Hidden By Design Hidden By Design

Im not a businessman, I dont sell out, I am a designer!



I believe that this is a pretty common mindset, and also a really healthy one. But.. and yes, there is a but. If you do not make money, you are not free to create and share the good in this world. Further more, since everyone else in the world is also using the same concept of money, then when you are designing, this have a huge impact on the things that you do.



But, how can I use this as a designer you might ask? Well, I have some good news for you!



In this episode of Hidden By Desing we talk about the ways that business influence design, and how it is impacting the decisions you make as a designer. Amongst other things, we talk about the difference between "I make money so that I can create value to the user" and "I create value to the user, so that I can make money" and how the difference in this mindset can influence the way that you think and design.



You will learn


How business influence design
What should you think about when designing
Why it's necessary to understand the business when designing
How to apply business when designing

Damn, I really need the toilet, but I am far away from home!

We have all been there, out for a walk, and in need of a toilet! And it appears that the close we get to home, the more we need to go! At a point when we are there, its almost unbearable!

What I tell my kids when in this situation, and what helps me, is to imagine that the toilet is not at home, but somwhere else.. setting the goal further away, because somehow this helps!

This is a bad example, but it shows the idea perfectly. The closer you are to a goal, the more motivated you are to comlete it. And this appears to be true, also when you need a toilet.

In this episode of Hidden By Design, we are discovering the goal gradient effect, and how you can motivate people by setting a goal and being clear about their progress. A bit of its daily uses, and where you can find it in your daily life.

You will learn

What the Goal Gradient effect is.

How to use the Goal Gradient effect.

Some example of the Goal Gradient effect.

What is bad design, and how do you identify it?

Sometimes you will look at something, and think.. bah, that is a really bad design, the experience is totally off. And often you know this instinctively, but what if it is just a matter of your not being the one this was designed for, or you simply being in a bad mood.

Fear not, Hidden by Design is here to help you. We have questions you can ask about the design, and then you can use this as a parmeter for finding out if the design is good or not.

It is not nessecary for all designs to live up to all of these, but if a design fail most of these


Predictable (past and future)Is the design predictable, can the user predict what is going to happen, and does to user understand why things happened?
Consistency (Both in experience and Aestetics) Is the experiecen consistendoes it work as you would expect something like this to work, and does it have a consistent look.
Instant FeedbackWhen using the object, does it tell you want it happening, does it have feedback, and is it given at all time what is happening? When you click a button, you have to be told that the button is clicked.
Easy but DeepIs it easy to understand how to use the design, and does it offer different ways to combine and solve issues on? This is mostly applicable with games, but to be honest, in my opinion, this should be something that all designs should have.
AutonomyThis is very much about the user being in control. I often ask myself, does the user controls the situation, or does the situation controls the user. In most cases we want the user to be free to control the situation. A good design should enable the user to do thing and set them free.
Does it solve my problemOften, a design or tool "almost" solves the problem, or is not really doing the thing that it is supposed to do.. its the "You had one job" situations, where the design does not do what you need it to do. You would be surprised how many designs does not live up to this one.

Bonus: In this Episode, both Martin and me falls prey to a very famous Bias, which bias is this?

The questions:

UI is not design!

And with that out of the way, lets get to the meat of this episode.

This is an episode about understanding what User Interfaces (UI) is and isnt.

Now that you read this far, then I feel I need to make sure that I mention that design cannot exist without an interface, and so, in that way, they are connected at a very fundamental level. Its like paint in a painting, a painting cannot exist without paint.. but paint is not the painting, it shows the paiting.

This episodes starts with us talking about what users interfaces are, and this in the end, we do a lightning round of the laws of Gestalt.


In this episode you will learn

What UI is and isntThe difference between GUI and HUDCognitive loadChunking
Gestalt


References

Season 1 Episode 4 - Constraints and Conventions

Season 1 Episode 12 - Gestalt

This episode is about the relationship between emotions and decisions. We discuss how emotions are the brains way of making decisions, where as an example "hot state" decisions are made at high emotional influence.

Think about your emotions like a cup with a tiny hole in the bottom, everytime something fules that emotion, you put a bit of "emotional water" in the cup, if the water fills into the cup faster than it empties, then at some point, the cup overflows. These hot state feelings anger, love, or happiness, which leads to unreflective actions. So, if its happiness, you will start laughing uncontrolably, and what you will see is all the funny things happening, that will keep filling the happy/funny cup.

Understanding emotions is crucial for designers that wants to create designs that resonate at a deeper level with users.

You will learn:


The brain is a predictability machine
Hot State - Cold state
What is a body budget
How we make decisions

References:

How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain - Lisa Feldman Barrett

Why do we need to be great storytellers? And where does Storytelling fit into Design and user experience.

This is what we are talking about in this episode. By listning to this you will learn:


The difference between a layout and a Composition
Aristoteles story formula
How to use storytelling in your designs

Resources:

Simon Sinek - Ted Talk

Simon Sinek - Start With Why

Anthony Jeselnik

Studying aristotles poetics

Aristotles 7 Elements of Good Storytelling

Interaction Design - Storytelling

Screencast - Aristoteles six golden rules of storytelling