UI designers—not art laborers

 

The human society is marching into a non-material society and the internet information technology is coming into every corner of people’s life. In such a society, non-materials such as interface design are paid much attention to. But in China, we still call the people who engage in this field “art laborer”, which conjures up an impression of those who live on their labor. This is a stupid practice in that many companies did not realize how many economic returns interface design can bring to them.

UI is the short for User Interface, which means the relation between the user and the interface should be friendly. It includes interactive design, user research and interface design. This article mainly deals with the procedures of the user research and the interface design.

Generally, an interface design of the consumption category software involves the following five phases:
1. Demand
2. Analysis and design
3. Investigation and research
4. Project improvement
5. Feedback from the users

 

Demand

Software products fall into the category of industrial goods. It still involves the analysis of the demand of the users and the environment. So before a software product is designed, we should make clear by whom, where and how it will be used.

Analysis and design
After analyzing the demands, we enter the phase of design. Several interfaces with different styles are to be produced for options. First we should make a list for the end user. For example, the vocabulary we will use for a 25-year-old white-collar male includes words like quality, exquisite, elegant, fashion, relaxation and so on. Then we select corresponding pictures to match different words. Thus several interfaces with different styles are designed.

Investigation and research

The several styles should be on the same production level so that we can get the objective feedbacks.

Project improvement

After that, we get the best solution for the user. Then we get to know the user’s likes and dislikes before we begin to improve it.

Feedback from the users

Market is the final place for the inspection of our products. The users’ feedback should be paid great attention to.

Through the above description, we can clearly see that UI design is a scientific formula. It is by no means the simple drawing of the designer himself. That is why we stress that this is a design procedure.

 

(industrial design, interface design, UI design, interactive design)