Introduction
This article will start with the description I learned, explore how the specific theory is used in my various projects, and reflect on the knowledge I have gained because the reflection on experience can improve students’ learning efficiency. Boud (1985, P.19) thinks that reflection is an essential human activity. If learners ignore their learning process, they may not be able to judge and evaluate them consciously. Awareness of the learning experience is an essential part of learning (Boud et al., 1985). So reflection provides such a process. In the course of communication design, I observed and recorded some learning situations. I recorded the methods and theories of user experience design. In this article, I will discuss the user experience method and design theory I learned from the course from the aspects of description, explanation, evaluation and planning.
Description
First of all, the 5C model I learned in this module is the theoretical basis of my project. This process includes collection, understanding, conceptualization, creation, and intermediate collaboration to illustrate that collaboration is essential in each category. This model can give me a standard way of thinking to solve problems and develop a design strategy, which plays a guiding role in my project. In addition, this model makes me pay more attention to the preliminary research, including the use of social background research, user interviews, questionnaires and other methods to collect user information, which makes me more able to understand user needs and tap potential needs and systematically carry out the design work.
In my second project, which is “one day of every people “, I practised the 5C model. For example, to understand users, I conducted field observation, questionnaire survey, user interview and other methods to collect information. And use the user journey map to understand the user pain points. What I remember deeply is that my professor Andy let us simulate the map of empathy with the situation of users using the ticket vending machine in class. This is a good beginning of practice, and let me understand this theory better.
This method is designed with the user as the center.According to Cockton (2012), user-centered design is better than the ability to understand and evaluate the user and design.So when I finished the second project, I had a deeper understanding of the 5C model.
In the third project, “weather app, ” I learned a new knowledge in the module: pact. Pact theory is that people carry out certain activities through certain technologies in the context environment. It contains four key factors in interaction design: people, activities, context and technologies. This theory makes me realize that interaction design does not only exist in people and equipment. In a broad sense, it is the interaction between people and the environment. The environment includes equipment, people, society, architecture and everything you can think of. Only based on such understanding can our thinking not be limited. When I was implementing the pact theory, I was puzzled by the word “context”, so I read “interactive system design: HCI, UX and interaction design guide” and consulted my professor Denny. In the process of learning, I learned what kind of users “context” is, in what kind of situation, with what kind of technology, to complete what kind of task. In addition, in the third project, I learned how to draw thick wireframes and prototype them. A wireframe can let us quickly complete an interactive product process and let us find the loopholes and low experience errors in the product. Prototype testing allows us to collect user experience information better and get better modification opinions from user experience feedback, reducing the error of our final output and making better product update iteration.What impresses me is that we finally conducted a paper model test on our wireframe. This is a good interaction model. It has the spirit of paper model, which makes me have a deeper understanding of interaction design, that is, the interaction carrier is not necessarily an electronic device, and the most primitive things such as paper film can also interact.
In the fourth project, my professors gave a lecture form I had never seen before, Pecha Kucha. Pecha Kucha is a direct and straightforward presentation. Pecha Kucha has only ten slides for the whole show, with a maximum of 30 seconds per slide. This makes us need to know more about what we are going to do and condense our meaning more precisely to express what we will do. In the fourth project, I chose the theme of “education inequality”. I followed the 5C model to conduct preliminary research on users. First of all, set the interactive carrier as the immersion learning space. Because of the backward economy in poor mountainous areas, children can’t afford to buy mobile phones, aeroplanes and computers. Second, I sorted out user needs based on the data that I had arrived, and based on the pact framework, and made persona. Persona can help designers find user needs more clearly, and help designers decide how to provide services. (Siika-aho. 2006). Third, I completed the wireframe production and conducted prototype testing. After getting feedback from users, the interface has been updated and iterated to ensure that the product is closer to the user。
Interpret
In the study of this module, the theories taught by the professors and the projects we have done have helped me to establish a systematic understanding of communication design. 5C model enables me to master how to start and collaborate the whole project, how to get closer to and understand users, such as finding users’ potential needs through questionnaires and interviews, how to use empathy map and persona to locate users and their needs, and how to use user journey map to analyze their activities and find their pain points. In the design process, first of all, making wireframes can quickly and efficiently put forward a complete set of processes, and get the first generation of interactive products. Then we can collect user experience data through prototype testing. Based on user feedback, we can understand the shortcomings of the products and upgrade them iteratively,
Although in the process of learning and practicing these theories, I found that there are still deficiencies in my works. Some product functions can not perfectly solve users’ pain points, so I will continue to reflect on the previous mistakes in the follow-up learning , and hope to have more practice to get close to users and understand users.
Evaluate
In this module, our learning process is to constantly learn new theories and practice them. I think this is a good way, we have the guidance of theory, and constantly test and reflect in practice, which makes us have a better understanding of the theory . These design principles and theories provide evidence for my design, which let me know that my major is not a free flying, self-expression major, our design needs to tell stories and be user-centered. We need to explore and collect the data of those users to support our design and help users truthfully.
I also learned a lot from the weekly blog, because we need to watch lectures and write our ideas. Those lectures gave me a lot of inspiration and gave me a more comprehensive understanding of the field of design, such as the concept of “affordances” and the possibility that inspiration can be used as an action. Affairs is more like a kind of perception and existence. Available information so that actors can perceive and act on existing supply capacity. This allows me to use this concept in my design works to better guide users to use the functions I designed.When reading Donald Norman’s article, he proposed two futures of design, namely innovation and thinking in traditional carts. This gives me clear method support and encouragement for my future design planning. Because I am also exploring the innovation of new media interaction design in traditional graphic design.
Plan
In my future plan, I want to explore new media interaction design, I want to try more carriers to interact with people. So in the later study, I will establish critical thinking and put forward different views from the perspective of designers; Deeply understand the media and interaction, and establish a relationship with the audience through the expression of interactive design; Understand the audience in a specific context; Create your own narrative system through interactive design. The theoretical knowledge I learned in this module can provide a knowledge base for my follow-up plans, and enable me to be closer to users and understand their needs. I want to use similar multi sensory experience and hybrid generated content. I hope the audience can have the deepest connection with the work because of interaction. So I will study user research more seriously: building resonance with audience and users; Visual research: give full play to my existing graphic design foundation, and transf orm it into interactive design, which is a more extensive way of expression; Literature review: read a lot of relevant literature, including key design, mass media and communication; Generation technology: learn and master interactive generation software, such as processing, unification and touch designer.
Reference
Boud, D., & Falchikov, N. (2006). Aligning assessment with long‐term learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(4), 399–413. Available from:<https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930600679050 >[Accessed: May 13, 2021]
Cockton, G. (2012). UCD. Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Annual Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts – CHI EA ’12. Available from:<https://doi.org/10.1145/2212776.2212778>.[Accessed: May 12, 2021]
InteractionDesignOrg. (2011, February 15). Affordances. YouTube. Available from:<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Zb_5VxuM.> [Accessed: May 12, 2021]
Norman, D. (2018, December 3). The Future of Design: When you come to a fork in the road, take it. jnd.org. Available at: <http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/the_future_of_design.html> [Accessed：May 12, 2020]
Siika-aho, P. (2016, June 7). Persona Creation Based on Secondary Data: A Study on Perceived Reliability in UX design. Aaltodoc. Available from:<https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/21003. >[Accessed: May 12, 2021]