Let’s talk about interaction designers you don’t know

I have been doing interactive work for three years. Friends and colleagues often ask me, "What is interactive work all about?" The answer is: "According to the user's needs and scenarios, complete tasks in a simple and pleasant way." But they still don't seem to understand.

So what exactly does interaction do? Then I have to mention the "product manager" that is very popular now. If the product manager is the screenwriter of the movie, then the interaction designer is more like the director, showing the feelings the author wants to express through various presentation methods.

Let me describe how the interaction designer works on the project:

1. First, interaction designers need to interpret product requirements documents, understand user needs, and which functions can satisfy users’ pain points. eg:

For example, WeChat needs to make dynamic functions visible to some people. The reason is probably that young people always have some photos they don’t want their elders to see, and employees always have some complaints they don’t want their leaders to see. This feature protects the privacy of these groups.

2. After understanding the requirements, the next step is to organize the functional structure. Functions that have the same effect on users will be integrated and large modules will be distinguished.

then

Adjust the hierarchical order of module sub-functions based on logic, operation frequency, and business importance.

The organizational functional structure can be divided into "tasks", "topics", "users", and "metaphors". eg:

WeChat is a typical theme-based organizational structure (pictured above), which controls functions with the same attributes within a range:

"WeChat": Mainly social functions such as IM chat, payment, scanning, and adding friends.

"Address Book": Mainly used to find people in the address book, manage people in the address book, add friends, etc. People-related functions.

"Discover": Mainly a function of operational improvement, discovering new things about friends, finding new friends, discovering games and shopping.

"Me": All content belongs to "me", my photo album, my wallet, my coupons, my expressions, and settings.

Organizations that focus on ** tasks are generally used in secondary classifications, ** such as Taobao orders (pictured above) **, ** I will not go into details here in the picture above.

3. After determining the framework structure, simulate user usage scenarios and convert needs into tasks. eg:

Let’s take the online shopping that everyone is most familiar with as an example.

1. For example, when visiting Taobao, if you have a clear goal, you can conduct a keyword search. If your needs are vague, you may look at the recommended section in the navigation.
2. After sorting and filtering by price and sales volume, you finally find the product you like.
3. It’s possible that you haven’t paid your salary yet and don’t have enough funds, so you have to “add to favorites” for future purchases. There is also the possibility of a generous "BUY NOW".
4. After clicking Buy Now, you need to confirm your size, style and quantity.
5. Entered receipt information (since the content that needs to be entered is relatively cumbersome, commonly used receipt information improves efficiency).
6. Submit the order.
7. Select the payment method and pay (the payment may fail due to various circumstances such as no money in the bank card).

Obviously, through tasks and scenarios, we can well determine the logical sequence between pages, the content and functions required within the page, and the various abnormal situations that may occur on the page.

4. When you clearly understand the scenario tasks, you can start designing prototypes. The basis for prototype design generally comes from the following:
5. Platform specifications (iOS & Android design guideline), understand the controls in the corresponding platform, and the taboos in their use.
6. Common design principles, such as "functional visibility", "immediate feedback", "fool proofing", "Fitts' law" (button accessibility), "7±2 rule".
7. Research the user’s cognition and psychological model. If the content of the product does not match the user’s cognition, it is equivalent to playing the piano to a cow. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the user’s current attitude towards product, their understanding of product, and their knowledge background.
8. Consider the restraints and limitations of the content, such as feedback on task failure (loading fails due to poor network environment), restrictions on content (text length and format), warnings** for users who **make or may make mistakes, and page display in extreme situations.
9. Neat layout, with metaphorical meaning (iphone unlocking) or interesting animation (Google loading animation), to enhance the fun of the product.
10. After designing the prototype, you can review and deliver the UI and technical development design with the team, but these are not what I want to say. **Because what really matters is validating your design. **

After going online, pay more attention to user feedback. In the background data, you should pay more attention to the churn rate, click rate, conversion rate of the page, and the user's usage process (how to use the product). If it can achieve the expected effect, it means that the design is reasonable. If it does not, you can analyze the reasons and iterate in the next version to verify whether your design is reasonable.

I believe that after saying so much, you have a certain understanding of interaction designers, right?