User interface design process
Filed Under Interface, UI, Design, Process | Posted on February 7, 2008
The above term sounds like a very grand term, although it could be simply defined as the way that the user interface design works. User interface design requires a judicious mixture of creativity, design knowledge and experience, task analysis and a thorough understanding of users requirements. Let us try and understand what this process is actually like, and if you take the context of working the process through a project cycle, it will be easier to understand. One typical definition of the user interface design process is: User interface design process as the total set of design tasks to be carried out to transform a user’s requirements into a user interface design specification (User Interface Specification is a document that includes an overall definition of the application, from the user interface perspective).
An Overview of the Design Process
All application design methodologies break the development process down into discrete phases. Below are some typical phases.
Requirements Phase: Determine the requirements for the application by interacting with users. Can be further divided into funtionality requirements gathering and user analysis:
* Functionality requirements gathering - assembling a list of the functionality required of the system to accomplish the goals of the project and the potential needs of the users.
* User analysis - analysis of the potential users of the system either through discussion with people who work with the users and/or the potential users themselves. This phase can take some good amount of time to achieve, but is very important for later success of the User Interface. Typical questions involve:
o What would the user want the system to do?
o How would the system fit in with the user’s normal workflow or daily activities?
o How technically savvy is the user and what similar systems does the user already use?
o What interface look & feel styles appeal to the user?
Conceptual Design Phase: Model the underlying business that the application will support. The objective is to model the business irrespective of any implementation issues. This phase also involves working on the information architecture - development of the process and/or information flow of the system (i.e. for web sites this would be a site flow that shows the hierarchy of the pages).
Logical Design: Design in general terms how the application will operate. This includes the prototyping of the interface. Prototyping means the development of wireframes, either in the form of paper prototypes or simple interactive screens. These prototypes are stripped of all look & feel elements and most content in order to concentrate on the interface.
Physical Design: Design in specific terms how the application will be constructed, and this includes incorporating the platform on which the application is supposed to work. From this stage, it is possible to figure out whether some aspects of the logical design are actually possible or not.
Construction: Construct the application. It is during this phase that users actually get their hands on what the application would actually work like, and it is quite possible that at this point, they would prefer certain changes.
Usability Testing: Test the usability of the user interface; or in more detail, testing of the prototypes on an actual user — often using a technique called talk aloud protocol where you ask the user to talk about their thoughts during the experience of using the application.
Graphic Interface design - actual look & feel design of the final graphical user interface (GUI.) It may be based on the findings developed during the usability testing if usability is unpredictable, or based on communication objectives and styles that would appeal to the user. In rare cases, the graphics may drive the prototyping, depending on the importance of visual form versus function. If the interface requires multiple skins, there may be multiple interface designs for one control panel, functional feature or widget. This phase is often a collaborative effort between a graphic designer and a user interface designer, or handled by one who is proficient in both disciplines.
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