Tying it all Together
By now you should have:
- Icon set(s) – master apprentice and own
- Cityscape(s) – master apprentice and own
- A UI Design idea on paper/digital
Principles of User Interfaces
Format Content
Think about layout on the screen. Is it a mobile or tablet, and does it fit comfortably?
Touch controls: consider use of elements and making things feel natural; smartphones may be second nature to you?
Jakob’s Law
Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.
Fitt’s Law
The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target (the finger and thumb)
Law of Pragnanz
People will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form possible because it is the interpretation that requires the least cognitive effort of us.
Text size is incredibly important: should be at least 9pt, 11pt. Spacing tool: text shouldn’t overlap and interfere with content.
Distortion: images should be displayed with their correct aspect ratio.
Organisation of content: it should be easy to read with logic and structure to presentation of content
Hick’s Law
The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices available.
Alignment: keep information clean and simple.
Colour
Second most important aspect of functionality. It helps uses see and interpret the context. Every app has a colour scheme, using those colours for its main areas. If an older target audience you can be more monochromatic, a younger audience, more colours. Colour scheme provides a nice consistent approach to the layout.
Analogous: colours either side of the one you’re looking at (on the colour wheel)
Complimentary: colours opposite one another on the colour wheel, attracting the user attention contrasting strongly; a dominant colour and a complimentary colour for its accents.
Von Restorff Effect
When multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered. Companies use this to strong effect when trying to sell you monthly programs.
Self-Reflection
I found this week’s content to be very useful in how I can layout and present my travel app screens and other elements I need to consider. I feel more confident in the direction of my app after looking over this week’s content, as I now know roughly how I want to present it. I found it difficult to understand the more technical content on format colour, but I think what will help me most to get to grasp with it, is to experiment with colour and layout forms, to just visualise it in my own way. This week I am a little behind on digitizing work but also on top of sketches and project specific research. Moving forward I think I need to focus more on taking my sketches to digital, and to have the required screens for next week’s critique.