Week 6 focused on tying things together.
We looked around a range of examples of UI design to examine how different aspects of its can help with tying things together.
Jakobs Law outlines how users value familiarity. Most users will spend the majority of their time on other sites, so they want to feel familiar when they visit yours. If a website is too confusing and unfamiliar, this could draw the audience away. I find this interesting from the point of view of creating a music app currently; although I’m focused on trying to make something unique and attractive, it’s important to stick to what users know to ensure usability. This can include things such as fonts, features and layouts, spacing etc.
The Law of Pragnaz looks at human instinct, suggesting that people will generally perceive complex things in the most simple form possible. The reason for this is that humans want to interpret things with the least complexity as possible so as little cognitive effort as possible is needed. This can be tried into Jakobs Law, as things which are consistent and familiar will need as little of this as possible.
Hicks Law suggests that things should be clear and obvious do that people can interpret is coorrectly. For example, a button should be an appropriate size so that people understand that they should click it.
Target sizes are guidelines of what ‘targets’ (such as buttons, interactive icons etc) should be on an interface. I was glad to cover this, as I was struggling to estimate this for myself in my interface for my current project. There isn't any scientific target size, as everyone has different finger/thumb sizes which leads to a different touchscreen experience for all.
Different brands and companies have different guidelines:
Many of these guidelines are based on thumb measurements. The majority use their thumbs for touchscreen devices and, paired with the fact that this is generally bigger than peoples fingers, is a good reference for pixel measurements. The average thumb is 57 pixels wide, so having an interactive button with too much of an overlap or too close together could lead to users accidentally clicking the wrong things.
We were advised that a good way of testing this is using Figma Prototypes on our desired device. For example, I have an iPhone 14. Therefore, it may be beneficial for me to use an iPhone 14 screen layout for my phone interfaces so that if I created a prototype I could experience what users could actually see.
Colour is one of the most important aspects of an interface. Most interfaces will have a custom colour scheme to create a consistent and pleasing design.
Contrast is vital for accessibility so should be considered when creating a custom colour scheme. A poor colour contrast, such as close colour of text and background, may impact usability and readability, particularly for people with visual impairments. Different websites such as web aim can be used to check colour contrast, I use these frequently in my projects and have found them really helpful for readability.