====== Usability - Design ======

Author: Michelle McCausland

This page contains the notes taken from the UX training course "UX Foundation Online" provided by [[http://uxtraining.com|UXTraining.com]]

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**Information Architecture**
  * Like a skeleton
  * Determines where content lives and is organised
  * Site map - site structure
  * Site structure has a big impact on user experience

Where to start:
  - Follow conventions, benchmarks, peers
  - Look at web traffic data
  - Look at search data
  - Define hypothesis
  - Card sort

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**User flow**
Consider different scenarios of people using software

Before you design a screen:
  * Understand its sequence in main flow
  * Be conscious of different screen states

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**Navigation**
  * By product of information architecture
  * Primary nav should be global
  * Secondary nav - more specific

Linear sequence - Natural, each step flows logically to the next step, for quick tasks

Hub and spoke - non-linear, no natural sequence, for longer tasks

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**Interaction Design**
Interaction = Intent + Action + Result

Like a sentence = Subject + Verb + Object

User = Intent > Action > Result

Product = Controls > Rules > Feedback

  - Controls 
     * like a steering wheel - web controls (checkboxes, radio buttons etc)
  - Rules 
     * Rules define how the interface works
     * Defines success and failure
     * Defines the feedback given
     * Defines what data is produced and where it goes
     * Use "if, then" statements
     * Rule guidelines - should be easy to understand and learn, facilitate overall flow
     * Reduces guesswork - everybody knows how it works
   - Feedback
     * Every interaction requires feedback
     * Confirms an action has taken place
     * Communicates results

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**Wireframes**
  * Communicate controls, rules, feedback
  * Provides more critical detail than prototypes
  * Start with a rough sketch