Despite a popular believe that designer’s job ends
when you hand the designs to the development team, it’s just the opposite.
Designer isn’t just responsible for the look and the feel of the product, but
also for the interaction between the product and its users. In this post I will
take a look into the steps to follow when a mobile designer is fully consumed
by a project, working along side of the development team. I will also give some
recommendations on the optimal format for such work.
Assessment of the tasks
Work on any product begins with an
assessment of the tasks. Whether you are given a design brief, a technical
summary or just an objective that’s yet to be discussed over email, you are
given a task, that’s key. What is the correct way to go about assessing these
tasks and extracting the necessary information?
1. Understand the details
The most important thing that you need
to understand is the business goal. Each project has it’s own business goal:
extra revenue channels, brand identify or simply a mobile version of one’s web
product. It is most important to understand why you are working on the
application - the design will be tied to the business goal.
2. Analyze your audience
If you put enough thought in analysis
of the product’s audience, you will save yourself a lot of errors as well as
boost your chances of impressing your audience. For example, if the business
people are in your target group, then a flashy/cartoony application will
probably be a bad idea. A clean-cut design will, likewise, not impress any
children.
3. Compose use cases
Think about the most popular way that
your application is going to be used. At this stage, think about a user persona
and how this persona will be using the application. You will uncover a myriad
of important things, which will help you design an outstanding application in
the future.
Competitor Analysis
1. Search through blog content
Internet has a great number of sites,
which compare products and opinions in various markets - why not spend a few
hours studying these, so you could get expert’s opinions on the matter, as well
as hear users’s voice, all without doing any testing yourself? Do that.
2. Explore the app store
Much like #1, spend some time analysing
the app store in which your applications will get published. It is hard to
overestimate commentary and ratings of real users.
3. Give competitive products a try
No doubt you have already found the
most interesting and most popular competitive applications. Don’t be lazy and
spend a few bucks to buy them for a scrupulous evaluation. It’s imperative to
understand the whole picture, composed of both, the opinions of others and on
your own.
Search for inspiration and interface
mechanics
1. Look at Scoutzie, Dribbble and Behance
Internet has a great number of sites,
which compare products and opinions in various markets - why not spend a few
hours studying these, so you could get expert’s opinions on the matter, as well
as hear users’s voice, all without doing any testing yourself? Do that.
2. Stay up-to-date on recent articles
and design concepts
Popular tech blogs often publish
information about new mobile concepts and interesting thoughts by the experts.
I recommend that you follow a few blogs of your choosing. Sometimes you will
find interesting solutions for interface controls or additional useful
functionality of which you haven’t thought yet.
3. Explore other devices and platforms
Even if you only work in iOS, don’t be afraid to look at other
platforms - Android,Windows Phone or even MeeGo. Frequently you will see
interesting mechanics, which could help in your own development.
Combine your findings
As a result of your search, you will
inevitably end up with a mountain of articles, photos, screenshots and most
important reviews. Now, put all of that away for a few days and then sit down
and think, how could you combine the most successful mechanics and interfaces,
ideas and concepts, while not forgetting to pay attention to whether users are
praising or dissing these products. Could you do it? Great, let’s go on then.
Eliminate Overhead
As a result of your previous step, if
all went well, you probably have created enough interface functions. However,
not all of them will be useful. The first version of the product should have
only the most important ones, and everything else could be saved for the
consecutive releases.
2. Do your best on the primary
functions.
Focus on the primary functions and
polish them - all the critical functions of the product shall work perfectly.
Spend as much time on this part as necessary, but remember to stay focus on the
core product.
3. Compare with the original goal.
It’s really easy to get carried away
while working on a design projects. As you’re doing the creative work, always
keep in mind the business objective, the audience and the personas. If
everything is going as originally planned, carry on. If not, now is a good time
to correct the course.
4. Compare with the platform
guidelines.
Spend some time to compare if your designs comply
with the platform’s guidelines: corner radiuses, angle of light and shadows,
font size and many other minor details that impact the look and feel of a
product, many of these are very different between the platforms. Your goal
should be to make the most beautiful and well functioning application ever
known to mankind. Right? Then be sure to do the right thing.
Test the prototypes
1. Test the prototypes on your devices
If you want to maximize the user
experience, it’s imperative to test your prototypes in the native environments.
Ask yourself these questions. Are all the design elements arranged in a
comfortable layout? Is it easy to reach all elements with your fingers? Is it
still easy if you’re only using one hand? Does your hand block important
elements as you hold the phone in the palm of your hand? etc.
Answers to these and many other
questions often cannot be easily answered while looking at the static images on
your display. You can put this work together using special prototyping
softwares and services or by using css3 and html5 capabilities, depends on your
preferences and knowledge. At this point it’s important that you really polish
all the touch areas - the user shouldn’t need to aim at targets as well as the
interface shouldn’t interpret user’s touch falsely.
2. Give it a go, on multiple screens
It is often that case that your designs would look
astonishingly on the screen of a high quality display, but the charm is all
gone on the actual device. It is rare to happen on a Retina display, if your
design is done for Retina, but porting a new design to older device models
might change colors, graphic sizes, and the sharpness of icons. Trying the
prototypes on actual devices would allow you to make necessary adjustments.
Focus on Details
1. Think through the animations
Animation is inseparable from great
information systems, it helps to structure data and logical dependencies
between them, as well as simply adds variety into the interfaces. Use simple
animation where it is necessary - animation overload could make significantly
harder to interpret the given information, leading to negative user experience.
2. Pick action sounds
This is a somewhat important part of
the overall experience. Sounds, as animation, should only be triggered when
they can help to enhance the user experience. It’s important that your sounds
are also well recognizable - think about the Skype start sound, whenever you
hear it, you immediately associate it with Skype. The simples way to get this
right - just buy a set of sounds, on one of many creative marketplaces.
3. Add little pleasures
Think about pleasant little things that
could enhance your application. For example, briefly substituting your
notification panel with a clock won’t distract or annoy the user.
Beta test the product and perform the
design review
1. Be an active participant in the
development stage
Remember, as a designer, you’re
responsible for the way the application is supposed to work, therefore, the
more involved you are in the development stage, the better it is for the end
product. Speed, size, algorithm design, all of these and many other aspects of
development are on your shoulders, as much as on those of the developers; these
features will impact the user’s impression. Don’t be lazy and attend technical
brainstorming sessions, you will be able to help.
2. Participate in beta testing
It’s absolutely necessary to involve a
designer in the product testing. Since the designer was the one to create the
image of the application, this person will be able to intuitively feel, whether
users are responding in the intended way. Furthermore, designer might catch
some product imperfections, those which wouldn’t even register for developers.
3. Compare the developed product to the
original designs
During the product testing stage, you
should compare the application to the design at least a number of times -
developers may implement things differently, whether by mistake or due to
misunderstanding of your designs. Since every pixel counts, take screenshots of
each screen and compare them to originals. Comparing margins, fonts,
colors...etc. Final tests should be especially punctual, so your app is
polished and ready to ship.
4. Don’t be afraid to append and change
the product along the way
Should you get great ideas during the
testing phase, that’s wonderful, that should happen. If so, think whether you
can make this changes quickly and how critical they are. If the answer to both
questions is yes, then you should make the changes right there and then.
Secondary functions, which pop into your head, you can always add into the next
version of the application.
Gather Reviews
1. Read everything people say about the
app in press
After the release, pay close attention
to app reviews, in them you will find much interesting and useful information.
Don’t worry if you see negative and baseless reviews, those will always come
up. You will also find many appealing and constructive opinions, along with
feature requests. Especially follow close attention to reports made right after
an early release or a feature update; afterwards, keep an eye on the press
every few weeks.
2. Follow the blogs
Pick a number of blogs that publish on
your app’s category and follow them. Readers often trust the authors on these
blogs, as technically savvy, and their opinions can make a significant impact
on how your app is perceived. Take a look on what was most appealing to these
bloggers and what was most disappointing, it’s something to consider in the
future releases.
Show off your work
Professional design networks will help
you collect a number of peer opinions about your product. They will point out
your flaws, which others weren’t able to see. Don’t take all feedback to heart
though, designers are creative people and they, sometimes, can’t adequately assess
the quality of work without feeling a little jealous :)
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