Category — Website Wireframes

Many app designers use wireframe software to create prototypes of apps for tablets and smartphones. Some believe that using wireframe software fosters creativity. By creating a prototype with wireframe software, designers have the freedom to experiment with their ideas before the programming stage of development begins. Wireframe software can be particularly useful for designers who want to draft interface designs in a field where there are not many previous apps to take inspiration from. One new area that companies are investing in is ‘second screen apps’. What does this mean? While we may watch TV while browsing on our laptops or smartphones, companies want to gain our attention through both screens. Creating apps that enhance the viewing experience can be a way for advertisers to achieve this.

The trick is to create an app that viewers will enjoy, that will also not distract too much from the program they are watching. Wireframe software is being used by some developers to draft smartphone and tablet applications quickly and at reduced cost. An app designer could use wireframe software to create a prototype of an app that gives bonus information about the television show, or even draft a game that can be used to play along with a TV show. A social media app that enables viewers to comment on shows could also be something designers might want to draft with wireframe software. As this is a relatively new field, there is a wide potential for apps to create. With wireframe software, designers and other stakeholders can be creative in the apps that they draft, which can help lead to a product that viewers and advertisers will love.

The e-book market is growing and the demand for online newspapers and magazines with it. Users can access articles instantly, making them more appealing to people on the go. Many magazine and book publishers would like to tap into the app market, but creating apps for these products can be more difficult than it seems, due to the challenge of transforming a vast amount of content into one application. Many designers use prototyping software to sketch out wireframes for web and mobile applications and this can also be useful for applications that have a lot of text content.

One of the challenges of creating apps for newspapers and magazines is that it can be difficult to organize information in a way that seems logical to the reader. While a newspaper has different sections, such as current affairs, international affairs, sport and comment, it can be interesting to experiment with how the information within these sections is organized and whether some articles should feature in more than one category. The home page of a mobile app is also important and prototyping software can be used to sketch out where different content should be positioned. With many types of prototyping software, you can use different sized headlines and edit text. You can even add text boxes and images with many types of prototyping software. If you are thinking of transforming an existing magazine or newspaper to a mobile app, I would strongly recommend taking an existing edition of your magazine and using prototyping software to upload the existing images and headlines. Even if you decide to use image holders, rather than the images themselves, this will give you an idea of the structure of your final application. With prototyping software, you can create professional-looking wireframes that can help you visually structure the content of your application. You can then show these wireframes to end-users for feedback to ensure that your app meets the expectations of your users.

Apple’s iLife software suite that came free with every new Mac has always been used as a Unique Selling Point of a Mac. Two of the iLife have since made the jump to iOS, namely iMovie (on the iPad and iPhone) and GarageBand (on the iPad), albeit not for free. The question is when would they port iPhoto ‘11. I always found the native iOS Photos app to be lacking in features. In all fairness it was conceived more as a photo browser, though, but some editing capabilities would be welcome.

A Gizmodo blogger decided to try the next best thing, which was to run iPhoto ‘11 on the iPad via remote desktop software. The result showed that the user interface design of the Mac app is definitely iPad ready. This tells us two things, the first of which is that Apple clearly has transmedia user interface design nailed. Transmedia user interface design is the creation of UI designs across different types of screens (i.e. desktops, smartphones, tablets, etc.). The second thing it tells us is that the speculated merging of Operating Systems into unified OSes that work across devices might be closer than we think.

The latest Mac OS X has already paved the way by incorporating iOS functionality and user interface design elements. One of these is the new Full-Screen Apps view that iPhoto has implemented. When viewing iPhoto in full-screen mode on the iPad through the remote desktop one can be fooled into thinking it is an actual iPad app. From the icons to the layout everything about the user interface design is already optimized for iOS touch operation. This is surely not happenstance. Considering that the ‘Mac’ has been dropped in OS X these new full screen apps could just be the fist port of call to a unified OS and user interface design.

Interfaces designs are sweet, but those uncluttered

Are sweeter:  which is a reason why users stay on

When a website is clear it becomes more endear’d

Leading to increased visits and subjective satisfaction

Being used with great ease and not wanting to leave

Accomplishing tasks with minimum error scares

Knowing I can recover if something goes amiss

Though winning near the goal – yet, I do not grieve
For using this graphical user interface design is bliss
With a high level of memorability, this interface design is a breath of fresh air!

Based on “Ode to a Grecian Urn” by John Keats

The idea behind this series of blog posts is to look at famous poems and use them to shed light on issues that affect usability, wireframes, wireframing tools and user interface design. If you have some suggestions of poems that you would like for us to interpolate, please feel free to do so by leaving a comment with your request in it.

Ode to the Usability of Interface Designs

Though still unfinished pride of expertness

Thou wireframe of an interface design

A rapid paper prototype used to express

Ideas of layouts and navigation that lurk in the mind

What icons and buttons envelope thy shape

Of links and portals that strive with growth

through the fiber optic cables of an ISP

Streaming gigabytes of info with ease for you and me both

What mad pursuit ever since the struggles of Netscape

When the ripe World Wide Web became destiny

Another property in the Google monopoly

Google’s Call me feature invokes images of Skype, except it is integrated into every internet user’s control center: email.  If Google is able to turn Call me into an easy and internationally accessible part of their platform, it could provide Skype a fair bit of competition.  Integrated user interfaces make things easier for the user.  If users only have to log into one service to email and make phone calls etc. an organization like Skype could take a hit because they do not offer the wide range of features that Google, and by extension Gmail, does.  Luckily for Skype, not everyone is a Gmail user.  Still, Google’s newest feature shows once again that they are fearless about trekking into various internet services terrains and are not hiding the fact that they want a share in all of the properties that make up the world wide web. So is Google trying to create an internet monopoly?  That’s a bit of a sensational stretch, but at the very least Google makes it clear that they want a share in everything and do not want to make life easy for their competitors.

According to Giovanni Calabro’s article “Top 10 tools to measure user experience” (pragmaticmarketing.com) UX can be divided into a hierarchy within which each organization or designer falls into one of three categories:

1.    Stage 1  – General Knowledge: This stage of UX knowledge indicates that the designer or organization has little understanding of their users beyond general assumptions about what the users want, think, and need.  Thus, this level of understanding of the user is very broad and does not lend itself well to interface design evolution based on what users want and need. Instead, it is a simple way of brainstorming and predicting what users might want and what they trend towards.

2.    Stage 2 – Understand User Behavior: This second level of UX understanding means that you or your company are now employing testing methods, such as usability tests, to ascertain UX information from clients and/or users in order to design interfaces accordingly or make the necessary changes to your existing interface design.  This is a level that all organizations should try to achieve if they are serious about usability and UX success.

3.    Stage 3 – Influence Your Users: This is the stage in which you not only determine what users want to make a system functional, but also what they want to make a particular interface design interesting or unique.  In this stage, you have developed a process of measuring UX feedback to the point where you know how to craft systems that are unique and will entice users; you are influencing them to use your site for more than just functional purposes.

The UX hierarchy that Calabro introduces shows that if you are serious about interface design, then you definitely want to make it your or your organization’s goal to reach the third level.  You want to generally understand your users, specifically understand your users, and ultimately influence your users relative to your interface design.

Maintaining a UX frame of mind

According to Joseph C Lawrence’s article “Five reasons why user experience thinking is essential” there are five important “UX mantras” that every designer should keep in mind when designing a user interface (as paraphrased below):

1.    UX design is about the users: Keeping the users at the center of your interface design will allow you to create websites and applications that aren’t just characterized by functionality, but also by individuality based on what users want and need beyond the structure of a site—sometimes a basic, functional structure is too boring.
2.    UX design requires testing: UX testing will help you learn not only how users interact with your site, but also how they want to interact with your site.  Thus, you will be able to analyze the feedback and make the changes necessary to infuse your interface design with individuality.
3.    UX design is psychological in nature: Websites are dynamic and intertwined with almost every interaction in our daily lives whether it is socializing, traveling, or shopping etc. Since the web is now such an integral part of the way people live personally and professionally, interface designs must now be more than a collection of pages and data—they must be designed understanding the psychology of what motivates people to perform the interactions facilitated by websites and applications.  UX design allows designers to gather this vital information.
4.    UX design is a harmonizing force: UX design can tie together all of the diverging goals of web users and designers in order to create a unique and usable interface design.  Understanding how users use an application and what users want gives designers and other stakeholders the information required so they can tailor their business goals and methods to the needs of the user without jeopardizing their own enterprise.
5.    UX design is an interdisciplinary method: The dynamic and integrated nature of today’s websites and apps requires web developers to understand not only computer software and programming but also an assortment of other fields: psychology, business, and marketing to name a few.  UX design transcends into all of these fields because users are human and humans are by nature interdisciplinary.

Using Lawrence’s “UX mantras” can help you keep your focus on the users which will ultimately distinguish your site from others that are similar, increasing your interface design’s popularity and success.  The better you understand your users and their needs, the more seamless the process of using your website or application becomes for them. This makes users happy and they will want to use your site above others because it is designed to understand what they want and respond to their needs.

Austria has for a number of years been one of the European leaders in e-Governance, with awards to show for it. All kinds of services ranging all the way from the local to the provincial and federal level are offered through the “Digital Austria” platform. Whether filing taxes or seeking information Austrians are able to do so within the comfort of their own home or anywhere for that matter where they can access the internet. Now, the Austrian government and Microsoft Austria have teamed up on a project dubbed the Digital Austria Explorer. This essentially incorporates a menu bar into Internet Explorer’s interface design for users to access all available e-government services more easily.

How to test expert users

Usability testing expert users isn’t drastically different from testing novice users (you can still use card sorting and other standard methods), but one thing that is important is pre-usability test preparations.  Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when beginning the usability testing process with expert users:

1.    Make sure that expert testers comprise a demographic most consistent with and important to your interface design.
2.    Make sure the tasks are realistic and relevant based on how your users have previously employed the site.
3.    Try to obtain user information concerning what expert users have liked about the site in its previous form and what they haven’t like.  You can later compare their answers with the way they responded to the changes that you have made to the interface design after conducting the usability test.

Bottom line: Don’t forget about the dedicated experts!

If you have an evolving website that has accumulated a reasonable amount of success in the cut throat world of the internet, then it is worth testing your core users, your expert users when conducting usability tests on new interface design additions or changes.  They are the ones who have used your site in the past and they are the ones who will bolster it into the future.