Interface Bikes Toxic Grandfather. “Explore it!” (s1 e1)

Greetings.

Now only the lazy one does not write articles and does not make reports on the topic: “I am an interface designer and now I will scratch the FAQ.” And always in such articles and speeches we are talking about sites, mobile applications and a similar b2c product. Translating into a common language, the list of topics for such speeches looks something like this: “How to draw beautifully,” “How to sell what you painted”, “How to ask users about what you painted, and not get“ # & @ $ ! "". But if you have managed to get into the internal development, where users are specialists without fools, where the amount of top-level content on the screen goes beyond the bounds of the reasonable, and the functionality is sophisticated and complicated, it turns out that there are no articles, reports, or community for you as such.Today we are brought into the closet where Toxic Grandfather lives, saturated with wine vapor and the smell of pipe tobacco. We will ask him what makes the development of the interface of the next mobile application different from the development of a truly complex, highly specialized system.

We: Great, Grandfather!
TD: We have seen healthier.
We: How long have you been doing interfaces?
TD: Longer than the “specialists” born after 1995.
We: Well, how do you assess the situation in the industry today?
TD: Now in the design of interfaces the same thing happens that in the 90s-2000s happened in marketing.
We: And what happened in marketing?
T.D .:Hell and Israel! Nobody understood anything and in fact simply mastered advertising budgets. Something from this hellish heap shot and really helped the then business, but overall there were a lot of words and very little business. Those who were at least somehow in the subject, tried to sell the obvious things. But the bench quickly covered itself.
We: Can you give an example?
T.D .: I can.
We: ...
TD: ...
We: Will you bring it?
TD: Yes, how to do nefig! I read the third day the article “We analyze the data collected with the help of dubious services, in a dubious way and with a dubious purpose.”
We: Was that what it was called?
TD: No, it was somehow different there, I just remembered the essence.
We: Well, let's say. And what's there?
TD: There, the girl tried to understand how the color of the Buy button affects conversion.
We: And how?
TD: The results are impressive. It turns out that if the button is painted white and the border is removed, then people will press it less. And if painted in green, then they will press more. The abyss of meaning.
We: Well, you see! It works!
TD: Of course it works. On a white background.
We: ...
T.D .:In short. If it’s quite simple, then in order to do research on something, you need absolutely clear settings. What do you research, how do you research and how will you interpret the results. Indeed, if you look, then 100% of people who died a violent death drank water. Statistics!
We: Well, yes, you can’t argue.
TD: I’ll tell you more, few people understand why research is needed at all.
We: Well, what about? Just for this purpose we need to understand how the user uses the service. How to make his life better.
T.D .:The user, of course, uses it. Or does not use. Here we are talking about the service, and not about the color of the button. Let's say we have an online store. If testing showed that scenario A works better than scenario B, then everything seems to be clear. We take A. But a competitor appears with a completely collective farm design and scenario B, and drives you to the minus, because he has a price 10% lower and delivery faster.
We: So you want to say that design is secondary?
TD: I want to say that if your product is shit, and two habals and the mentally retarded take orders, then the last thing you need to think about is the site design.
We: Well then, you can’t argue.
TD: And you thought.
We:Let us suppose. But what about when the services are identical? When the prices, quality and delivery services are equal. How to understand what needs to be improved so that the client goes to you?
TD: Where have you seen this?
We: Well, purely theoretically, can this be the same?
TD: Maybe. But even then the service whose processes are better thought out will be more likely than the one that is more beautifully designed. It is important that the person who designs knows the underwater rake both from the user and from the service itself. Even better if the designer uses it himself.
We: Well, such an option is a rarity.
T.D .:That is why, before you design something, you need to understand the issue very much. Do not become an expert, namely to understand how your system will be used. This is exactly what I call research, and not what you think of yourself there. First you need to build a clear model, and then make an interface on it. Note, first ask users what they need, then understand what they really need and only then rush into the attack. But for some reason, we love the opposite. First, a little thing is honored, then they will ask one cripple who has strayed from the herd, and then quickly saw something. Of course, after being tested on users, they are very surprised how they didn’t hit half the targets.
We: Well, this is research.
T.D .:In my understanding, yes. But most "designers" do not. It is believed that everyone already knows, and if they don’t know what, they will deal with the attack. It was like that. Still ashamed. And in general, they talk a lot about research, but as always, they do almost nothing. And if they do, then it’s not so and not that.
We: We think you're exaggerating.
TD: But I am not convincing anyone. It is a fact.
We: Okay, Grandfather. Let's go And then you have nothing to breathe.
TD: But no one forces you.
We: Will you say something to the readers?
TD: This is so ... nya, little ones.

To be continued…

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/undefined/