Designing Interfaces, 3rd Edition

Chapter 1. Designing for People

This book is almost entirely about the look and behavior of applications, web apps, and interactive devices. But this first chapter is the exception to the rule. No screenshots here, no layouts, no navigation, no diagrams, no visuals at all.

Why not? After all, that’s probably why you picked up the book in the first place.

In this first chapter, we outline the purpose and outcomes of understanding how people use software. Specifically, you’ll get a sense for what is critical to people when it comes to designing websites, applications and interfaces:

• Overall goals in using your site or application

• The breakdown of tasks in carrying out those goals

• How they think about the particular subject or domain

• The language they use to think and talk about this subject

• How skilled or unskilled they are in doing the work

• Their attitudes toward the subject

Good interface design doesn’t begin with pictures. It begins with an understanding of people: what they’re like, why they use a given piece of software, and how they might interact with it. The more you know about them and the more you empathize with them, the more effectively you can design for them. Software, after all, is merely a means to an end for the people who use it. The better you satisfy those ends, the happier those users will be.

A framework for achieving this is described here. It covers four areas. These are not strict rules or requirements for creating great designs. But having ...