1. The document discusses what user interface designers can learn from architecture, including design, solving human problems, and working within constraints. 2. It recommends that UI designers claim the role of architects by learning computer science principles and system designs, and to not be afraid to discard even good ideas if they don't fit. 3. UI designers are also advised to avoid breaking established paradigms that users have become accustomed to, unless changing paradigms is a core part of the product's design.

1. What User Interface Designers
can Learn from Architecture
Aye Moah
User Experience Engineer
Choicestream
Twitter: @ayemoah
Email: ayemoah@gmail.com
Blog: http://thinkstick.net

3. Why Architecture?
• Design

4. Why Architecture?
• Design
• Solving human problems

5. Why Architecture?
• Design
• Solving human problems
• Working within constraints

6. Why Architecture?
• Design
• Solving human problems
• Working within constraints
• Evoke emotional response

7. Balancing Act

8. Notable Quotes
“Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability, they
should go hand in hand.”
Donald Norman, 2003
“Form follows function - that has been
misunderstood. Form and function should be
one, joined in a spiritual union.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

9. Architecture is an old profession.
• Actually…
It’s quite ANCIENT! Relatively speaking.
4000 years ago vs. 40 years ago

10. Certificate from the Stonemasons Guild of Strasbourg. Engraving 1771.

11. 4 Things
1. Be the hub
2. Claim the role of architects
3. Don’t be afraid to throw away good ideas
4. Don’t break paradigm

12. 1. Be the hub.
Structural
Engineers
Electricians Contractors
Architect
Building
Mechanical Code
Engineers Consultants

13. 1. Be the hub.
Engineers
Customer Product
Support Management
You
QA Project
Engineers Management

14. Talking to Engineers
1. Present the root cause of Engineers
an issue as a problem to Customer Product
Management
be solved. Support
You
QA Project
Engineers Management

15. Talking to Engineers
2. Speak with numbers. Engineers
Customer Product
Support Management
You
QA Project
Engineers Management

16. Detour: Good numbers to know
• Working Memory Capacity *1
– 7+/- 2 information chunks
– Retention time : ~ 7 sec
• Reading Capacity
– Average reading speed : 250 wpm for college
educated
– Optimal font size : 12 point *2
– Luminosity contrast ratio : 10:1 *3

17. Talking to Engineers
3. Keep up with current Engineers
technology Customer Product
Support Management
You
• Frank Lloyd Wright /
Cantilever / Falling QA
Engineers
Project
Management
Water (1935)
• Type ahead filtering in
web applications/AJAX

18. Talking to Product Management
• Help them with Engineers
Competitive Analysis Customer
Support
Product
Management
• Get involved from the You
beginning QA Project
Engineers Management
• Usability should be part of
the priorities that a
product manager juggles

19. Talking to Project Management
• Understand software Engineers
development methodologies
– Waterfall Customer
Support
Product
Management
– Spiral You
– Agile (Scrum, XP)
• Don’t forget Mythical Man- QA
Engineers
Project
Management
Month
• Books
– Getting Real
– Peopleware
– Business of Software

20. Talking to QA Engineers
• QA Engineers think in Engineers
terms of test cases Customer
Support
Product
Management
– Positive You
– Negative QA Project
Engineers Management
– Edge and Exceptions

21. Talking to Customer Support
• Customer Support Engineers
knows customers better Customer
Support
Product
Management
than the customers You
know themselves QA Project
Engineers Management
• # of users calling to ask
how to use software is a
pretty accurate
assessment of usability

22. 4 Things
1. Be the hub
2. Claim the role of an architect
3. Don’t be afraid to throw away good ideas
4. Don’t break paradigm

23. 2. Claim the role of an architect
• Architect vs. Interior Designer
“Space planning with decoration applied to “dress it up” is not
architecture. Architecture resides in the DNA of a building, in
an embedded sensibility that infuses its whole.”
• Architect vs. Engineer
“Engineers tend to be concerned with physical things in and
of themselves. Architects are more directly concerned with
the human interface with physical things.”

24. 2. Claim the role of an architect
• Earn the right to influence how a software is
built by
– Learning basic computer science principles
– Understanding System Architecture Diagrams,
Object Model Diagrams
• Be deserving of Virtual Tiara
• Danger of bozo bit

25. Detour : Tiara Story
a programmer asks Joel Spolsky to intervene in some
debate he is having with a program manager.
Joel : “Who is going to write the code?”
Programmer : “I am…”
Joel : “OK, who checks things into source control?”
Programmer : “Me, I guess, …”
Joel : “So what’s the problem, exactly? You have absolute
control over the state of each and every bit in the final
product. What else do you need? A tiara?”

26. 4 Things
1. Be the hub
2. Claim the role of an architect
3. Don’t be afraid to throw away good ideas
4. Don’t break paradigm

27. 3. Don’t be afraid to throw away good ideas
• Not every idea a creator conjures up belongs
in the work at hand
• The cliché “Just because you can doesn’t
mean you should” is relevant
• Jamming up all cool interface components !=
best design for your product
• Be wary of suggestions and make conscious
decisions of what fits

28. 3. Don’t be afraid to throw away good ideas
“Beauty is due more to harmonious
relationships among the elements of a
composition rather than to the elements
themselves.”
Page 28 - 101 Things I Learned in Architecture
School, Matthew Frederick, 2007

30. 4 Things
1. Be the hub
2. Claim the role of an architect
3. Don’t be afraid to throw away good ideas
4. Don’t break paradigms

31. 4. Don’t break paradigms
• Users are accustomed to them
• The time it takes to do a task decreases with
practice *1
Tn = T1*n-α
Tn: Time it takes to do a task for the nthtime
α : ranges from 0.2 to 0.6
• First time : 3 seconds
10th time : 0.75 seconds

32. 4. Don’t break paradigms
• Paradigms tend to be well researched
• Microsoft has collected 1.3 Billion sessions on
Office 2003.*5
• No need to reinvent a wheel researched a
million times over

33. Unless that’s your core feature
• Google Maps
– Click and drag to navigate within the map
– Continuous display of map data

34. Unless that’s your core feature
• iPhone
– No physical keyboard
– Direct manipulation of
interface with touch
screen

35. Open Debate
• They have
– a name “Architect” (officially, Registered Architect)
– well defined responsibilities and requirements
– education, experience and examination required
to become a licensed architect
– Architect Registration Examination (ARE)
• So what about us?

36. Poll questions
• Current Title
• Current Responsibilities
• What should it be?
– User Interface Designer
– User Experience Engineer
– Interaction Designer
– Information Architect …
• What regulations and standards do you think
we need?

37. References
1. MIT OCW Lecture Notes from User Interface Design and Implementation Class
http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-
Science/6-831Fall-2004/0A79F491-80BA-4E19-885C-1E7E481FA2A3/0/L4.pdf
2. Software Usability Research Laboratory Wichita State University
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/41/onlinetext.asp
3. Web Accessibility Tools Consortium
http://www.wat-c.org/tools/CCA/1.1/#what
4. 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick, 2007
5. Inside Deep Thought (Why the UI, Part 6 by Jensen Harris, Lead Program
Manager of Office
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/10/31/487247.aspx