App design vs Web design: Learning from each other

Source: Internet
Author: User
Keywords Features web design designers themselves attention

We typically view http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/9086.html ">app design and web design as two completely different areas."

With the advent of web apps, the boundaries between each other seem to blur, but we still try to compare app design with web design. Even designers who work on both sides often treat them differently.

In fact, these two aspects can be mutually complementary. Each type of design has its own strengths and weaknesses, and often needs to be supplemented in other ways.

Here are six points that can be used for reference between app design and web design.

1, avoid function overflow

App designers know that extra functionality can quickly become the biggest enemy. Keep your app lightweight, lightweight and reliable, ensuring that it has only the necessary and useful skills to be the key to success. Look at the most popular apps on any platform App store, and you'll find that they focus on just one feature.

Ge.tt is a successful example of a web app that avoids feature flooding. It lets you quickly share and publish your files online. All of its functions are designed to achieve a core goal.

This "narrow" focus is important to the app because it often involves space and reliability issues. Usability is a big challenge if you're on a mobile phone. The more versatile the mobile screen, the less usability of the software. Although some software has found a way to develop multiple functions without confusing interfaces, this is a more stringent challenge.

Web designers, on the other hand, are keen to cram Web sites with multiple features. They believe that the more features on the site, the more useful the site. Although web design does not have to consider small screen problems, it does not mean that a large page is full of features that are useful to users.

The core is: value. If you're honest about adding a feature that provides more value to your users, it's important to find a way to incorporate it into your existing user experience, which is worth a try. But do not add unnecessary functionality.

2, keep unique and fresh

App developers are well aware that their work is different from the existing software, and is an important factor in making their apps successful and popular. To get the market, the product must be unique and fresh. Add one or two innocuous features to the completed version.

PDF Expert is an excellent example of the unique features of the software appearance.

Web designers don't have to stick to this idea.

Many sites have similar sites, everyone is doing something, and all claim to be "XX". Of course, from the surface, may be different, but still have similar layout, meet similar characteristics, similar functions. There is no significant difference between them.

The designer who really wants to succeed must spend his mind to create a unique work, to get rid of the "thousand people side", always better than copying other people's routines.

A little experience: The next time you meet a designer, don't look for someone else's solution. Instead, you should sit down and let your Brain "brainstorm", regardless of whether the idea that emerges is bad. When you know all your ideas, and then look at other people's solutions, to see if their ideas are really stronger than you, the other people's methods and your thoughts, contact to see what you think of? Doing so will exercise your way of thinking.

3, using standard GUI components and patterns

It's a great idea, but good app designers know that there are many standard GUI elements that identify specific actions. They are only detached from these predefined elements in their own adventures. A successful app rarely uses a non-standard GUI unless its own design is well established (which is, of course, only a handful of cases). Moreover, most apps that do not use the standard GUI will be accompanied by instructions.

Successful software using the standard GUI also creates custom interfaces. This makes the software easy and approachable.

Harvest the software uses both standard elements and custom operating interfaces, which makes it even more appealing.

Web designers sometimes make ingenious designs, but they can significantly weaken the user experience of the site.

People look at certain things when browsing the site: underlined links, buttons, navigation bars, similar web site structures. Sometimes you change these familiar things, and you are rejecting the user in disguise. Think about the need to get rid of the well-known, conventional graphical elements that need to be deformed? If it's not a good way to improve the user experience, forget the idea; The quickest way to lose a user is to let them confused.

4, create a valid error hint

This applies both ways. Some app designers create fantastic, useful error tips, and some sites do. But there are also apps or Web sites that do not.

Only a simple Add home page or a link to the previous layer on the error Message page, page 404 immediately becomes useful.

Useful error Tips not only tell the user that "there is something wrong". In app, a valid error message can provide users with a solution to the error. On the website, the wrong hints can provide a way for the viewer to resolve the error. In either case, just saying "error" to the user is no good except for pushing away the user. Take care to make effective error tips and you will get more happy users.

5, lovely material

At this point, many app designers should learn from web designers. Now, despite the emergence of a lot of cute and useful app, there are still many apps powerful but ugly interface.

App designers need to think carefully about how to better design their own appgui, not just the default design style. Of course, built-in GUI elements are not bad, but they do seem to be common, and they don't make your product stand out from the market. Many apps use mundane design, which is worse than using a built-in GUI.

Awesome note success proves that an attractive design is an important factor in becoming a good software.

Think about the functionality of your app, what kind of user object it is, and what kind of design can improve software operability and user satisfaction. For example, you create a snapshot software. Using a built-in GUI doesn't make your software different from other snapshot software, but if you add some high light and other elements, you're pleasing your users right away. They feel they are using a different software, not just a snapshot software with an extra ringtone.

6, you must provide a retractable view

This is a good job for web designers. We know that at any point in time, our site may encounter flood-like user traffic, we need to ensure the availability of the site. The cause of the problem may be a small piece of virus-containing content, or one or two of messages are wildly forwarded by viewers.

To some extent, it is not difficult to become more scalable for standard Web sites (it is difficult to choose a qualified service provider).

The other aspect of scalability is predicting how users will use a Web site or service. For most Web sites, they do not have this level of concern. But user interaction with software is critical to software. A small number of influential users can affect other users, whether it is a bad evaluation of the software or the ability to expand the software.

Software is more difficult to extend than web sites, which is determined by the architecture of the software. The increase in the number of users is not entirely different from web site expansion; Software scalability is more difficult to attribute to applications that are used by individual users.

A few weeks ago, Robert Scoble and Kevin Rose had an interesting discussion about Google +. Scoble is facing a lot of useless information crammed into his space, he has publicly suggested that Google + should establish a filtering mechanism to remove these "murmurs." Rose questioned this, because Scoble is a "marginal" user, and most users are not concerned by a large number of users, so they do not encounter this problem. The question remains whether Web apps like Google + (or mobile phone software) should focus on the needs of marginal users to provide scalability, and whether they need to focus on the needs of ordinary users. This seems to be a debate that will last long, but the designers and developers of software (and web) need to think about it.

Summary

No matter what kind of designer you are, you can benefit from good work in other fields.

Look at your narrow focus, see how other designers, how to solve similar problems in other areas, and then absorb the good ideas to solve the challenges at hand.

English Address: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/08/app-design-versus-web-design-what-designers-can-teach-each-other/

Source: http://paranimage.com/app-design-vs-web-design/

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