Distinction and Trends

1. UI/UX
Distinction and Trends
Ankur Sharma
Digital Media, HCI and Innovation enthusiast.
Hello! this is me, Ankur Sharma. This is my fourth on a series of public talk on HCI related
issues. This talk was delivered at Developer meet. This talk is about UX, few distinction, tips
and trends.

2. UI Vs UX
So, how do we differentiate between the two? Ritesh Dai (@ormt) helped me figure out the
true distinction between them :)

3. U ARE WITH ME = UI
If you are with me, then it is U and I hence UI

4. U ARE WITH UR EX = UX
If you are with your ex then it is U and X hence UX ... :D ... well, I guess if it was that simple!
Let me elaborate it.

5. USER INTERFACE 1
I wanted to buy a pack of gum, I went to this shop. Pretty good interface with neatly
organized stuffs, I could actually see the gums I wanted. But no sign of shopkeeper! I waited
for a minute and left.

6. USER INTERFACE 2
The stuffs in another shop nearby wasn’t pretty organized, but the shopkeeper greeted me
with big smile and while he searched through the pack of gum (which took some time) he
kept his conversation.

7. USER INTERFACE 3
I could have also walked few steps nearby to a shopping center where I could choose gum
myself and pay at the counter.

8. WHICH ONE DO YOU
PREFER?
Well it depends upon the context what you are choosing, but mostly it is all about ...

9. INTERACTION
... Interaction. Preference largely depends upon the interaction rather than interface alone.
Same task (buying a pack of gum) can be presented through same UI but different UX or
different UI and UX altogether.

10. WHY DEVELOPER?
But why do developer need to concern themselves over the user experience?

11. WHY NOT DESIGNER?
Isn’t it the designer who are concerned about how it looks? Isn’t UI/UX a designer job?

12. UI=VIEWS
Well partly yes if you are concerned on look and feel or the views of the program. If you
consider only how all products are arranged in front end. But ...

13. MODEL
+
VIEWS
+
CONTROLLER
UX =
Since you are talking about overall experience of the program, it goes beyond views, it
concerns with all layer of development.

14. MODEL
+
VIEWS
+
CONTROLLER
+
UX = USER FLOW
+
FEATURES
+
PERSONALITY
Beyond that, it also concerns how user are using the program and what features are available.
It defines the personality of the program in overall.

15. UX IS A SCIENCE
User Experience and User Experience design is a science, with proper processes and
standards. It is applied science.

16. UX IS (PSYCHOLOGY+ENGINEERING)
It is amalgamation of study of human behavior and engineering of product or a program. It is
major section of Human Computer Interaction study at large.

17. DEVELOPER THINKS SYSTEM
Developers are always thinking about the system and how it works and how to make things
work on a system, solve a problem through programming.

18. UX EXPERT THINKS USER
whereas Usability or User experience expert is concerned on how user behaves with the
system.

19. DEVELOPER THINKS TECHNICAL
FLOW
Developer designs program and it’s functional block over the technical flow of data and
tasks. They optimize over best performance of the system.

20. UX EXPERT THINKS USER
INTERACTION
while UX expert ponders over the user interaction and how user perform their task using the
system. They present optimization for best user experience and more usable system.

21. WHY UX IS IMPORTANT?
Which basically concerns over input and output, just the perspective and approach are
different. But why is UX so important? Why not design good program from system
perspective?

22. WE DESIGN FOR SYSTEM
That would be true if we design for the system. But ...

23. WE DESIGN FOR SYSTEM
We do not design for the system ...

24. WE DESIGN FOR USER
We design for user (not even for the client or project manager, let them know). Hence it is
crucial for user to have good experience (for retention, usability and recommendation hence
more profit)

25. WHY DEVELOPER?
But why developer need to concern over user experience? Shouldn’t developer just focus on
coding?

26. DEVELOPER IS DESIGNER
Developer need to focus over user experience because they are the designer.

27. DEVELOPER IS UX DESIGNER
Developer is concerned over the process flow and hence user experience.

28. WITH
At the same time developers need to garner one more quality to become good UX designer.

29. EMPATHY
Empathy towards end user is necessary.

30. DOUBLY SO IN OUR CONTEXT
UX orientation in developer is essential in our context.

31. Because we have limited time, resources and skilled manpower. Our startup starts with
developers with similar set of programming skill but little orientation in Human centric
design.

32. TIPS
Here are the few tips for developer or startup which would be useful and costs little or
nothing at all to implement.

33. TURN OFF
go outside, find and interact with your user
Get away from your computer and get closer to prospective user, interact with user to find
their everyday frustration with similar product or talk about expectation from such product.
Know your user.

34. STORY
how will user use the system? when? why?
understand how the users intend to use your system, how that can be achieved or efficiently
and effectively managed. Don’t build upon limited perspective, try to get the bigger picture
and simplify it in everyday usages story.

35. PROTOTYPE
pen and paper are enough
draw the rough sketch of your program, how the program is intended to be used and how the
service is intended to be delivered. Review it, explain it to user and peer. Get feedback and
incorporate it before actually coding.

36. TRENDS
After some seemingly simple tips, let us talk about the future trends in UX. I will start with
simple story...

37. BRAIN PIZZA
I was walking down the road on a place I was visiting for first time and suddenly I started
thinking about nearest pizza places and their price and ratings, after choosing one mentally I
started visualizing the direction to the place ... then realized I was hungry.

38. IT’S HAPPENING
Is it possible to have such experience through computers of future? Solve the problem even
before we know it’s existence and directly integrated with out thought process? Well
something is happening now.

39. These different devices are contender to solve such complex problem and present with
interaction experience of future, they exists now but they are largely fragmented or at their
infancy. But possibilities are there.

40. 2013
Well, enough of futurism! Let’s speak about few UX trends that might prevail through 2013.

41. DATA SURGERY
Intelligent Abstraction and Downsampling
Facebook is on graph search, Yahoo! bought summly, Twitter bought summify, Google
bought Wavii and other companies are working or buying companies related to data
abstraction, presentation and downsampling. It is sure that these products will shine through
2013

42. STORYTELLING
Faceted media and prominent visual media
http://futureofcarsharing.com
This site present interesting visual navigation through horizontal scrolling, many similar sites
will go mainstream. The faceted video with annotation, advance external tag and big visual
media across the page will appear prominently. Popcorn.js and similar service will provide
multimedia storytelling exposure to user throughout 2013.

43. NATURAL UX
communication/language augmentation
More of siri like service will prevail, gesture and non-touch interaction will also appear.
Google now will vastly improve and be integral part of use. Natural communication and
interaction will prevail among program and interfaces.

44. FLAT(T)ERY
dying skeuomorphism and gradients
Skeuomorphism will be slowly overtaken by more smart, usable and flat design. The design
will be content oriented and gradients, eye candy will slowly disappear. Flat but aesthetically
pleasing and meaningful design will take over.

45. OMNISIVENESS
beyond responsiveness. Experience, not only interface
Not only the interface will be responsive but the experience across the medium will be similar
as well.

46. LEAN UX
active ethnography, less deliverables, on-fly amendments
The process of UX design will grow to be more efficient with Lean UX where more focus will
be given to actual experience design and less focus on deliverables.

47. INTERFACE
dawn of interface-less interactions
The best interface is no interface at all. 2013 will dawn an era of interface-less interaction
with more integrated design approach and more interaction oriented device with modern
sensors.

48. BUT WHO KNOWS THE FUTURE?
WE CAN ONLY PREDICT IT OR
INVENT IT.
Technology is growing exponentially, we can never predict the future correctly. These are just
calculated speculation or educated guess. The best way is to get involve in designing for the
future.

49. DON’T JUST FOLLOW THE TRENDS,
SET YOUR OWN TREND.
-Swami Ankuranand
In the end I would like to thank you all for giving me opportunity to talk on these issues. I
would like to end my session with this quote.