Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Let's talk about "user experience."


What exactly is "user experience?" It's the way any end-user interacts with a website. Our job as designers is to make sure the end user finds our sites functional, accessible, content-rich and aesthetically pleasing. You will probably be surprised to find out just how much planning goes into the user experience of most websites. Web development firms have teams of "UX" (user experience) designers whose sole function is to make sure the website ends up being what it needs to be.

We will discuss each layer of user experience and how it relates to the web as: a) a software interface and b) a hypertext system. Now, don't be intimidated by these terms. All that really means is the web has two sides. The first side is how a website looks and the second is how a website functions. We will talk about both of these and how they relate to the end user.

Speaking of the end user, your homework tonight will start getting you acquainted with how different people see, and use, websites. I'll be giving you a questionnaire that I want you to give to three different people to fill out. Please have them answer all the questions, as this will affect your results in the next step. These will be turned in at the beginning of class on January 19th.

HOMEWORK:
• Get three different people to fill out the imdb.com questionnaire.
• Bring your filled-out questionnaires with you to class on January 19th
• Finish your take-home quiz on the Site Development Process and bring on 1/19

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