I remember when I first heard the term “user experience designer”. It was a few years ago, in the signature of the e-message of a friend of mine, whose job I did not understand at all. So I asked him what he was doing.
From that day, because of his response, the way I designed changed. Not because of what he told me (muttering something about usability and research), but because of the discussion that arose from it. That discussion made me look at the UX world in more detail, review the process of my work again, and dramatically alter the course and shape of my career.
When many designers hear the word “UX” they respond, “That’s what we do constantly, we just did not know it’s called” but not me. ” Before I realized that the “user experience design” existed at all, my design process was arrogant. My designs looked good, but completely missed the main point. Much later, even when I decided to cultivate this profession, I became certain that I had progressed as a designer, advancing my process to the extent that I deserved the title.
Such is the power of the user experience. Perhaps the term confuses, but it’s a great job for those who design for the web. The principles, philosophies and techniques on which the design of the user experience is based are well laid out and everyone can learn.
Well, what is the work of a designer user experience? Perhaps there is no typical day, but there is a set of techniques that many designers of user experience rely on at different stages of a project. In this text, I will explain several techniques, using images from a short comic book from Everyday UX, an e-book that contains interviews with 10 highly successful and renowned designers of user experience:
Wired models
The wired model is a rough guide to the layout of a web site or application, and is something most commonly associated with any designer user experience.
Once created as a series of static images, with tools like Balsamiq Mockups and Axure RP, your wired model evolves into an interactive prototype without having to type a code.
Although designers of user experience often mention that they are more than wired models machines, it’s more than certain that each of them starts with a wired model, creating a basic layout. This is something that everyone can do, and the tools are really easy to learn.
Testing users
To sit the users in front of your new application or web site, and ask them to perform the tasks that you have planned for them, while asking them to voice their voices, is the basis for testing users.
The number of respondents will include, how your participants will match with your actual users, and how many times you run this type of test depends on the budget and the time you have available.
Testing users is easy enough for anyone to perform. Whether you are in the same room with someone who is trying to use your project is a powerful activator of empathy with users, which is a virtue.
Characters
A person is created an identity that reflects a user group for which you are designing.
Personnel based on user research are very useful. It may be interesting to become creative and to invent details so that they are credible and entertaining, but the goal is for your person to reflect the patterns that you have identified with your users (or possible users).
There is no shorter way of identifying these models. They must be obtained through user research: interviews, surveys, contextual discussions and other activities.
Scenarios and visual scenarios
The script is a narrative description of one of your people’s “one day of life” here, including as your application, or web site, corresponding to their lifestyle. If you are familiar with the writing of user stories in an agile environment, you can also write a script – although the focus here is on regular use, not on individual cases.
Depending on the audience, the visual scenario may be a more appropriate tool that will show how, where, when and why anyone could use your product.
Inspired by the film industry, this scenario is a visual sequence of events used to represent the user’s interaction with the product.
It may be a rough sketch – just to clarify your ideas – or a more refined comic that will effectively involve your audience.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the hundreds of techniques available to designers of user experience to get the right design, and to design the right way.
The trick is to learn when to use each of the techniques.
