Posts tagged "IA"
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1 year ago
How to write a Functional Specs
As a Information Architect and/or Experience Designer you usually involve in the Functional Specs writing too. Thats how they rock!
In my recent experience I noticed few things related to the Functional Specs, they are dry and boring, they won’t offer the “interactivity” or “energy” related to the project.
As per our human nature (remember developers are humans too, pun intended), we enjoy a good movie, novel or any short stories. So why not inject that idea in to our Functional Specs for our project. This is in my opinion a superb way to keep the reader (client, project manager, developer, even investors!) enhcanted with the project and this is the power of “Story”. Explaining the shopping cart process in a story mode is always good for mind, won’t give you the “pressure” and won’t make you “sleepy” while reading it. For instance here is what a typical Shopping Cart Procedure explained in the Functional Specs:
Typical Specs:
As seen on FireBird CMS Functional Specs, you will notice the typical functional specs are just a collection of objects, for instance:
Ecommerce and Online Product Catalogue Features
4.1. Product Catalogue
• List products (Thumb, Title, Small Details, Price, RRP, View, Add to Cart)
• Pagination
• Search by Title and DescriptionNow imagine if we can explain this in a “Story Mode” which I think is the best way to explain, even the non-techie people will understand.
“Product Catalogue: Shopping need catalog too, the best way to present the catalog is by introducing the User with the list of product with the Image of the Product, brief description and the price, if necessary we will allow user to add the product right from the Catalog to the Shopping Cart. Every user has their own prefrences we will provide them a “Pagination” feature, this will help them to paginate the catalog according to their need, we will allow them to paginate the product by viewing only 10 products per page, or 20 or 50 at max.
We will give them the ability to filter the result according to the keywords they are interested in”
Now see the big difference here, I am sure there are certain experts out there who follow that “Story-mode” religiously. But mostly things are explained in the tech-world, especially the Funtional Specs (which they usually treat as a bible of the project, no doubt about it, it is the REAL MEAT)
So the point here I would like to present is… The superb way to present the Functional Specs is using the power of Story, which includes all the detail related to a project in such a way that it won’t become only the “Developers Note” but also shared among the Clients and the Project Owners.
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Notes: 1 / 1 year ago from designaday
Teaching Everything
Leslie Jensen-Inman published an excellent article on A List Apart in January titled Elevate Web Design at the University Level. She discusses the fact that universities aren’t able to keep pace with web technologies and that their graduates are not prepared by the time they graduate. It isn’t an empty claim—she interviewed thirty-two web design leaders about the issue. In the article she makes many suggestions as to how institutions and professionals can address the problem.
As a professional interaction designer that works on web-based applications and teaches design, it is an issue that I am quite aware of. As I have explained before, the program in which I teach is a traditional graphic design program, by which I mean web design is not its forte. I’m doing what I can to change that.
The largest problem, as I see it, is that there isn’t enough time to teach everything. Design is not typically taught in High School, so students must go from knowing next to nothing about design to professional in, sometimes, less than four years. In the case of the program at WVU, students don’t have a design class until their sophomore year, after which they must submit a portfolio for acceptance into the graphic design program that continues through the junior and senior years. During that time, there are still other art courses they are required to take, so it is not as if they are strictly focused on design during those two years.
So, how then do you fit in all of the skills that they are expected to know? It’s nigh impossible. And it keeps growing, with the additions of interaction design and the web, service design, etc. When I was a student, I was taught the basics of Photoshop, Freehand, and QuarkXpress in class (although I had already taught myself Freehand). When I say “the basics,” I mean it. It was up to me to continue using the software in my project work and learn it by doing. I was one of a very few that stretched out to learn Director, and the only member of my class to utilize Premiere, Authorware, Infini-D, and Morph during my senior year. In graduate school, there was no instruction in software. I had one class that taught the basics of Java. I learned on my own how to build a webpage in Pagemill, and then later GoLive. I taught myself how to use a Flash competitor that specialized in animating text, the name of which I can’t even remember.
The point I’m trying to make here is that the technology, be it software, hardware, or scripting languages, shouldn’t be the focus of design education. It changes rapidly, and what you learn one year will be obsolete the next. Most of what I was taught in class during my time at WVU and CMU is just as applicable now as it was when I graduated. Students need to understand this and take much of the responsibility upon themselves to stay current with tools and technology.
That’s not to say that faculty shouldn’t worry about staying up-to-date themselves. They should take every opportunity to include the technology in their teaching. For example, I just gave a lecture a couple weeks ago on web typography that was based on a series of HTML and CSS examples. I showed the students how many of the nuances of typography that we had been learning so far could be controlled through a stylesheet. But I don’t have time to teach them HTML and CSS, nor should I. It is my job to instill in them the foundational knowledge of typography that will be applicable regardless of what capabilities CSS 4, 5, or 6 will have.
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1 year ago from bookmarklet
“UI Does Matter” published!
My article about User Experience of iPhone Apps under the title of “UI Does Matter” is published in iPhone Life Magazine Spring 2009 issue, it is available at your Newsstand or you can check it out the digital version at Zinio, it’s on Page 49.
UI Does Matter!
Until next time!
BonGeek
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1 year ago
Interaction Design for Beginners
For last couple of days I was asking on Twitter that how should I get started in Information Architect, Interaction Design & User Experience arena, it all about the “Art & Science of Human Behavior”, whether it is related to creating a website or designing an iPod or a door knob. It is nothing more than understand the Human behavior toward any product usage and usability. I think I was not so lucky to get some response.
During my commute from Fremont, CA to San Francisco, CA in BART, I usually read books either on my iPhone or a classic way … the paper-backs.
These days I am completing one of my favorite book Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks by Luke Wroblewski, while reading about some topic, I came to know about Jack Moffett, at that momet, I try my luck and ask him the same question
“How a person can get basic training in to the Interaction Design field of study? Is he should get some online courses or join the University? Or books are the best bet plus a Mentor who time to time give a beginner done advice?”
I think it was my luck day, got his reply right away… Here is what he said and I asked his permission to share with you guys so anyone like me who is seriously thinking to get in to the Interaction Design, Information Architect or User Experience arena can benefit from it:
“You would find that different designers will have different answers to your question. Personally, I feel that the best way to do it is to attend a University. An on-line course won’t give you same benefits that a studio experience will. You learn as much from your fellow students as you do from your professors when you work beside them every day.
That said, there are the financial aspects. Attending a university is expensive, time-consuming, and location-specific. Some people will choose on-line courses for these reasons. You may still get a quality education in this way, but I don’t believe it will be as rich.
Working with a mentor is an excellent way to learn. Some would argue that this is more beneficial than formal education. Mileage will vary depending on your mentor, of course.
You can learn a lot from books, and there are some good ones out there on the subject, but they cannot replace learning by doing with a mentor or professor, either one.
I would also recommend reading the IxDA forums. Many of the best interaction designers in the industry actively participate in the discussions there. You can search the archives for discussions about the very things you are asking me. http://www.ixda.org/index.php”See, it was that easy! University is the best place to learn the subject, and get along with the Mentor, in any given field we do need a mentor, who help us to start with rolling, crawling to baby-step till we start running and exploring the hidden gems. Second best place is the online-courses, yes there are some draw-backs but if you have mentor at work, would be sufficent.
Thanks to Jack Moffett for his insightful tip. Oh by the way if you are in San Francisco Bay Area, I would be very interested to meet you and the best place as Jack mentioned is a local chapterd of IxDA, email address is follow: sf-local@ixda.org.
Alright folks, next week, I will present you with my findings about a new software that I am evaluating for Wireframe Diagram…Balsamiq Mockups
Till then enjoy the links I usually share on my blog time to time.
Until next time,
Happy Byting!
and User Experience Designer & Software Architect
User Interface Does Matter!
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