Perspicacity of Objects in Design
Application design and it’s implementation is an evolving process with a wide range of innovations , modifications and advancements yet to surface. From the time of having mechanical gauges to electronic symbols being used in systems today, progression and transformation of application design is dictated by —
UI, an art form augmented with the science of UX.
The extent of advancements in UI/UX is a subject with limitless potential powered by the boundlessness of human psychology. While UI is a synchro-synergy between the user and the interface he is presented with ,UX dictates the bond between the system in hand and it’s user.
Myriads of designers today spend their time in building new designs to distinguish themselves from the others in the market , and try to meet the standards related to the expansiveness and competence of the applications in market today.
But no matter how good or unique a design might end up looking , the question that haunts every single one of us is if the user would connect with the design ? is my UX good.
There is no cheat sheet ( yet ) in this business nor is there any formulaic way to create a seamless balance between the artistry of a design and the tide of human controls. But there is a fundamental element of human psychology that most designers (including me from the past) fail to take advantage of. Objects.
Epoch
Lets travel back to 10000 BCE , back to the stone age. This was the time of learning , exploration and discoveries. What we as a race learnt then, is what helped us in framing the groundwork for our survival and continued existence. But among all the revolutionary discoveries , who would've thought , that the essentials of effective application design were designed by cavemen ?
Communication had become an indispensable necessity. Survival depended on the ability to transfer thoughts from one person to another. And amidst all the possible ways to reach out , people believed drawing was the best system. Cavemen drew objects on caves to carry their information. Objects drawn on the walls spoke about what they did , what to they saw , what they feared and what they loved. They related themselves to the objects around them and were connected to them well enough to communicate using them.
Though the use of objects in communication was because of the lack of a formal verbal language , there is no denying that there was a sense of lucidity in the knowledge being conveyed.
2007 — iPhone
A shift from 10000 BC to 2007 might be jarring , but bear with me. 2007 was the year of technology. Blu ray was on the rise , we broke the terabyte barrier , DRM free music became a dream , but nothing was as consequential as the announcement and subsequent release of the iPhone.
All of the hardware marvel aside , what apple altered that year was the course of design paradigm. By doing what was done before, make everything you see and interact , an object.
“Finding simplicity for the future in metaphors from the past”
That was the philosophy of Steve Jobs. He believed that new design today is born from the approaches of the past, and he wasn't wrong. iPhone was designed to be personal, an extension of ourselves. It was engineered to ensure there exists a seamless transition from the real to the virtual.
The reason behind the success of the phone was by making the device like any generic object a user would interact with if he had no sense of prior knowledge about it. Touch had the user associated with what happened on screen , and made functions as transparent as possible.
Moreover , the original design of the iOS interface revolved around interactive elements on screen being objects. App icons were like tiles ( 3d objects ) that had to be clicked , animations displayed feedback , icons were clear representations of the real world entity they were emulating ( like the camera , clock , mail , call , etc. ).
They even went to great lengths with apps like the iBook that was designed to look like a book shelf to make the user feel like he had a physical shelf in front of him.
The iPhone was an object inside and out.
The philosophy of designs that revolved around objects and the emulation of it’s characteristics, helped in empathizing with the user and be friendly.
Back to the present
A lot of application designers today are overwhelmed and get carried away by the marvelous scenes that can be created in applications with robust animations and expansive colour gametes that they forget how to connect the looks to the actual flow of the user experience.
If nothing , the thought of having a good but non-functional design spooks us. But for smaller and independent designers like me , generating UX responses and researching new design languages that connect with users is an expense that we cannot afford.
One look at this website and you find many good looking applications that have a fractured user flow design. But how can we guarantee good user engagement ? Start using industry experimented design languages.
Material design is a design language architected by Google and built on the foundations of objects and how users engage with the objects they know. Every element on screen is a piece of paper , that folds , opens , casts shadows moves up or down and even stacks one over the other.
As the name suggests , the material described by google is nothing but matter or object that is designed to have a fixed shape , volume and mass , thus helping the user to understand the principles of the applications functions naturally.
This article is not to discourage you from accomplishing new design procedures. But is a highlight about how building design around the concepts of real world objects will ensure maximum user commitment to your architecture. Making good looking designs is easier than making good flowing designs.
