Shofwa Alyadiena | 0350019
UX Design | Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Lecture Notes
Week 1 - Introduction
For the first week, we were briefed about the coming assignments. It'll be discussed later in this blog- for now, the instructions were to read the first chapter of the book provided to us: 'The Design of Everyday Things', written by Don Norman. In it, I learned firstly about the differences between the expectations and reality of design, where one would assume users would use a design with pure logic- and doesn't take into account that humans make mistakes no matter how logical it may seem.
Then, I learned about affordances. Based on my understanding, affordances are directly described as an object's interactive ability. The example given- a chair- affords sitting and lifting, though lifting is only by certain users. The inability of an interaction is labelled an anti-affordance, such as when an object prevents other things from passing through it.
Signifiers come in with affordances. To describe, signifiers are where the affordances are directed or placed specifically- like a button or a scroll bar to specify where to click or drag. It's really just a clear indicator of where to go.
Mapping is a guide for how the signifiers could be better placed. If a signifier for something under the main design is placed on the lower bits, it indirectly explains to the user that there's more underneath- the same goes for tops, lefts, and rights.
Feedback is the result of your action; it shows that what you're doing to an object or design is making something happen. For example, if you click on something to open an app, the event of taking you from the previous page to the app is feedback. Having too much feedback, like loud beeping, can be annoying and hardly of any help; unless it's the intention, like for an alarm clock.
Conceptual Models are somewhat the combination of all mentioned
above, much like a conclusion.
Furthermore, the chapter explains a few things about the user's perspective. Firstly, the system image- or how users perceive the object- is always different. The difference needs to be considered so that it's understandable no matter what the image looks like. Second, is the paradox of technology; everyone wishes for functionalities to be compact- but the minimalizing process creates a different problem where we need to go through extra steps to reach the function we want. Lastly, the design challenges- as in everyone has needs that can't be fulfilled entirely. There isn't much that can't be done, but there are things that can be ruled out so that other properties of a design can shine.
Week 2 - Definitions
UX Design is all about creating a comfort zone for your users. It's how the user feels about interacting with or experiencing a product. Everyone's favourite example is the designs of a door- too many times they're confusing us for no good reason, and leave us frustrated more than we should. In the design context, what kind of intuitive design can we integrate into mobile applications?
Interaction of a person with a product has existed for a long time, dating back to 4000 BC with the existence of Feng Shui. I don't quite understand the concept myself, but "placing things a certain way to achieve a certain vibe" is what came through my brain, and it does sound extremely familiar in the sense that it describes affordances all the way to feedback.
The next most important thing to note is researching. It's done to make sure we don't repeat the same mistakes from the past. one good example of research- or, lack of it: Yahoo Mail's interface update. They failed to consider the audience's preferences and released the drastic update in a short amount of time. The users, mostly elders, could not adapt to the changes. In the end, they had to compromise by creating two different versions that could cater to the older and younger audience.
Week 3 - Bad vs. Good UX Design
A good design is a lot harder to notice than a poor design. The output needs to have the following characteristics:
Usable
It needs to be discoverable and understandable- intuitiveness is important, but also directions that let people understand what the different controls mean and what their functions are. Basically, if the users have no problem finding what they want, that means the design is proper.
Equitable
People with diverse backgrounds have the same high-quality experience. A design with good equity consideration would be able to cater to all diverse groups of gender, age, race, and disabilities.
Enjoyable
We need to satisfy our clients/users by keeping them engaged and interested. Like a music app giving recommendations- helping create a positive bond with the application.
Useful
Solving a user's problem- is it adding value to the user's experience? does it help users achieve a specific goal?
Week 4 - User Segmentation
Design to influence the users to behave the way you want them to engage with your application. Even seasoned users can have trouble using the application.
Market Segmentation is basically deciding who our users are. Part of the UX Design process is research- as always. Whatever you do you must always start with research. The difference lies in Empathy. It's where you engage and interact with the user from surveys- and the target will be from our creation, which becomes the term 'User Personas'.
Can our design encourage people to follow up with the sales currently happening?
Value Metric
- Signing up for it or paying for it
- Using it more than once
- Telling others about it
Segmentation:
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Demographic
Age, gender, education level, occupation, income. -
Geographic
Countries, regions, cities.
-
Behaviour
Behavioural patterns toward using a particular product. -
Technology
Tech savviness
Instructions
Visual Research
I've previously made a mistake in writing my Design Exploration process here. Whoops.
For this module, the first task is to discuss what fashion niche we'd like to explore and create a UX Design for. My groupmates and I discussed this for a good long week, and decided that we'd look into 'Maximalism'.
Design-wise, maximalism is an aesthetic in the excessive. It's an organized mess. The first example I can think of immediately is this background from Howl's Moving Castle.
In the example, we could see the details take over- there's hardly any empty space, and most wouldn't really know what each detail is there for. Of course, that's just an example in terms of art. I just had to mention it since that's more in my field than fashion is. This leads to my next point- maximalism in fashion.
Maximalism in fashion comes mainly in the form of layering, pattern-mixing, and creative hair and make-up. The word itself is a direct opposite of the minimalist aesthetic.
From the example itself, we can see that there's use of everything- bright colours, patterns, bold shoes, and lots and lots of accessorising.
Submission
Fig. 2.1 MAXILIST Proposal Presentation (27/9/2023)
Feedback
- It doesn't seem we've caught up. It was more of an idea proposal rather than an application proposal (Not yet come up with logos, not decided what font to use etc)
- We have to make sure we balance our aesthetics with its functionality.
Individual Assignments
The first exercise is to find a mobile application and break down the affordances, signifiers, mapping, and feedback. We must describe how the application's UX design functions when used and then compile the findings as screenshots with captions and labels in a document as a report. Preferably, one that can help us in our group project.
For this assignment, I've decided to blindly select an app from my phone: Sephora.
I realize I'm not quite good at making the analysis look good, but there are memorable main issues and features. Truthfully, the reports are majorly simplified. This is not to say there aren't pros and cons, but I believe only a select few are worth mentioning that would benefit our group project.
Reflection:
Experience
Analyzing an application with terms I'd almost never heard of before was a new experience. For the first half of the project, hardly any of our group members were available. We were getting sick left and right, and it was difficult for everyone to gather and properly sit through a meaningful meeting discussion.
Observation
I was surprised to hear my classmates dislike the fact that there were only 6 slides allowed to explain the pros, cons, and possible improvements to their apps as I didn't think there was much to say. Improvements are vast but the pros and cons needn't be so bulky.
Findings
While doing the reports, I find it really interesting what the reason for the "back button" placement is. I think it's incredibly insightful to remember how design isn't limited to visuals but also how people read and see things based on what language they lived and grew up with. It's such a cool little detail that gets overlooked!
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