Viewfarm - User Interface Design

Interaction (user interface) Design

Projects
Here are links to some examples of our interaction design. Click on the images to the right to learn more about our television, touch screen and computer chip projects.

UI for TV

Euphonix

LSI Logic

Veodia

Pictures
Here are the some UI pictures. Click on any of them to see more pictures.

Story When I worked at Microsoft, our design and usability group visited IDEO where some nice folks described their method of product design.
	Interview and observe users and identify their goals and the barriers to meeting them.
	Invent solutions, brainstorm, play with ideas, and get messy cause the good stuff happens that way.
	Pick the best ideas and refine them into a product with the business and user goals in mind.
	Do the detailed specifications.
	Go make the hardware.

It made complete sense, but I had to laugh. That's exactly the opposite of how we were working. Here was our process at Microsoft.
	Make the hardware because it takes so long.
	Start writing the software because that takes a long time too.
	Write the design spec.
	Build the user interface.
	Show it to people to find out what's wrong.
We were short changing the user and wasting a lot of time and money building products that were shots in the darkness of hubris. (Actually I don't remember IDEO's exact process, but the story is true, especially the opposite part.) Below, in a little more detail, is what we do at Viewfarm. We like to define these steps in terms of goals. That way you have some measure of success.

Download ProductDesignSteps.pdf

A note about personas
Some of the products of customer research are "personas," user profiles developed with information gained through user (customer) interviews and observations.

It's very tempting to design a product with me in mind, or some vague notion about grandma or Joe Sixpack. In contrast, a useful persona contains specific information about specific people including their goals. For example, one of Charlotte's goals is to keep herself occupied, as much as possible.

In our work for a television client, Charlotte was one of five "primary" personas we developed. The product we designed to meet her goals was very different from those we designed to meet the goals of the other personas. Download TVG_personas.pdf for more details.

"Monday night is choir practice and Tuesday is dinner with my friends - Fraser, Niles and Daphne."

Charlotte
Single Divorcee
Age: 56
Job: Assistant Manager
Salary $34K
Place: Sav-Mart in St. Louis, MO

... thinks Video On Demand seems like a great idea, but they never say when it's on.