Types of Icons

While designing icons it's important to understand the different types of icons that you can create. These are Realistic, Representative, Symbolic - sometimes also classfied as below:

• Realistic/ Representational: Recognizable, simplified images of an object or an action. Most of the icons in the real world are developed around this idea.
• Abstract/ Representative: Highly simplified images in which the original object or action is reduced to graphical elements only. An example of showing thermometer as heat - heat does not equal thermometer. It's a representation of heat; Red = Stop;
• Arbitrary/ Symbolic: are invented graphical constructions with no reference (except, possibly conceptual) to actual objects or actions. Database = Cylinder (I haven't seen a DB that looks like a cylinder)

A good reference and study material on icons: http://www.indiana.edu/~vdim/Icons/1Intro/intro.htm

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Color Combinations

This has been contributed by Phalgun, an employee of MindTree.

My Favorite website for finding popular color combinations- http://kuler.adobe.com
It’s designed in Adobe Flex. There is an Adobe Air desktop application to download as well.

Anything in mind? Add on.

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Adding Depth to the 8 Golden Rules of Interface Design (Shneiderman's rules for design)

Ben Shneiderman, the founding director of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, focuses on the studies of information and visualization. His "Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design" is a guide to the principles of good interface design and information modeling.

His rules are self explanatory and practical.

1. Strive for consistency.
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts.
3. Offer informative feedback.
4. Design dialog to yield closure.
5. Offer simple error handling.
6. Permit easy reversal of actions.
7. Support internal locus of control.
8. Reduce short-term memory load.

In addition to these design principles, consider the following as well.

9. Match context and content to users.
10. Communicate the brand through information and visual design.
11. Map the information architecture to the branding assets.
12. Market content.
13. Culturally identify and map the users to its design.

Match context and content to users.
Every scenario driven design will have a context that supports the content. This should be mapped to the users who will be using it.

Communicate the brand through information and visual design.
The brand and its identity should be communicated in terms of what it is trying to do. Users will identify this through the information and the visual design.

Map the interface design to the branding assets.
The interface defines the layout and the hierarchy of content. This represents the taxonomy and the assets that the brand holds.

Market content.
Marketing content with what is being sold and what is being showcased is essential in terms of a) selling content b) selling products or services.

Culturally identify and map users to the design.
Through ethnographic/cultural studies, the context of the users are determined which helps identify and implement their behavior and the cultural nuances that exist.

Further thoughts? Add on.

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Twittering My Life Away…

This has been contributed by Ujjwal Singh Grover, an employee of MindTree.

I want to share a slick web 2.0 application known as 'twitter' (http://twitter.com/) that allows to you to shoot short 140 character updates/response to people on what they are currently doing. It is one of those things that one would find completely frivolous and useless when one reads about it for the first time. You wonder, "Why would I want to do that?" Once you start using it and start following other people’s updates, it becomes extremely interesting and addictive.

It can also be tied to your IM so you can interact with twitter via Gtalk. There is no need to login to the website. It can also be tied up with your cell phone's text messaging so that you can always stay in touch with your updates. It’s fast becoming the telegraph system of the whole web 2.0 ecosystem since it offers an API (API is a way to build your new application using the infrastructure of twitter). That is, if I build a new application, I can use twitter as a pipe for communication between my users. As there is a restriction of 140 characters, one has to be very specific and concise which makes conversations on twitter very crisp.

You might think that it may be distracting to twit while working. But to me it serves as a tool to keep a tab on my own work 2 play ratio.

If you need to access me: http://twitter.com/ujj

Thoughts from Afshan Kirmani, User Experience Analyst

Targeting Different Markets
As compared to the west, this application can be used widely by other markets like India. Its popularity isn’t as high as it is in the other parts of the world. This could be because of several reasons like:

· The lack of informational knowledge
· The lack of motivation
· Poor targeting and marketing
· Poor internet connections

What we really need is the right knowledge, the awareness and the relevance of twitter today. Why would each market need this service? What would they use it for? What drives them towards it? This targeting is essential for a service to be widely known and used.

The whole system is built around conversations and with competitors like pownce, jaiku and plurk, twitter has several reasons to show itself off.

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Championing the LUV of Design

This has been contributed by Swarupa Manjunatha, an employee of MindTree.

Netdiver Digital Culture Magazine. Yup! That’s it. A one stop shop for all you designers out there.

The website aims to stimulate creativity among all designers by publishing their content for over more than 10 years. It has a range of websites uploaded by individuals as well as organizations.

With news, events and editorials published regularly this website ensures that their target audience is well informed.

So what’s unique about it?
Everything. This website has hit its target audience right. With news, tools, illustrations, portfolios, competitions—yes, you have it all in there. Sometimes, we run around googling and hunting. That ends here. Visit this website and see how you can effectively progress in your daily work.

Most importantly, it keeps you updated about the news and happenings in the design industry worldwide. To keep you posted and in tune with the competition out there, this is it!

Something better on your mind?
In my opinion, Netdiver allows learners as well as professionals to gauge and contribute to the industry here. If you have something better in mind, send us the link. We would love to see what you have to share.

Your access to the website

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Affinity Diagrams: Created With Users

What is an affinity diagram?
Affinity diagrams are created while brainstorming. In user experience it focuses on gathering and grouping user feedback. For example, when users think a certain way and in a certain direction, an affinity diagram is created to show this relationship pattern.

Why affinity? Because we seek to find relationships and groups, causing an “affinity” (attraction) towards related content.

A Pictorial Example of the Process:

When is it used?
Affinity diagrams are used during brainstorming sessions where ungrouped content is grouped together systematically.

Talking about the web, affinity diagrams are also most popularly created while analyzing complicated menu structures.

How is it created?
An affinity diagram should and must be created with your users.

Step 1. Brainstorming: Gathering ideas and content together should be the aim here. This is done to create a content dump.

Step 2. Reorganizing: Soon after creating a content dump, this content is reorganized together to make meaningful patterns. Here, things are grouped in front of users during interviews or focus group discussions. This way you can visualize groups of content in front of them.

Step 3. Elimination: Next, information is grouped and analyzed with team members. Users don’t always know what they want. They only provide direction. With project specific needs and requirements, this data can then be analyzed and patterns are created to help group content systemically.

Step 4. Grouping: From the data gathered and with the analysis completed, patterns are grouped and created. With this, the data is converted to information.

Step 5. Presentation: With the results available and the information gathered from users, this diagram is presented to clients to ensure that they have a heads up on the structure created.

Reaching Larger Heights
Affinity diagrams are used by business teams to group large amounts of data. It is also used in the field of user experience. Team members themselves brainstorm and reorganize data which may not provide user centric results.

Moving forward, we must aim to create these diagrams with the help of our users. We should take this opportunity to figure out patterns in the way our users think and behave.

Let’s practice!

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Brand Experience in User Experience Design

There is a direct connection between customers’ perception of a company’s brand and the brand experience available through all customer-contact points— both online and offline. Defining, then consistently presenting a brand message increases the likelihood that a company can successfully deliver that message.

The 5 key elements to a customer centric culture by Forester research
- view customer experience as critical to meeting business goals
- share an accurate understanding of customers and their needs
- align company strategies with those customer needs
- support customer experience initiates from the top down
- have common goals across the organization

Some interesting pointers by Steve Baty
- recognizing that both online and offline customer experiences contribute to a brand image
- highlighting the importance of consistency between the customer experience across all touch-points
- working from the premise that an organization engages in a broad, complex set of interactions with its customers, of which the brand experience portrayed through its web sites is only one
- acknowledging the fact that a brand is inherently something we can only influence, not control

Reaching Larger Heights
As user experience designers and analysts, we need to begin working closely with business analysts and clients to provide them with what we know about user experience and in turn learn about brand experience which will help us build a team that satisfies end users with a powerful strategy that is determined by design, branding, and experience.
- make promises that a brand ends up keeping
- convert these brand promises to interaction requirements

Read more at:
Brand Experience in User Experience Design by Steve Baty

Brand Experience and the Web by Dirk Knemeyer

Branding and Usability By Jared M. Spool

Watch more at:
Forrester Research: Delivering A Great Customer Experience

8 Steps to Delivering an Exceptional Customer Experience

Forrester Research: Customer Experience = Competitive Weapon

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