User Interface Design
From Product Management School
A user interface (UI) is the means by which a user interacts with a software.
The UI of a software is often what the user judges the software on. As a result, it is essential for product managers to have a good understanding of UI Design.
At most companies product managers do not perform UI Design themselves - but they work closely with UI Designers. At smaller companies, product managers may also be responsible for UI Design.
The goal of UI Design is to ensure that the user’s interaction with the software or hardware is as easy and as efficient as possible.
Stages in User Interface Design
There are at least 6 stages involved in the user interface design process.
The process is highly iterative and the build stage only starts once there is consensus that the prototype is acceptably issue and error free. These stages are made up as follows:
Requirements and Use Cases – the requirements and use cases from the baseline documentation are taken by the user interface designers and tasks are elicited from them. These tasks will form the basis for the designs and for testing later on. The tasks link back directly to the requirements and will be linked forwards to the elements and features of the user interface. This bidirectional traceability ensures that there are no superfluous elements/features in the design.
Research – research is carried out to find out what if any existing user interfaces in the business are effective and whether any elements should be incorporated into the new development. Competitor interfaces are also reviewed to see if any lessons can be learned from them.
Initial Design – the initial design is sketched out using no more than flow diagrams and narrative at this stage.
Testing the Initial Design – a walkthrough of the interface is carried out using the tasks to see if there are any gaps in the design or areas that may lead to user errors.
Prototyping & Testing – once the design team are confident that the interface is robust a prototype can be built. This is done so that some initial user testing can be carried out prior to the final construction. There may be a few iterations of this process until the design is agreed by lieu of the fact that all errors and issues have be resolved or mitigated.
Build & Testing – construction of the user interface takes place.The interface is deployed and forms part of the main testing cycle prior to delivery of the product.
