Design Tools

What is a design tool?

When I think of tools, I automatically think of a tool belt filled with physical tools used in design. I imagine that you would have basic tools such as writing and painting utensils and then more advanced software tools for web designing.

But what about the knowledge and information needed to bring information to life through multiple design disciplines in User Experience Design? Things like Market Research, Cognitive Psychology, Linguistics, and Journalism are all tools in information design (Waller, 2011, p.4).

What do these things have to do with design?

A designer that understands psychology will be better prepared to anticipate a receiver’s response. One that is skilled in linguistics will develop excellent descriptives. Understanding the end user or audience will ensure that information is received, understood and beneficial to them (Waller, 2011, p.15).

Research is another tool; results of focus groups, preferences and ranking tasks, as well as performance tasks, will influence the designer and again, create the best possible design to meet the needs of the end –user (Waller, 2011, p.15).

In the end, there is always an audience that the information is intended for and by employing multiple design disciplines, the user experience can be enhanced greatly.

(Saffer, 2009)

References

Waller, R. (2011, March). Information design: How the disciplines work together. Retrieved from http://www.robwaller.org/SC14DisciplinesTogether.pdf

Saffer, D. (2009). The disciplines of user experience. Retrieved from http://www.kickerstudio.com/2008/12/the-disciplines-of-user-experience/ 

The Design Process

The basic structure of the design process includes Information Gathering, Planning, Designing, Development, Testing and Launching.

                               

I have put the design process to use in this blog.

Step 1) Information Gathering

I began to gather information by:

•          Reading the course materials
•          Searching in other sources for more information on the design process 

Step 2) Planning

•          I decided to demonstrate the design process through a simple listing of the steps

Step 3) Designing

•          I visualized what I wanted to create
•          I found a graphic that would illustrate the process for users

Step 4) Development

•          I began by listing all of the steps to the process and then went back in to add a little detail in bulleted points such as this one

Step 5) Testing

•          In this case, I just re-read through my work to make sure that there were no grammatical or layout issues that needed correction before posting

Step 6) Launching

•          I posted the blog for end users to see

Further discussion on the design process

What steps might I add to the process?

                In a more complex situation in which there were other parties involved, there would definitely be more detail within each of the steps. For example, the gathering information step would expand to include speaking to end users, compiling details of the clients need, etc.

How can the process be improved?

                I think client collaboration should be its own step as it is extremely important. Besides gaining buy-in and acceptance from end users, the product’s success is dependent on the perception and acceptance of those end users. I think the collaboration step could be added between planning and designing and designing and development, but it should actually be an ongoing thing throughout the life of the design process.

What is the most important step of the process?

                I think each step is important but depending on the actual situation may weigh more heavily on one step than on another. For example, if there were many issues during the development of a program, then the testing might play an even more vital role than in a less complex design.

               

Information Interaction Design Theory

          The Information Interaction Design theory combines three components; information, interaction and sensorial design (Shedroff, 1994). Since all learners have different needs, I particularly like this theory of design because no matter the needs of the learner, whether they are visual or hands on, if done right, this type of information design should be able to reach them. 

          Here is a very simple sample to demonstrate the theory. Lets say our students are new artists and we want to teach them how to make several colors out of just the 3 primary colors (I'm sure this sounds very familiar). 

         The idea behind this design is to take the information known - (information - how to make additional colors from the primary colors), display the colors to visually stimulate the senses (sensorial) and then hide the linking lines and only have them display when the user clicked on a color and then only the specific lines would appear, showing where the color originated from (unfortunately that is beyond my ability to actually demonstrate in this forum - but I hope you get the idea), which would provide the last piece of the theory - interaction. 

          You could also move beyond the intangible and allow users to physically experience mixing colors with paint. They could follow the diagram and then actually create the colors depicted which would touch upon sensorial (touching and smelling the paint), interaction (physically manipulating the paint) and again information as they learn what happens when slightly more of one color is added or how much of each is the perfect amount to achieve the desired color. 

           I'm not a painter and I don't know about you - but this sounds like fun and I want to do it!

Shedroff, N. (1994). Information interaction design: A unified field theory of design. Retrieved    from http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/unified/index.html

Information Design

Information design is the process of translating data or other information into a visually compelling format that is easy to interpret and understand. 

    Information

·        

• Might translate into easy to read bullet points

   Information may be translated into a graph or chart

Information

May translate into a table

Information might also be translated into pictures or storyboards, flow charts, web pages, the list is endless. To me, the goal of Information design is simple; compile a bunch of shapeless information and transform it into a visually compelling format that users can easily read and understand.