Interface and Interaction Design Guidelines
In this week's tutorial will be focusing on interaction design guidelines for mobile applications both from a commercial and research perspective.
Exercise 1
Read the following article that explains 6 main design guidelines while designing mobile applications:
UI Design Principles Every Mobile App Developer/Designer Must Follow
(the section on the 3 technical guidelines may also be relevant). From the 6 basic guidelines, choose 3 that are the most relevant for your chosen project idea and discuss why.
Exercise 2
Quickly skim through the article uploaded on vUWS (Mobile App Guidelines), particularly focusing on Table 1 on page 5 of the article. A list of 39 guidelines are presented in this Table.
Exercise 2A) In extension of Exercise 1), choose 5 guidelines that are the most relevant to your proposed project idea and present initial ideas on how you intend to frame your design accordingly based on the guideline.
Exercise 2B) It is recommended that Guidelines are followed. However it possible that there maybe occasions when this would not be possible or advisable, for example when they contradict each other or due to the specific needs of the application.
Exercise 2B-Part 1) Give examples of guidelines from this table that contradict each other
Exercise 2B-Part 2) Choose three guidelines from the table and describe instances when the guidelines would not be followed.
Exercise 3
We will now gradually move to producing wireframes of our project ideas (first on paper and then on software). Assessment 3B will focus on paper prototypes.
Paper prototyping is an extremely integral important part of the design process of any application. Read the article provided on vUWS on paper prototyping (An article on paper prototyping). On the basis of the article, summarise the main strengths and weaknesses of using paper prototyping.
FYI: We will be sketching paper prototypes in the following week (W6). For a summary of the process/stages of wireframing, please do read the 2 articles on the Importance of Wireframing in the Design Process.