UI Design: Alternative Approaches

What is the primary goal of the chapter?

What is a characteristic of designing like a programmer?

What is recommended by the Apple iOS Human Interface Guidelines?

What is a common approach to designing an airline travel app?

What is the result of designing like a programmer?

What is the primary goal of a designer using user research data in designing an airline travel app?

What is the purpose of a usability lab study in designing an airline travel app?

What is the result of user and stakeholder research in designing an airline travel app?

What is the purpose of a progress feedback page in an airline travel app?

What is the primary purpose of user stories in designing an airline travel app?

Alternative Design Approaches

Designing like a programmer involves designing the backend database first and then creating a UI that directly exposes the data structure to users.

Designing like a Programmer

Programmers tend to enable tasks mechanically and let features and technology drive design decisions.
This approach may result in a UI that is not user-centered.

Sketching

Sketching involves creating a list of features and sketching various ways to present them.
This approach is recommended by the Apple iOS Human Interface Guidelines.
Sketching helps discover what works best for presenting features.

Designing with User Research Data

This approach starts with user research to answer questions about target users, their goals, and problems with existing solutions.
It involves conducting usability lab studies of competing solutions to gather objective data on performance and areas for improvement.

Designing by Formal Requirements

This approach involves user and stakeholder research to understand user needs and goals.
The research is boiled down into a set of requirements that the product design must satisfy.
Requirements are specific and measurable, such as response times and UI behavior.

Designing with User Stories

User stories capture a user's goal or task in concise, plain language.
User stories are one or more sentences that describe a user's goal or task as part of their role.

This chapter explores alternative design approaches that focus on effective communication to create intuitive and user-centered UI designs. It aims to help make confident design decisions quickly.