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Information architecture |
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| Information architecture is the art and science of organising and labelling Web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support findability and usability. It specifies the structure and behaviour of a Web site, software product and interactive service, so that users can achieve goals, complete tasks and find what they need. It takes for account the strategic aspects of your business organisation. It stimulates the economical model of your company. It aims to create a platform for your users and company needs. |
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Information architecture participates towards:
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Your company business strategy. |
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The business strategy of each group of products and services you have. |
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The user experience design wanted by your users. |
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The technological constraints of your information system. |
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Typical information architecture issues:
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What are the main objectives of the user? What does he do to achieve it? |
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What are the tasks pressure points? |
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What the user really utilises? |
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How the user came to this page? |
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How users go from one place to another in the architecture? |
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What are the differences between the MM engineer and the MM user? |
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Interaction design |
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| Interaction design defines the behaviour of products and systems that a user can interact with. Today’s Internet overflows of interactivity. Interaction design aims to lessen frustration, increase the efficiency of a task and satisfaction of the users without diminishing the value of a product’s useful functionality. It improves the usability and experience of the product or system by first researching and understanding user’s needs and then designing to meet these needs. Well controlled interactivity increases user’s motivation and performance. Creating a unique interaction design experience helps in singularising your brand image. |
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Interaction design comprises of:
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Functional inventory. |
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Page type. |
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Standards page selection. |
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User scenario. |
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Information feedback. |
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Typical interaction design issues:
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How to attract people to the most important elements and information? |
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How can user understand that he is executing a small task that is a part of the whole task started earlier? |
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Does user understand that he has to drill down on the page to terminate his task? |
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Which standard page type to use? |
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How to apply the data gathered from the qualitative and quantitative testing? |
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Usability |
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| Usability is used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made objects in order to achieve a specific goal. Usability has become more popular and widely recognised in recent years as companies see the benefits of researching and developing their products with user-driven instead of technology-driven methods. The usability engineer is the defender of user performance and productivity. His job is to analyse the user's requirements in user centred design. He offers solution based on academic usability knowledge. |
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Usability comprises of:
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User testing. |
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Surveys, interviews. |
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Content and terminology. |
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Cultural codes. |
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Micro and macro usages. |
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Typical usability issues:
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What is the frequency of use of the interface? How long it is used? |
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What tasks do user perform most frequently? |
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What information user is looking for? Does he have other sources of information? |
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What are the social conventions users will not go through? |
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How to justify the difficulties of a particular group of users? |
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Visual design |
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| Visual design is the process of communicating visually using images and typography to present information. The essence of visual design is to give order to information, form to ideas, expression and feeling to artefacts that document human experience. Visual design has a unique ability to sell a product or idea through effective and appealing visual communications. Visual design has to agglomerate design decisions and orientations. It needs to respond to the requirements of marketing, usability engineering and interaction design. Detailed design is the secondary step in visual design which is a long and meticulous work. |
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Visual design comprises of:
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Semiotic. |
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Aesthetic (visual hierarchy, colour, proximity, similarity, texture, shape, direction, size). |
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Slow and fast moving trends. |
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Graphic chart. |
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What is the hierarchical logic of this page? |
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What colours are acceptable for a global usage? |
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What are the visual trends in Web, GUI or mobile interface? |
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What is the symbolic value of our business line abroad? |
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Prototyping |
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| Prototyping is the process of putting together a working model in order to test various aspects of a design, illustrate ideas or features and gather early user feedback. It is an integral part of the system design process and is believed to reduce project risks and cost. It assists to identify any problems or deficiencies related with the efficacy of earlier design, requirement analysis and coding activities. The design prototype is a collaboration between the software engineer and the interaction designer. Usability engineer test the design with the end-users and recommends necessary changes for correcting it. When the prototype is sufficiently refined and meets the functionality and other design goals, the product is ready for production. |
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Prototyping comprises of:
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Low fidelity prototype. |
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Functions, interactions, information architecture and visual design coding. |
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Optimisation of connexion, download and interaction. |
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Technical feasibility review. |
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