User Interface Blueprints are critical to building highly successful consumer technology. They define the user's experience and enable developers to ship on time and keep engineering costs down. When done right, your business, marketing, audience and engineering requirements are distilled into a unified and comprehensive user interaction plan - the UI Blueprint.
MONKEYmedia makes the incomparable User Interface Blueprints that make great products possible.
MONKEYmedia's expertise in interaction design and usability analysis, along
with our time-proven project management methodology, ensures that collaboration
between our teams will result in products that are both easy to use and fully
engaging.
Partnering with MONKEYmedia will help ensure that the user interface design and development of your product goes smoothly. Together, we can determine the right way to integrate our finely-honed design methodology into your way of doing business.
Our Design Process utilizes five methods which we use in different combinations during the different phases of the Project Lifecycle. This process results in a number of discrete deliverables. Depending on your needs and timeline, we'll employ the combination of methods that gives the best results. For a full introduction to the MONKEYmedia Way of User Interface Design please visit the HTML FRAMES or ULTRASENSORY versions of our website.
Design Methods
Understand
We work with your business, marketing and engineering teams to achieve understanding
of all aspects of the project that impact the user experience. By listening
carefully to what you already know, and by conducting additional studies when
appropriate, we gain a multifaceted view that is essential to great interaction
design. Our Requirements Analysis Document records this knowledge and serves
as a reference throughout the design process. It also sets the stage for measuring
success at the end of the project.
Invent
At the heart of our design process is the invention of coherent breakthrough solutions. Here, applied creativity reigns. The major components of your product's interface - the information architecture, interaction techniques and sensory styling - are formulated and explored. We use a variety of collaborative improvisation activities to inspire ideas, and we employ standard tools such as interactive concept storyboards, flow diagrams and rapid prototypes to facilitate communication.
Validate
At key junctures and decision-making points, we take extra steps to ensure that
the proposed interaction and architectural foundations are sound. Our methods
range from informal to scientific, and include tools such as walkthroughs, heuristic
evaluations, focus groups and usability studies. Each provides information to
fuel refinement. Ego has no place in great interface design. And we make sure
of this by turning validation over to our own impartial usability experts.
Refine
Great designs rarely show themselves the first time around. Rather, they require
managed evolution. With feedback from our validation processes, we ensure that
important issues are addressed before your engineers start coding. Occasionally,
unforeseen circumstances arise while the product is being built. Through participation
in the change management process, we collaborate with you in assessing risk
and designing fixes consistent with the target user experience.
Communicate
Cross-team dialog is essential and ongoing. Meetings and informal communications
among project members are just the beginning. Our secure extranet hosts not
only deliverables, but all works-in-progress and key decision transcripts. The
Requirements Analysis Document is the deliverable that codifies design parameters,
and the Functional Specifications Document equips your development team with
design details - from navigation maps, screen schematics and sensory style guidelines,
to interaction definitions and scenario-based use cases.
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Requirements Analysis
The Requirements Analysis document summarizes the findings from the Understanding
process. It distills program and communication goals, critiques prior art, identifies
appropriate implementation technology, and sets forth broad design options and
challenges.
Functional Specification
The Functional Specification document provides the details of design in at least
four different ways. Navigation Maps define the information architecture. Screen
Schematics, done as wire frames, detail the interface layouts in a blueprint-like
format. Interaction Definitions specify how components of the screen layouts
behave, as well as other details of interaction functionality.
Use Cases
Use Cases comprise a deliverable set that is critical to validation and production.
Use Cases show how sample interactions (both typical and atypical) flow through
the system, including the state of the interface at each step.
Media Specification
For some projects, we also create Media Specifications, style guidelines & media
templates, which provide details about sensory components in visual, auditory,
and sometimes tactile forms.
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Discovery
Discovery utilizes all of our processes except invention. During this phase,
the majority of the work focuses on collecting information (through Understanding)
and embodying that information in the Requirements Analysis document. Validation
and Refinement also come into play to help us determine if we are on the right
track.
Ideation
The majority of the creative work is done during this phase, using prototyping
and testing to help us refine and validate the ideas. As the solution takes
shape, the beginnings of the design are recorded in the UI prototype.
Definition
The details of the design are elaborated, validated, refined and documented
in the final UI prototype and Functional Specification document.
Stewardship
Stewardship is our way of maintaining design integrity throughout development,
by participating in the change management process. Unforeseen obstacles can
arise during development that may require changes that impact the design. Through
stewardship, we are able to ensure that any design changes take into account
the whole user experience.
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