This week I’ve come to learn that a user’s story helps designers find the root problem before the designing process even starts, this ensures a well rounded user-centred product. It helps the designer know what areas need tackling and what research needs to be conducted to accumulate the adequate data for then project they’re working on.
Kyle also emphasised on the fact that content doesn’t always have to be text, although it was interesting diving deep into it learning that everything we see on the screen is content’ from hamburger menus to the like buttons. This is knowledge that I already had thanks to my Graphic Design course I did at the Belfast MET
Something interesting I gathered though is that when content is always in a text format it makes everything boring, and in order to attract an audience one would have to incorporate mages, icons, illustrations, etc. anything that is captivating enough for someone to not only read the text but see what the button of story is trying to tell them to do
Another new thing I learned is “content curation”. Content curation is sorting through various content and presenting them in an understandable and organised manner. Social media apps and entertainment apps all have an automated curation system that displays relevant content in an organised manner for the user. This can be applied in the design industry for example if I am to design a product that will be used publicly I’ll need to make sure that the homepage or first screen they’re taken to has all the relevant content that they need and are seeking; doing so will make the production appropriate, useful, and user centred
We did group exercise on user stories in class today in preparation us for our AV.
A user’s story simply helps designers see things from the user’s perspective by filling in the role of the user, their goal, and how they’d benefit from the goal
This week I’ve also come to learn of the role visual grammar plays when it comes to creating a brand’s identity. A visual grammar is the look and feel of the whole product. It’s basically a short version of a brand guidelines, something similar to the brand tiles I did last year for our banking app and music app project.
What I got from this week’s lesson is that content is more important than I thought and it is more than the text we see on our screens, even minute details and buttons can be counted as content. And also it is very crucial as to how the content is laid out with a good visual grammar to ensure a coherent use. Good content is appropriate, useful, user centred, clear, consistent, concise, and supportive.