Week 2

Our lecture this week was an introduction to the course "User Interface and experience".

We have three assignments, the first one is a concept proposal, the second is a high fidelity prototype, and the third is a reflective journal. 

These assignments have all been spread out which is perfect for a second year student and I'm looking forward to engaging in these tasks. 

In this class there are two different parts;

1. Is the user interface design (UI), which we will be studying for the first half of the semester.

2. Is the user experience design (UX), which we will be studying for the second half of the semester.

What is user interface and experience?

User interface (UI) "is everything designed into an information device with which a human being may interact including display screens, keyboard, mouse, light pen, the appearance of a desktop, illuminated characters, help messages, and how an application program or a web site invites interaction and responds to it". (Rouse, 2014)

User experience (UX) "focuses on having a deep understand of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations. It also takes into account the business goals and objectives of the group managing the project. User experience best practices promote improving the quality of the users interaction with and perceptions of your product and any related service". (usability, 2014)

These two elements come hand in hand with each other, and thats what this class will teach us all about. 

At the end of the lecture, we were given homework. Our homework was what is a good or a bad interface design?

• Choose one good and one bad interface design and prepare a rational for why you think one is good and one is bad.
• Important to keep in mind: Pick both good examples and bad examples from the same category and platform to make it easy for comparative analysis. For example, shopping list app for android mobile. Pick one shopping list app which you think is good and one that you think is bad and explain why.

So the user interface I went with was Cinema web sites. I chose specifically Hoyts and Dendy. 

Hoyts

Dendy

Hoyts I chose to be a bad example, and Dendy to be the good example.

First the Hoyts website is very compacted and messy in the header and top section of the body. There is one main bar up the top with the key elements but there is also one down lower which displays movie titles. I do not see the practical side of this, as people like to see the movie title and all its elements together, for example the cover, ratings and the description. You than scroll down further and the movie elements are there, so i find the movie bar to be pointless. 

Dendy also has two menu bars, but they are more practical. Dendy's web site is easier to navigate and is more clear with its layout. When scrolling down the screen on the front page it is automatically on times and tickets for the movies, which is great. Dendys also has the option of now showing and coming soon, where Hoyts does not display this option. 

On Hoyts website there is an add that is displayed multiple times over the front page, this for viewers is not appealing as they are viewing the add multiple times in just a few seconds. Dendy cinemas have no adds just one add displayed once on the page. This is more appealing to the viewers. 

It has been said that more mature aged people go onto Dendy cinemas page to look at what is showing and to buy tickets and i can see why. Dendy is a far better site to navigate, it is clean and has a great layout. You don't have to click anything multiple times to find what you are looking for, where as Hoyts you have to do more clicking of the mouse. Hoyts in saying this does have more information written on its website but sometimes when you are only wanted to see times, it can get annoying. 

Overall I do believe Dendy is a good example and Hoyts is a bad example. 

In the tutorial we discussed our homework, and had to give a quick presentation on what we thought was a good and bad interface design. Everyone had a go and there was some great examples provided. We than briefly went through our brief for our first assignment. The brief is targeted at 1st year uni students and how they sometimes fall behind in their studies due to multiple reasons. Our assignment is to come up with a tool that will help them get back on track and to not fall behind, and we will be looking into this further as the weeks go by. 

I enjoyed todays class, and the homework made me use my brain when trying to figure out why a website was good and why one was bad. The homework was interesting and no one ended with the same ideas. 

Bibliography 

Rouse, M. (2014). user interface (UI) definition. retrieved from http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/user-interface

Usability. (2014). User experience basics. retrieved from http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-experience.html

Gudur, Raghavendra. (2015). 9291 User interface and experience. Lecture 1, week 2: Introduction [Powerpoint slides]