Today’s lecture was quite interesting because it involved a group project on flow charts. We covered how to properly sketch interfaces before hopping onto Figma; my tutor said that you can even make prototypes with the sketches by taking photos of them and placing them on Figma, this technique although interesting would be quite time consuming in my opinion as I was taught in the previous year that when it comes to the sketching phase of a project it is best to put all your ideas on paper regardless of how rough it seems, and that there is no such thing as a bad idea at the beginning of the sketching phase; this way works best for but regardless it was fun and interesting to learn how my tutor does his. Another interesting thing we did was flow charts, which was done in groups, I found it very fun; during the group work I realised that I had encountered flow charts before, back in Technology when I was in Highschool; I didn't know this method could be applied to app building so that was very intriguing to learn about today. It almost serves as a flowchart that helps designers assemble how the flow of an app will work. Despite all the fun I had today I feel as though our could’ve been used to do sketches for our projects and not the Plant Pot brief we were assigned.
Prior to doing the Plant Pot Brief we did a small exercise in which we had to draw some icons, a camera, a lock, and a house. This exercise served as a warm up to get us into a sketching mindset. This exercise was done to emphasise how icons are drawn using simple shapes. It was quick and easy and I quite enjoyed it. After this we were split into our groups and given the brief; my group was composed of four members and after we built our flow chart we had to draw a lo-fi sketch of how the app would work. The image below showcases how a user can diagnose their plant, the app then provides them with information on how to heal the plant.
We then were paired with a member in our group so that we could unite our ideas and build one app, this was interesting for me because I got to see what the other members of the group had come up with.
A user flow chart is a diagram that showcases steps a user takes to complete a task on any digital product, this can also be applied to physical products. It’s a map that shows how a user goes from one action or screen to the next; flow charts start with a “Start” and end with an “End” which are written in circles; between these two points one will also see “Rectangles” that contain actions, “Diamonds” that contain decisions, and “Arrows” that direct the user from on action or decision to the next, whichever it may be.
It helps designers and developers understand what the user will do step by step, and during this process faults can be spotted and fixed to avoid complexities and long steps; this then makes it easy for designers to design the layout and features of your app or site. User flow charts make users have a smooth interface experience without any hassle.
Building a flow chart can be time consuming because it requires designers to think through every possible action and that is really hard because a flow chart doesn't always show minute details that might be an issue in the app. Especially if the app has a complex system, the chart will look messy. And if you make any changes during your app building you will have to go back the the user flow chart and change things up.
A good example of a user flow chart is going on the Amazon app or website, searching up the product you want and tapping on it to unveil more information about this product, afterwards you can add decide to add it to your chart or buy it straight away, and thanks to Amazon’s secure payment method users don't have to put in their bank details, the simply tap on “Buy now” and that’s it.
We also covered one of the UX laws which I had never heard of before but after it was spoken about I came to realise how true it is and it’s kind of bizarre. The Miller’s Law states that people can only hold about 7 pieces of information when interacting with an app or website and this is why content needs to be in small chunks as this helps the mind take easy notes and memorise them.
A good example of Miller’s Law would be Netflix, as seen in the image below they showcase 6 shows/movies on the screen with the seventh one faded and on the far right of the screen. This method makes it easier for users to take in the content more efficiently.