How do UI Designers work with engineers to ensure their vision is achieved?
The design is what ships. Therefore, working with engineers is critical. Here are some of my top techniques for this:
1. Figure out which type of engineer you’re working with
Some are not very interested in design and would just like you to spec out everything in great detail so they can focus on their thing. Others have a lot of good design ideas. Get them involved in the process early so you get their ideas and buy in.
2. Skim all bugs and code reviews for the product
That way you know what’s actually going on with the code and find out about issues that affect the design but engineers might not realize you’d care about.
3. Do some front-end coding (but not too much)
Doing a little coding helps you get the details right in the design and also earns you a lot of respect from engineers. However, it can take too much time away from design so use sparingly.
4. Sit by engineers
When your desk is by the engineers you’ll be involved in the hallway conversations and will build genuine friendships. You’re also more likely to see working versions of the code every step of the way so you find out about problems early.
5. Show the vision
Designers are really good at imagining interfaces from a simple description or wireframes so we tend to underestimate the power of making the vision concrete with a prototype or video. If you show a compelling vision at the right time engineers will often get inspired and put in the extra effort to dial in the implementation.
6. Involve engineers in user research
When they see a user using the product directly or hear about a pain point first hand on a field study, it’s a thousand times more compelling than the report afterwards.
7. Choose your battles
Unfortunately It’s almost never possible to get every pixel and flow just right. Cut stuff you don’t absolutely need so the essentials get more polish. Give in sometimes and save your capital for the things that matter most.
8. Don’t whine
UX people sometimes get into a habit of complaining about how no one will listen to their ideas. This can be a self fulfilling prophecy as then you start to sound weak and unauthoritative. Without being arrogant or closed minded, try to carry yourself with a demeanor that you are confident that your ideas and viewpoint are essential for the team to succeed.
Why do light switch buttons have up/down direction when it’s really a toggle function?
If you do a quick image search on your favorite search engine on “light switch” you get a large number of images. Most of them have up and down direction, to represent state. Up for on in the US, and down for off. This varies…
How to structure Android app navigation with many levels?
The app I’m working on is a little like a set of sub-apps within one app, so the structure is basically as follows. Note that the subsections are a mix of tools and content (i.e. this isn’t an app full of content like Google …
Formatting Web Pages for Printing
I’ve been wondering for a while about the correct way that web pages should be formatted for printing:
In my view they should be WYSISWYG.
Otherwise you get the situation demonstrated on this page from the BBC’s webpage – that by pressing print you lose the interesting diagram:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17365934
And I also seem to see an increasing amount of paper wasting non formatting: as demonstrated by this page:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/gettinghere.aspx
So the question is: How should web pages be formatted for printing ?
Printable sketch templates for Android phones [on hold]
Can you recommend a printable sketch template (“idea sheet”/6up) for Android phones?
Preferably, the template should contain several real-size screens to sketch on.
Here’s what I’m using for iPhone, and would like to get s…
Printable sketch templates for Android phones [on hold]
Can you recommend a printable sketch template (“idea sheet”/6up) for Android phones?
Preferably, the template should contain several real-size screens to sketch on.
Here’s what I’m using for iPhone, and would like to get s…
How to announce launch of mobile version (Native apps + website) of a website
What is best way to inform to user of desktop website that now website have Mobile version of website and native apps for many platforms?
A permanent section on website to tell about it with icons.
or
A pop on homepage loa…
Should we be optimistic or pessimistic with UI updates on AJAX requests?
We are discussing in our team how best to handle UI updates after a user does something to cause an AJAX request to the server.
Here are options we are considering:
Instantly update the UI and add/update/remove the item th…
Dealing with Area Codes in Phone Number fields
Ok so I know a similar(ish) question has been asked before re: friendly format for Phone Numbers.
My question however focuses on a more specific part of this question, namely the ‘dropped’ first zero issue in the city code.
…
What do you think about Clear?
It’s a lovely novelty, but ultimately not very useful, which defeats the objective in something I would consider to be a ‘utility’; a software discipline where form should always play second fiddle to function.
It’s a beautifully crafted user interface. It’s not innovative as many reviews have claimed, but evolutionary – I think Steve Jobs would have appreciated the vision – in that it takes existing conventions to the next level, rather than introducing entirely new ones.
Feature-set-wise, it’s early days yet, and it would be unfair of me to trash it entirely simply because it doesn’t sync with iCloud. That said, to defend its shortcomings by claiming that the very ethos of the app is about simplicity and purity (as many reviewers have done) would be to overlook the environment into which this app was conceived – a mobile environment, capable (and indeed demanding) of incredibly sophisticated contextual awareness. To build an app that ignored this environment in favour of some kind of zen-like state of simplicity would be monumentally shortsighted. I find it impossible to believe that this is the case with Clear.
We have to trust that these features are on the roadmap, and that a release-early-and-often policy is in place, as would be the case in any good agile development pipeline.
Effective (and successful) UX is not about removing complexity; rather it is about concealing and gradually revealing that complexity in order to make sophisticated software *feel* simple and intuitive.
My only real criticism of Clear is that those elements that make it so brilliant are exactly the same elements that render it so useless. The app seeks to be more useful than other similar utilities by stripping out complexity and using graceful, tactile gestures to mimic real-world physical interaction. Unfortunately, the practical limitations that these beautiful interractions impose on the interface only serve to erode its value as a utility.
For example, restricting the number of characters I can use on an item makes the interface and its response to my gestures graceful and more beautiful. But in doing so, it also renders the app completely unfit for purpose. Instead of having to concentrate on learning a few new interractions, I now have to invent and memorise dozens of new acronyms in order to help the app to fulfil its purpose. Why bother?
For me, Clear is a perfect example of how inspired interraction design can crush a potentially perfect user experience under the weight of its own brilliance.