我们中的一些人只是在UI设计的软方面遇到了困难(尤其是我自己)。“后端编码器”注定只设计业务逻辑和数据层吗?我们是否可以做些什么来重新训练我们的大脑,使其更有效地设计出令人愉悦和有用的演示层?

同事们给我推荐了《网站设计》、《不要让我思考》、《为什么软件很糟糕》等几本书,但我想知道其他人在这方面做了什么来弥补他们的不足?


当前回答

我建议你从现在做UI的方式开始,不要关注可用性之类的东西。

可选文字 http://www.stricken.org/uploaded_images/WordToolbars-718376.jpg

现在想想这个:

一个设计师知道他已经达到了完美,不是当没有什么可以添加的时候,而是当没有什么可以删除的时候。 ——圣艾修伯里

并应用到你的设计中。

其他回答

开发者不一定擅长UI设计,就像他们不一定擅长编织一样;这很难,需要练习,让别人先教你怎么做也无妨。

大多数开发人员(包括我)开始“设计”ui,因为这是编写软件的必要部分。除非一个开发人员努力去精通它,否则他/她是不会精通的。

Neal Stephenson所著的《In the Beginning was the Commandline》是一本关于用户界面及其重要性的好书。不是每个人都需要GUI,只是很多人不编程。这就像迪士尼世界的动物王国和实际的亚马逊之间的区别。

“我们能做些什么来重新训练我们的大脑,让它更有效地设计出令人愉悦、有用的展示层吗?”

是的——使用接口驱动的架构。首先根据业务需求设计用户流程——然后根据用户流程设计编程逻辑和数据库。如果你将中间层和后端设计成服务前端的结构,那么你将拥有一个以用户为中心的应用程序。

用户界面不像一层薄薄的油漆,是事后才可以涂上去的。它需要从一开始就存在,并基于真正的研究。当然,有大量可用性研究可用。它不仅需要在一开始就存在,它还需要构成你制作软件的核心原因:世界上存在一些差距,一些问题,它需要变得更可用和更有效。

软件不是为了它自己而存在的。软件存在的原因是为了人们。这绝对是荒谬的,甚至试图提出一个新的软件的想法,而不理解为什么人们会需要它。然而,这种情况一直在发生。

在编写每一行代码之前,您应该先检查界面的纸质版本,并在真人身上进行测试。这有点奇怪和愚蠢,它最适合孩子们,有人扮演“电脑”。

界面需要利用我们自然的认知能力。穴居人会怎么使用你的程序?例如,我们已经进化到非常擅长追踪移动的物体。这就是为什么使用物理模拟的界面,比如iphone,比即时发生变化的界面效果更好。

We are good at certain kinds of abstraction, but not others. As programmers, we're trained to do mental gymnastics and backflips to understand some of the weirdest abstractions. For instance, we understand that a sequence of arcane text can represent and be translated into a pattern of electromagnetic state on a metal platter, which when encountered by a carefully designed device, leads to a sequence of invisible events that occur at lightspeed on an electronic circuit, and these events can be directed to produce a useful outcome. This is an incredibly unnatural thing to have to understand. Understand that while it's got a perfectly rational explanation to us, to the outside world, it looks like we're writing incomprehensible incantations to summon invisible sentient spirits to do our bidding.

普通人能理解的抽象概念包括地图、图表和符号。小心符号,因为符号是一种非常脆弱的人类概念,需要有意识的精神努力来解码,直到学会符号。

The trick with symbols is that there has to be a clear relationship between the symbol, and the thing it represents. The thing it represents either has to be a noun, in which case the symbol should look VERY MUCH like the thing it represents. If a symbol is representing a more abstract concept, that has to be explained IN ADVANCE. See the inscrutable unlabled icons in msword's, or photoshop's toolbar, and the abstract concepts they represent. It has to be LEARNED that the crop tool icon in photoshop means CROP TOOL. it has to be understood what CROP even means. These are prerequisites to correctly using that software. Which brings up an important point, beware of ASSUMED knowledge.

我们大约在4岁左右才能获得理解地图的能力。我记得我曾经在什么地方读到过,黑猩猩在六七岁左右获得了理解地图的能力。

The reason that guis have been so successful to begin with, is that they changed a landscape of mostly textual interfaces to computers, to something that mapped the computer concepts to something that resembled a physical place. Where guis fail in terms of usability, is where they stop resembling something you'd see in real life. There are invisible, unpredictable, incomprehensible things that happen in a computer that bare no resemblance to anything you'd ever see in the physical world. Some of this is necessary, since there'd be no point in just making a reality simulator- The idea is to save work, so there has to be a bit of magic. But that magic has to make sense, and be grounded in an abstraction that human beings are well adapted to understanding. It's when our abstractions start getting deep, and layered, and mismatched with the task at hand that things break down. In other words, the interface doesn't function as a good map for the underlying software.

有很多书。我读过的两本,因此可以推荐给你,一本是唐纳德·诺曼的《日常事物的设计》,另一本是杰夫·拉斯金的《人机界面》。

I also reccomend a course in psychology. "The Design of Every day Things" talks about this a bit. A lot of interfaces break down because of a developer's "folk understanding" of psychology. This is similar to "folk physics". An object in motion stays in motion doesn't make any sense to most people. "You have to keep pushing it to keep it in motion!" thinks the physics novice. User testing doesn't make sense to most developers. "You can just ask the users what they want, and that should be good enough!" thinks the psychology novice.

我推荐菲利普·津巴多主持的PBS系列纪录片《发现心理学》。如果做不到,那就找一本好的物理教科书。贵的那种。不是你在Borders书店里找到的低级小说自助废话,而是你只能在大学图书馆里找到的厚精装书。这是一个必要的基础。没有它,你也可以做出好的设计,但你只能凭直觉理解正在发生的事情。读一些好书会给你一个好的视角。

用户体验设计和软件开发绝不是相互排斥的技能。相反,它们都需要常识和逻辑,注重细节,能够看到大局。所以,如果你是一名优秀的开发人员,你就有机会成为一名优秀的UX设计师!

它们看起来可能是相互排斥的,因为许多开发人员没有UX设计经验,反之亦然。此外,如果你在考虑用户体验设计之前就开始考虑架构、框架或语言,这可能会把你引向错误的方向。