This week I looked at UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) which we looked into their principles.
We looked at the principles of human centred design which included
Focusing on the people - To focus on the people that would be using your design and to understand what they need from it. This can have a range of effects on your website such as the age of your target audience or the ‘aesthetic’ your website is going for, for example branding. Think who are you building this for. A clients request can sometimes be mistaken from the person commissioning the design. Think who are you building the website for and what they need it to do. It is important to think beyond the clients needs and also think of the staff and customers who may use the design.
Finding the right problem - Commonly the problem a designer is asked to fix isn't the root cause of the problem which as a designer, if you find the root problem you should be able to fix the symptoms as well. We then looked at the ‘five ways’ problem solving method which I watched the video provided on blackboard at home which went over this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrlYkx41wEE
To think of everything as a System - Not every problem exists on its own, ‘By understanding and mapping out the extent of the system the problem lives in you can’ first see how a potential solution could affect other parts of the system for the better or worse. You should identify the cause of the problem which sits outside the ‘known system’. There was ‘maps’ provided on blackboard to give a visual understanding of how they look, information designers have included and the issues found in these maps.
To always validate your design choices - To create a design what actually meets a clients needs rather than what design looks best. A better method to this is to watch users attempt to perform tasks with a prototype of each design, then the designer can see what successfully works in their design or what may need changed and improved.