Saturday, March 8, 2014
8 - James Farley
I have learned an enormous amount about HCI design and how the entire process works. Playing the whole game of HCI design has a very dynamic feel to it, and every part has a reason. I didn't really understand how using a persona could help design a product, as it isn't even a real person. However, after doing a couple projects using a persona I can begin to see how many people in the real world use them to help create the products for the users. I also didn't really understand the entire concept of usability testing. I figured if you designed something well enough, users should be able to figure it out. However after doing some usability testing I realized that is not always the case. Nobody is perfect so chances are there are going to be flaws when designing a product, and what better way to find them then having people test the product as it would actually be used. Usability testing helped me figure out design flaws in the projects 3 and 4 especially. Overall, I have a much better understanding of the complex, dynamic, and ever-changing game that is HCI design.
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Even though personas are fake people that you make, they really do help with designing your product for a specific target group. It really helps narrow down your scope because you're developing for that persona who represents a group of people.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you about the usability testing. If you design something well shouldn't the user know what to do. But there are no such thing as perfect design. I learned that now from our projects that we have done so far.
-Alex
Being a designer I struggled with the idea of a persona as well at first. However, after the first project of using them I started to see how they can effect a design even in the slightest. They can also help with adding in features that you may not even think of because you personally wouldn't use it but a different audience might. I don't know if it helped you but I think the YouTube project really helped with the idea of persona for me because we thought of features and categories that we wouldn't have thought of without them. I have to say I use them all the time in my graphic classes and at work and find them very useful.
ReplyDeleteNo one can ever create a perfect design. It is one of the most frustrating parts of being a designer, someone will ALWAYS find a flaw. However, it does help to test others, you may not think that there is anything wrong because you designed it but others will catch what you don't see. Usability tests can be frustrating and hard to do and know what to fix afterwards but always help you come up with a better product in the end.
-Rachael
I also found the idea of making a persona a little silly. However, after doing a couple of the class projects, I realized just how useful they can be. They really helped me stay focused when making my designs.
ReplyDelete-Taylor