Communication skills

Can learn and various functional departments have different ways of communication, such as the visual and the back end of the communication angle and manner will be slightly different, visual more concerned about the visual presentation of the interactive design, and the visual students are mostly a perceptual way of thinking, and the development and care is to realize the method, and the way of thinking is rational, It is often said that the lessons of thinking, if the two sides to adopt the same way of communication will inevitably be a low-efficiency communication. The good thing is to learn from the other side of the understanding of the point of view to convey to each other's things, this is the so-called communication funnel, sometimes we will say "I have said very clearly, why he still do not understand", this time most of the situation may be because we did not say let him understand.

4. Self-study ability

The so-called learning, self-study ability may be in the business of cloud computing is very much needed, because we can at any time do not understand the business, if this time can not learn the relevant knowledge in advance, it is likely that you will face the needs of the review will be confused, completely lose the participation and the right of speech.

5. Logical Thinking

This may not be as high as TC products, but for technology-intensive products, a strong logic mindset is needed to understand the intricate relationships between the logical business and the business.

So long-winded said a lot, but actually work up really there are more places to learn, together with the progress of it. Recently, there are a lot of small school partners looking for a job, I hope this will be of some use to you.

Attached Books single:

---Interactive design, must-read---

User Experience Essentials: User-centric product design

Micro-Interaction: The details of the design achievements of excellence products

"Interface design mode"

"Broken cocoon into a butterfly: the way of the development of user experience designers"

"User experience Metrics: a statistical approach to quantifying user experience"

--Research and development technology--

Data structure (C language Edition) must read

"Computer network" must read

"Graphic network Hardware"

"Probability theory"---to see the user experience Metrics

CSS Mastery: Advanced WEB Standards Solutions

"Responsive Web Design: HTML5 and CSS3 practices"

Getting started with the basics of JAVA

--Other--

" thinking"

"Level thinking"

"The Art of Communication"

"The way of the project manager's cultivation"

Another recommended book for Milan Kundera

NetEase Cloud Gift Pack: Www.163yun.com/gift

This article from the NetEase cloud community, by the author Li Tianli authorized release.

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