design essentials for executives
DESCRIPTION
You’ve embarked upon a user experience project – updating your website or creating a Web or mobile app. You know there will be an element of visual and experience design, but do you understand the basics behind why your designers are making the decisions and recommendations they make? It’s important to understand some design basics in order to communicate effectively with the designers on your team. While many of us have an intuitive feel for what works and what doesn’t, developing a vocabulary to describe your issues and feedback and understanding the techniques required to validate your hunches are important skills in order to ensure the success of your project. This session goes in-depth on which design techniques and principles ought to be part of every executive’s vernacular. By the end of the session attendees will understand the basics of both high level interaction design and lower-level visual design in a way that maximizes energy and time in the approval process, including: • Basic design principles to help executives understand a design’s intent. This includes a basic understanding of layout, color theory and typography. • Design vocabulary, heuristics and analysis techniques • The difference between information architecture and interaction design, and how both have a critical yet often unseen influence on the development of the end project • Why incorporating user research is critical to good designTRANSCRIPT
Anthony Franco: President, FounderMichael Salamon: Lead Experience Architect
Design Essentials for Executives“Behind The Magic”
Tweeting our session?Use the hashtag: #effectiveui
Why Care About Design
Imagine you are Dr. Min Kao
CEO of Garmin
$97.99
What is Design?
obligatory Steve Jobs quote“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”
Steve Jobs in an Interview with Fortune Magazine, 2000
Design Research
Interaction Design
Graphic Design
Graphic DesignMaking intent visible and emotional.
“Effective use of the Language of Form”
Paul Rand
Dictionary:
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Text
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Text
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
Images from “Paul Rand Retrospective” by Imaginary Forces.
More than the sum of its parts...
Interaction DesignExposing intent through actions and feedback.
Interaction design is the art of making things intuitive
Don Norman’s Design DictionaryVisibilityAffordancesFeedbackMappingConstraintConsistency
Visibility
Affordance
Feedback
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meganbarton/3023756556/
Mapping
http://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/181012863/
Constraints
Consistency
TakeawaysInteractive elements should be visible, recognizable, reactive (feedback), safe and consistent.
Design ResearchDefining, validating and auditing an application’s intent.
Without design research, customers will think your
product sucks
But what about Steve?
Without design research, customers will think your
product sucks
Without customer empathy, customers will think your
product sucks
Design research gives designers empathy
Pro-TipsExtras for the Execs.
Never useComic Sans
Don’t Put Social Everywhere.
Don’t ask for Comps in your RFP.
Never useYellow on
White
Don’t always copy Apple
AVOID USING ALL CAPS WITH SCRIPTS
Don’t put Drop Shadows on EVERYTHING
Don’t Use Flames
Never let I.T. make design decisions
Don’t think re-skinning’s gonna help
Don’t say “Make it
Image from: http://stephanielittlejohns.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/pop.jpg
Don’t say “Make the logo bigger”
Don’t say “Make it Clean”
And above all else...
Never, ever quote
Jakob Nielsen
Jakob Nielsen Ten Usability Heuristics: http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html Heuristic Evaluation: http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_evaluation.html
Bill Buxton Sketching User Experience Design
Donald NormanThe Design of Everyday Things
William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill ButlerUniversal Principles of Design
Robin WilliamsThe Non-Designer’s Design Book
Indi YoungMental ModelingRe-imagining the Design of Everyday Things (SlideShare)
Stephen FewInformation Dashboard Design - The Effective Visual Communication of Data
Rudolf Arnheim:To the Rescue of Art - Twenty-six Essays
Lindsay Moore and Austin BrownHuman Centered Design and the Intersection of Physical and Digital Worlds:http://www.slideshare.net/EveFife/humancentered-design-and-the-intersection-of-the-physical-and-digital-worlds?from=ss_embed
Original Paul Rand video:http://imaginaryforces.com/featured/3/415
But you don’t have to take our word for it.
Thanks!#effectiveui
@anthonyfranco@michael_salamon@effectiveui © EffectiveUI 2011