Editor's Guide: how can experience designers communicate information well? In this article, the author introduces in detail the three levels of information transmission, the three factors affecting information transmission, and the design principles of information transmission at the interactive and visual levels, and recommends reading for groups who want to learn information transmission.
As an experience designer, the basic task is to deliver valuable information to users according to product goals and user needs, solve users' practical problems, and ultimately bring users a pleasant experience and enhance business value.
"Information transmission" is the first step of design. Only by effectively transmitting information can the user's operation behavior be further influenced.
Of course, in order to give users a better experience, in addition to clearly conveying the information at the business level, we also need to interact with users from the emotional level, and finally establish the product brand image in the hearts of users, so that users can form a more stable connection with the platform.
So how to do a good job in information transmission design?
The main contents of this paper include:Three levels of information transmissionThree factors affecting information transmissionDesign principles for information communication at interaction and visual levels.
1、 Three levels of information transmission
According to the five elements of experience design, the deep participation of designers is mainly concentrated in the structural layer, the framework layer and the performance layer, so the information transmission needs to include three levels of content.
1. Reasonable information architecture
The product information architecture is determined according to the positioning of the whole product. It is the most basic information transmission method of the product. The information architecture of different product types will vary greatly. The recent revision of didi has shown the impact of product positioning on information architecture.
The old version of didi app is more inclined to travel tools, and the information level is more flat. The travel choice is in the form of head tag, and the user can enter the corresponding page after switching, which is more efficient.
After the revision, Didi has been upgraded to a comprehensive platform, integrating orange heart optimization, financial management, takeout and other businesses. Therefore, the home page has added Jingang district as an entrance diversion, and the information architecture is deeper. At the same time, in order to support the "orange heart optimization" traffic, the content below the home page is all commodity display, which enables users to quickly purchase and place orders through direct purchase.
2. Effective content communication
The way of information transmission serves the content, and the form of expression needs to be determined according to the content. Information products are more in the form of "left text and right picture" titles, and even directly display content to guide users to browse and view. The user's behavior link is shorter and more efficient.
As there are many kinds of goods and more ways of playing, users need to know more when purchasing e-commerce products, so the link will be longer. In order to stimulate users' interest, the display of the page is mainly based on the display of product maps.
Pinduoduo has adopted an information structure similar to that of information products in order to shorten the link for users to reach commodities. Besides the Jingang district and key channel floors, the homepage directly displays commodity information, and adopts the "left picture and right text" method, so that users can understand commodity information more comprehensively, thus reducing users' decision-making costs and improving users' purchasing efficiency.
3. Strengthen emotional information
The highest goal of the product is to establish a stable connection with users and turn users into loyal users of the product. It is impossible to rely solely on design means, and comprehensive product value needs to be improved. However, at some nodes, the design level can give users a stronger perception. In specific scenarios, emotional expression is needed to narrow the distance between products and users.
The most typical is the "cool point" experience in the game. At key moments such as the upgrade and growth of user level, the killing of the other party in the game, and the victory of the battle, the positive emotions of users will be strengthened through sound effects and dynamic effects.
2、 Three factors affecting information transmission
Information communication is measured by the experience of the recipient, and corresponding experience design needs to be made closely around the needs, cognition and scenarios of users.
1. Match with user needs and habits
Whether it is the strategic upgrade of Alipay platform at the beginning of 2020, the revision of Taobao's home page that attracted widespread attention, or the revision and upgrade of didi this year, they are all improvements and optimizations based on the product strategic direction.
However, the user's core behaviors and habits are reserved to avoid too many negative experiences brought by the upgrade. For example, after the Alipay version is upgraded, "scan" and "receipt / payment" still occupy important page positions in the core operation area of the home page. Didi has moved from a travel tool to a platform, but transportation is still placed at the top of the page as the primary core function.
2. Match with the user's mental model
When the user makes corresponding actions according to the received information, he wants to see the content matching the information. Therefore, information transmission needs to conform to the user's "mental model".
For example, the promotion benefit copy of pinduoduo's money saving monthly card is "four 5 yuan no threshold vouchers". Therefore, when users enter the opening page of the money saving monthly card, the most important information display is four tile no threshold vouchers, so that the user's understanding cost is lower. At the same time, the exposure of the number of coupons strengthens the visual impact and ensures the prominent display of core rights and interests.
In some scenarios, when users can't judge the content of the page according to their previous "experience", information transmission needs to establish new cognition for users, which is also the reason why many operation activity pages will add headers. Through the transmission of rules or interest points, users can input new minds and enhance the atmosphere of activities.
3. Match with user scenarios
In key user nodes and scenarios, differentiated information needs to be transmitted to users in special ways, so as to establish new cognitive experiences for users.
In the member marketing scenario, Taobao 88vip aims to build the user's mind, improve the user's perception through the creation and reproduction of brand symbols, and put the card frame structure of the membership card at the front of the page, carrying the user's information, so that every user who enters the venue can clearly recognize his or her identity.
From aliababadesign
As an important time node of the membership system, JD plus annual membership ceremony adds dynamic effects to the head picture of the venue, forming a relatively different form of expression from ordinary venues, so as to better convey the exclusive sense of honor and value of plus members.
3、 Principles of information communication design at presentation level
The design principle of "information transmission" mainly has two dimensions - "transmission efficiency" and "reception effectiveness".
1. Information transmission at interaction level
(1) Explicit transmission of core information
From the business level, there may be a lot of information to be conveyed to users, but users' energy and patience are limited. After entering a page, users can't get valuable information quickly, and it's easy to choose to leave.
Therefore, it is necessary to extract the key and core interest points to present to users and convey the information to users in an orderly manner. Pinduoduo money saving monthly card, meituan takeout monthly card and Taobao money saving card are all presented with no threshold vouchers or discount vouchers to improve users' perception of "return" rights and interests. The form of coupon tile is used in the page display to strengthen the visual impact and ensure the rapid and effective communication of core rights and interests.
(2) Effectiveness of one screen space
The user's patience is limited, and all the information that exceeds the space of one screen may be ignored by the user, or the user may be unable to receive the information accurately because of his reduced energy. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the core information is exposed in one screen so that users can feel it.
(3) Graphical representation / data display
Compared with text, graphical display is more efficient, and quantitative display of data is easier to convey value and make users form more intuitive cognition.
(4) Collective information transmission
When there is a lot of information content, it is necessary to summarize and display the content by category, so as to reduce the memory burden of users. Taobao 88vip collects many rights and interests into four rights and interests collection points, which makes users' cognition easier and is more conducive to forming user memory points.
From aliababadesign
2. Visual information transmission
(1) Setting design style based on scene
E-commerce pages can be roughly divided into functional pages and operational pages.
Function pages exist for a long time and contain many function points. As a page that users visit daily, it is necessary to maintain stable and effective information transmission and avoid changes in the content channel of the page. Therefore, designers need to be "upright", fully consider users' browsing cognitive habits, and establish a clear information hierarchy.
If we blindly pursue visual expression, the full screen is full of colorful "highlights", which is definitely a challenge to the user's information reception. The operation page is a short-term activity page, which is more about the exposure of vouchers, commodities and brands.
For example, the activity pages of important promotion nodes such as "double 11", "618" and "double 12" need to enhance the atmosphere through innovative visual expression, which requires designers to "surprise". For example, a thicker interface background, more atmosphere elements, and so on.
(2) Follow the user's cognitive habits
Users have inherent cognitive habits, and spatial distance and visual elements will affect user cognition. Therefore, reasonable design schemes need to be made based on business needs and user habits during design.
For example, the well-known Gestalt theory ensures the simplicity and order of the page as much as possible, avoiding visual interference caused by unconventional design elements, generating too much information noise and affecting the transmission of information.
(3) Dynamic effect guides user's vision
Dynamic information is easier to attract the user's visual focus, but when there are multiple motion effects on the page at the same time, we need to pay attention to the rhythm of the motion effects to avoid the confusion of the user's vision caused by the simultaneous appearance.
Taobao home page dynamic effect
4、 Write at the end
Innovation is the pursuit of all designers. Unfortunately, innovation at the information transmission level needs to be user-oriented, and user habits and acceptability need to be fully considered to generate design value. Otherwise, innovative design may become a noise in information transmission.
#Columnist#
Mr. Zi mu. Official account: Zimu uXD (hellodesign), everyone is a product manager columnist. Product experience designer. With 8 years of experience in the Internet industry, he is good at experiential design thinking, design methodology and interaction design research.
This article was originally published by Renren. Everyone is a product manager. Reprinting is prohibited without permission.
The picture is from unsplash and based on cc0 protocol
