How do you come up with a UI design layout of a complex application?

Question

Am just wondering how do companies/individuals come up with nice UI design for there complex web applications, eg. Myspace, facebook, linkedin etc. When i say complex i mean, this apps handle many different pieces of information, yet the way they present it to the user is pretty simple and friendly.

The only approach i use is to look at what others have done then try copy some nice design styles, but am wondering did they also copy the design from some other places or they do it from scratch?

Is there a utility out there you can use to lay out your web app UI so that you can quickly visualize what you want to build?

PS: Am a programmer and not a designer, but i if can do the designing with little pain i don't mind doing both.

gath

Answer 1

They hire a designer.

If you want to experiment with designs though, have a look at Balsamiq.

Answer 2

There are a lot of Usability experts out there, and not all of them even had a IT-education. There are also people who studied languages, art,... You have to keep in mind that a good design is more than just the way it looks. There has to be an idea behind it. Users must be able to understand it.

A good design is a design which is easy to understand and navigate for people who've never seen it before. Major companies often do usabilitytesting by letting people use their software/website to do some specified tasks. By looking at what the user does, when trying to perform a task, they can see where the user goes wrong and what they can do to make their software/website more clear.

Tests show that by testing your software on 10 persons, you'll find about 90% of what's wrong with your current design.

Answer 3

You can try Paper Prototyping.

See details on this SO question (How Can Paper Prototyping Help in Development?).

Answer 4

Forget the complexity of underlying data and think as a user about how you want to interact with the application.

Then iterate with this quote in mind:

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. —Antoine De Saint Exupery

Answer 5

There are certain guidelines to follow.

• Site logo should be prominent in the top left.
• Navigation items should be prominently along the top or the left hand side.
• Keep text to a minimum - Users will not read this and it will just clutter the site.
• Colours, use a maximum of three. Make sure they dont clash.

The list goes on.

Dont make me think is an excellent book to read about all of this.

Go Mockingbird is a site you can use to mock up a site quickly.

Then user testing. Lots of user testing will help to identify the areas that people have difficulty working out and the areas the users use the most - so should be more prominent.

Sites like facebook are constantly changing / evolving in response to user needs. Facebook keeps track of every link you click which they use to design the next iteration. No one gets it perfect... perhaps there is no perfect other than constantly adapting to your users needs (although that can really annoy users if done too much - there needs to be a balance)..