02.03 - DESIGN PROJECT ONE: Navigating Contested Content
I. Review of paper prototyping techniques
II. Review of design principles for navigational architecture and wayfinding:
THE GOAL: Designing an experience that reflects and communicates your values
1. Page Layout - How does the layout of a single page direct the user's attention and establish hierarchies of significance, meaning? Have in mind a path for the user's eye and hand to follow.
Consider:
- we read top left to bottom right
- grid systems help establish order, but can still create emphasis
- images and changes in type size create emphasis
- emphasis is relational: emphasizing many things the same way reduces attentiveness
- not all your pages have to use the same layout, but a change in layout will set a page apart and slow the experience down for the user. (this may be something you WANT to do.)
2. Entry Points - Within your site map and architecture, which pages are the ones someone might first encounter, or return to from within? Consider the first encounter but also the second, third, the routine use. Identify which pages are for which users, in which scenarios.
Consider:
- your entry points may or may not be visible on every page
- entry points create emphasis, hierarchy, and super-categories
- entry points can also set up the potential for new metaphors and analogies
3. Orientation - Do you want the user to have the whole hierarchy and architecture in mind? How do you communicate this?
Consider:
- disorientation may be appropriate for some part of the project
- creating consciousness of the super-structure may or may not be necessary for your project
- such consciousness might occur more for some parts of the site than others, for the first visit more than the second, or for the tenth visit more than the first.
4. Wayfinding - How will a user know where in the structure she is?
Consider:
- we find our way through more than just textual cues
- look for other analogies or metaphors (are we going deeper, and therefore farther to the right or left of the page, or therefore darker ---- color also can indicate category, etc.)
- one doesn't need to go everywhere at anytime
AT ALL TIMES - Audit your variables across a particular user experience, and be sure that only the things are need to change are changing. The use of your site should function as would a well-edited video sequence, where time flows smoothly in some parts, and not in others.
FOR NEXT WEEK:
Have a working prototype ready for use by a new user, a member of our class.