Design   Get a FREE Expert Analysis of Your Site! Have our team of multi-disciplinary professionals comb through your site for free. You'll get an unbiased opinion, as well as some ideas for easy improvement. Do it Now!   The Design phase entails the translation of the Requirements Document into a concrete Design Specification. How we get there depends upon the size and complexity of the project.   Experience makes us efficient If the site is to be a standard web site we apply known best practices to the design components. If the audience or domain has standard terminology we apply it-we never spend our clients' money reinventing the wheel.   And humble However, a deep knowledge of best practices may not be enough. For web applications, or non-standard web sites, Onlinefocus uses an iterative, user-centric methodology to design to achieve the most usable interface possible for your intended audience. Design concepts are elaborated as prototypes and tested with the target audience. By testing concepts, interface components, and navigation strategies early in the design process, any problematic design issues are identified and addressed before significant development work has been done.   An iterative process The Process steps are not conducted in a linear sequence. Instead, they are interwoven and revisited in a controlled feedback loop, ensuring forward progress while allowing for iterative improvements. Consequently, the design process becomes a disciplined progression through a set of increasingly refined prototypes until both Onlinefocus and The client are satisfied that the application is highly usable for the targeted end-user groups, and ready for implementation. The Interactive design process culminates in the visual design concepts (comps)   Typical Process Components Task Flows Detailed Use Cases Exception Cases Screen Flows Navigation System HTML Prototyping Exploratory Usability Testing User Interaction Design Visual Design Comps Global Functional Specifications   Navigation System A very early priority in the Design phase is to define the set of conventions for navigating through the website or application. Both the interaction model and the visual design of the navigation system must be defined.   Site Architecture In light of the approved navigation system for the site, a complete site organization plan is created, showing the proposed structure of the site from both a user experience model and from a technical implementation model.   Exploratory Usability Testing A usability prototype may be developed for testing with the target audience. Often a series of small tests are conducted, each one informing the next iteration of the prototype. Typical components that may be tested include: rough mockups of interface components, component names and labels, screen flows, error messaging, navigation design, work-flow, and page content hierarchies. If the project schedule precludes final a usability test we will also test the visual design for most important aspects of interface.   Visual Design & HTML Prototypes Onlinefocus creates a set of JPEG mockups illustrating the recommended visual designs for the web site. Onlinefocus collaborates with the client to select the best visual approach, and then submits revised mockups of key screens. After the revised mockups are approved, they are converted into HTML prototypes for final approval of the visual design.   Design Deliverables A complete design specification for the web site or application is defined and made available on the project extranet. It is composed of the interaction design, and, for software, functional specifications and prototypes.   User Interaction Design The interaction design is based upon the agreed upon navigation system, visual design, and site organization. Wire frame mockups are developed for all high-level pages, all functional pages, and all content page templates. Any complex user tasks are illustrated by task flow diagrams.   Global Functional Specifications The global functional specifications define the general parameters to be used for data fields, backend processes, error conditions, application architecture, and other performance conditions. These specifications also describe any technology required by the client to satisfy the design assumptions.   Functional Prototypes One or more functional prototypes is built to test the most crucial or risky areas of functionality. These prototypes are intended to simulate selected aspects of the planned dynamic behavior. For maximum efficiency, "rapid prototypes" are usually employed rather than highly detailed, high-cost prototypes. Any of several distinct techniques may be used to construct these rapid prototypes.   Knowledge from analysis of research is synthesized into work models and design concepts. Next:     Development         © 1996-2006 Onlinefocus, Inc. | Contact Us | A UCI Web Group Company. All rights reserved.