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User Experience

User Experience "User experience" stands for all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products. The first requirement for an user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products that are an easy to own, an easy to use. True user experience goes far beyond giving customers what they say they want, or providing checklist features. In order to achieve high-quality user experience in a company's offerings there must be a seamless merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and interface design.
Most users don't really read Web pages. Instead, they scan text for specific pieces of information in a process called information retrieval. With user-centered design (UCD), you can improve the usefulness (relevance) and usability (ease of use) of Web sites by considering information retrieval and other factors.
 
Visibility Memory Load Feedback 7+2 Principle
3-Click-Rule 2-Second-Rule Fitts' Law Inverted Pyramid
80/20 Rule Errors Language Orientation/Navigation
Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word usability also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.
 
Eye-Tracking Baby-sandrum Banner-blindness Fold Fobeal
Gloss Graceful Hotspot Legitibility Mindsweeping
Mystery Physical-consistency Progressive Proximity Readability
There are many basic concepts that underly the field of design. They are often categorized differently depending on philosophy or teaching methodology. The first thing we need to do is organize them, so that we have a framework for this discussion.
We can group all of the basic tenets of design into two categories: principles and elements.
 
Balance Symmetrical Rhythm Proportion
Dominance Unity Closure Positive and Negative Space
Prototyping is the process of building a model of a system. In terms of an information system, prototypes are employed to help system designers build an information system that intuitive and easy to manipulate for end users. Prototyping is an iterative process that is part of the analysis phase of the systems development life cycle.
Some Advantages of Prototyping:
Reduces development costs.
Requires user involvement.
Developers receive quantifiable user feedback.
Facilitates system implementation since users know what to expect.
Results in higher user satisfaction.
Exposes developers to potential future system enhancements.
Prototyping does have its perils. These include:
1)Standardization--Prototypes, particularly in a high-technology prototyping environment, tend to be shaped by the tools that are available, rather than by users' needs.
2)Distraction--Work on the prototype can take attention away from the problems to be solved.
3)Seduction--Developers can be trapped in an endless loop of refinement.
4)Rejection--If the cost of implementing an idea is too high, ideas will be rejected too early in the cycle.
5)Obscured historical perspective--Prototypes tend to lose the reasoning that went into them--why decisions were made, for example, or which requirements led to a set of behaviors or functions.