Recently, I often receive letters from some children’s shoes, and the frequently asked questions focus on: How to become an interaction designer? Which software should I learn?
Sometimes I don’t know how to start answering. I think in my mind that interaction designer is a profession that requires a lot of comprehensive ability, and I can’t “say one thing”. Tools are of course very important. Now many design departments of large companies are formulating design standards, and the mastery of standardized software tools has attracted more and more attention. However, I think that designers should be less “craftsman” and think more about “why” and “how”, that is, gradually transform from “technique” to “dao” level. It seems too mysterious to say so.
During this period of time, I have been thinking about a question-whether design, especially interaction design, can be attributed to a thought process.
Thinking Mode 1 : Design from “Plane” to “Stage”
In fact, this kind of thinking method better fits the three-dimensional and four-dimensional space that the user is exposed to in the usual two-dimensional interactive interface, so as to simulate reality and increase the user’s perception and understanding of the operation.
Maybe I just said that, maybe I can’t hold it yet. For example, in actual work, we may discuss with the team whether a certain function should appear on this page, and where? And how this functional element appears. Maybe everyone is arguing, and no one has a particularly convincing reason. In fact, you can use this way of thinking at this time, and treat this functional element as an actor. If you are a director, then the actor should be:
- When does it appear: When do users need it?
- The actor comes to the right place at the right time, and where does it appear will not affect the protagonist’s demeanor, but is also eye-catching enough: Will its appearance affect my main function? Can users perceive its appearance?
- Should it appear gradually or suddenly: transition, jump, emerge, or pop up?
Thinking mode 2: Interaction design is about “time”
The above-mentioned way of thinking also helps us to think about “when”, which is the very important “timeline” design in interaction design. There is time for design. Perhaps many designers, including myself, often overlook this point. A user is an object that has time-lapse activities from the beginning to the end. As time goes by, the interactive medium and interactive scene will be transformed. Even if the same element is displayed in different time states, it should be displayed differently. A simple example on this point will immediately understand.
For the app store installation of the software, you will find that when you install it for the first time, the status shows “free”, that is, to show the user what kind of app it is. When it has been installed but there is a new update, “Update” is displayed, indicating that the current app has an update, and you can click Update. When the user has installed the latest version, the grayed-out “installed” will be displayed to tell the user that you have already installed it and do not need to operate it anymore. Graying is a good way to prevent users from misoperation. This is described in “Fault Tolerant Design” and I won’t say more here.
Thinking Mode 3: The Process of “Skills”
The “technique” mentioned here not only includes the need to master the method of rapid prototyping in the initial stage of interaction design (fast performance on paper is also good), but also a familiarity with common interaction modes .
If you agree: Design is used to solve problems. Interaction design often provides solutions to problems. Then, familiar with the existing ui mode is very useful for you to solve common problems.
For example, the parallel panel mode (accordion mode) can be collapsed (only one at a time) or expanded (all at the same time). This mode is suitable for organizing a large amount of similar or interacting information, allowing users to obtain information more efficiently on the same page. The best application is: applicants need to fill in a variety of non-sequential category lists.
For more information about design patterns, please refer to “Common UI Design Patterns”. In addition to these, you usually need to look at different product interfaces. The more you contact, the more talent you can get your hands on.
Thinking Mode 4: Innovation
I remember when I was in graduate school, a tutor who was doing installation art said: “The so-called design innovation is to make things that should be big and enlarge things that should be small.” Now that I think about it, I can actually spread it out and add some routines. Break up the combination and recombine some elements. Getting rid of convention is an innovation.
For example, a button we saw before combines the loading state and cancel, which is different from our common long-strip progress bar with the cancel button on the right. This kind of recombination of different elements is an innovation.
These are all my previous understandings, and I dare not say that they are absolutely correct. Some are even a collection of several different thinking processes.
