All of our graduates are infused with the passion to learn beyond the limits of the classroom or workplace, their voracious need for continued learning is something that they pride themselves on. They know that to become the top consultant in their field they should follow their passions and constantly stretch their boundaries.
A great example of passion and talent comes in the form of Lee Rhodes. He is quickly becoming a talented powerhouse in the field of UX, the modern development of mobile systems means that UX is at the forefront of expectation in the eyes of users and Lee wants to share his knowledge with you.
-Lee Boot, Sparta Global Academy Trainer
The User Experience Part 1
What is User Experience?
User Experience is a field of design with its main role being to understand the users of a product, so that the product is more usable and accessible for those users.
It is a side of design that is often neglected for multiple reasons, though usually due to the amount of added time that is required for products to meet recommendations from UX teams.
But, these articles will be looking into why User Experience is important within software design and as we get further in may start to challenge a few views on the purpose of UX within the IT industry.
History of UX:
Before delving deep into UX a brief history as to its origins can help us understand why there has been an increase in companies looking for this kind of discipline.
Roots of UX:
Really, the first whisperings of products and systems requiring designs focused on who would be using the them can be traced back centuries whether it was man’s first attempts to make wings to Leonardo da Vinci’s “kitchen nightmare”. They all were based on a human interacting with a system.
Eventually as more people began to use products, companies needed a standard to work to. “How big does a car need to be to fit two adults in it?”
Ergonomics — “Designing for the People”:
Henry Dreyfuss, an American industrial designer, was known for improving the usability, look and feel of dozens of products. He made significant contributions to the fields of Ergonomics and Anthropometrics, most notably through his book:
‘Designing for the People’
Published in 1955, the book contained various measurements of people in different positions to help designers understand how big an office chair for the typical adult male would need to be, based leg length, overall height and body width.
Having formalised a standard that could be worked to, Dreyfuss pushed Ergonomics into the commercial world.
PARC:
In the 1970’s with increase of personal computers, Xerox began to design computers focused on user interaction within their research arm called PARC. Robert Taylor led a team to produce some of the most important interactive systems and devices we have today, for instance:
GUI — The Graphical User Interface, which was initially designed for the Alto (Xerox’s Personal Computer) it allowed for users to interact with the device through graphical icons as opposed to using text based interfaces (think MS-DOS and Command Prompt)
The Mouse — Of course with the creation of the GUI which was designed so that you didn't have to type out command lines using a keyboard to interact with the computer a device was needed that could allow you to navigate it, thus the mouse was created.
Don Norman — The First UX:
A Computer Scientist who also specialised in Cognitive Engineering, he was hired by Apple in 1993 as a User Experience Architect (the first Job Title to contain User Experience).
Before Joining Apple; Norman wrote:
‘The Design of Everyday Things’
Published in 1988, the book focused on the idea that objects could be designed to evoke perceived methods of use.
Though the more important aspect, from a UX perspective, was the term “user-centred design”. This is a design ideal based on the needs of the user, over other issues such as aesthetics, to allow clarity and ease of use for users.
Modern Day UX:
Today UX can be broken down into various disciplines that all link to each other creating a web of knowledge that feeds into two main areas Visual Design and Interaction Design (Kinaesthetics) these will be discussed in the following articles.
But aside from these two, I would like to expand on some of the disciplines that help enrich our knowledge of UX.
Psychology and Cognitive Science
If you are designing for a user, you need to understand the user. Psychology helps us understand from a general perspective how humans approach and understand a system, while cognitive science will help us understand how users interact with the system.
Examples include:
- How often does it take for a person to navigate from one side of the screen to the other?
- When a user is sent to a new page what part of that page do they look at first?
Spatial Experience
Spatial Experience is the design and traversal of an environment, architects use this to evoke emotions or actions based on the placement of objects throughout a space.
Within software design it ties to the psychology behind placement of different fields and objects on the screen. It also relates to the use of colours and fonts to offer different emotions to the users viewing it.
Moving Forward:
Now we have some background into where UX originated from we can look into the 2 main disciplines Visual Design and Interaction design over the next 2 articles. Going in depth on how they are currently used in projects and differing views on how they can be handled.
While the Final Article will look at the tools and guides you can use to test UX and the pros and cons of each.
Written by Lee Rhodes — Sparta Global Consultant
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Sources:
“Designing for People” by Henry Dreyfuss
Leonardo da Vinci’s “kitchen nightmare”
“The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman
“Where UX Comes From” by UX BOOTH on AUGUST 8, 2013 in BUSINESS STRATEGY
A Brief History of UX with Lis Hubert
