Introduction to UI Design — University of Minnesota (Coursera)

Whilst learning more about the tech industry and through getting to know the type of development I enjoy most, I’ve developed an interest in UX/UI design. It’s an area I’m really keen to learn more about so I recently decided to take this Introduction to UI Design Coursera course. I chose this course as it was recommended in this How to use Figma for beginners blog and is relatively short with just 4 modules. I’ll use this page to record some bits that I learn along the way and any interesting/memorable points.

Week 1- Introduction & Overview

Even though this module was just an introduction to the introductory course(!) I still found it informative and it was good at opening your mind to the types of questions you should be thinking about when considering UI design. The case studies they used, though they feel pretty dated were good to illustrate the points made. Some points I learnt:

• Simple things should be simple to operate, there should be no need for instructions
• User error shouldn’t occur- A slightly dramatic example of a couple who ended up in the wrong place using Waze and ended up getting shot. However, rather than just thinking that users should ‘know better’, it was interesting to think of it from a design perspective and an opportunity to constantly improve design so that errors don’t occur. It raised the idea of different ways of error prevention- eg confirmation messages
• It was interesting to hear how Microsoft went about designing their office ribbon for the 2007 redesign. They collected customer data (of those who agreed to it) to determine which most often used and whether they were made by the user using the mouse or keyboard. Paste was the most often used, and hence why it is a big button in the top left of the ribbon. This was evidence based design, design decisions made on actual usage. shows the importance of data in influencing design.
• The case study of a kids library search made the point that good design involves asking your users questions and working to understand issues from their point of view, further emphasis on the importance of research when thinking about design.
• Interesting point — how usability becomes an agent for building trust in a brand

This module also made me think of the link between UI/UX design and my current job in operations for a travel company. A big part of my job is thinking of ways in which we can improve processes both for customers and for staff. This includes designing more user friendly forms to make the admin our staff have to do easier or thinking of more user friendly ways to get our guests all the info they need prior to arrival. I can definitely see some similarities which was an interested and unexpected comparison.

Week 2 — Design Process

This module was very theory based with fewer case studies making it a little harder to take in. These are the standout parts and bits I’d like to remember. I learnt there are 3 core components to UI design processes; user research, design and prototyping and evaluation. For user research it is important to have the willingness and time available to have contact with real users, but it is equally important to be able to deliver this research to the rest of the design team- need artefacts and documents eg. example user activities and user descriptions. Design and prototyping is always an exploratory process, never just a single design. Evaluation should be done often. It can be useful to do early on with users to identify mismatches related to users needs, later evaluation useful to be done with trusted people. I liked the focus on iteration and how it is easier to improve than to get it right the first time.

There was a big focus on Task Centred user interface design which I found interesting. The focus of this design process is on capturing info on user tasks, so it is a good process to use when designing a task orientated system, perhaps not so good for a more social based system. I learnt about:

• Personas- These describe model users and are based on research of a number of users, each persona is based on a composite that represents a class of user.
• Task descriptions — these only focus on what the user wants to do, it should not say how they do it, there should be no mention of any specific interface. These can be used to outline the system functionality.
• Scenarios- These are a specific instance of system use for a particular task of interface, eg. ‘Click on calendar icon, hit next year button, click on…..’. The level of description should match what the target user should be able to do.

I think I enjoyed learning about this process as it is quite objective so easier for a beginner like myself to get your head around. However, I’m aware that this course isn’t the newest so I would be interested to do some research as to whether this is still a process that is as relevant. Though there was a heavy focus it did balance this by also looking at design centred approaches, demonstrating that these were much more subjective than task centred approaches and outlining how task centred approaches can struggle with motivation, engagement, connection, identity and value.

Weeks 3 & 4 — Psychology and Human Factors

This module covered a bit about how humans think and what design choices you might make based on this.

Firstly I learnt about Fitts’ Law which is a mathematical model for how well people perform pointing tasks (something you do a lot of when using an interface).

Basically the bigger a target is and the closer it is the quicker someone can click on it, pretty self explanatory really. In very simple terms in the case of user design it makes sense to have buttons that are important and used regularly to be large and in prominent places on the screen. It was funny to hear how this has had to be updated for smart phones, as it wasn’t quite as accurate, Ffitts’ Law was devised, which is Fitts’ Law + the fat finger problem. Another interesting bit that came from learning about Fitts’ law was how it demonstrated the interdisciplinary nature of UI design, it was devised by psychologists in the mid 20th century.

I learnt a little about human memory and attention.

• Short term memory- humans have a limited capacity of this. A couple of things to think about in terms of UI design- it’s best to place all required info for a task in close physical proximity, give users control over the pace of info presented, info should be presented in a organised, structured, familiar and meaningful way.

I was introduced to the ideas of a gulf of execution and a gulf of evaluation. These are ways to describe problems with an interface.

• Gulf of execution- when a user is unsure what actions to take
• Gulf of evaluation- when a user is unsure if the actions taken will have the desired effect.

Design principles-

• Visibility — make sure things can be seen
• Mapping — having relevant things next to each other
• Feedback — visual clues, eg highlighting when you select something, or google showing popular queries that match what you’ve typed so far
• Constraints — eg limiting user input- eg choosing from a drop down, rather than allowing random typing

Well there we go, course complete! It was a good high level introduction into some UI design concepts and definitely gave me a lot to think about. It has taught me how much thought has probably gone into every aspect of the look of a good website but also just how some little tweaks can really improve the user experience. It’s definitely an area I’d like to learn more about but I also feel like there’s still SO much for me to learn on the development side of things that maybe I should just stick to one focus for now…..