Get In Their Heads, pt. 2: Focus

Posted November 4th, 2009 / By Jonathan Cutrell in Best Practices, Discussions, Research, Usability

Today we will continue our mini-series, Get in there Heads, with a simple question: What’s the big idea?

By answering this question, we can understand a lot about how we should go about designing interfaces. What is the big idea? In other words, if I had one user who interacted with my interface, what is it that I want them to do? And, perhaps more importantly, who is that one person? So we see a clear two-part separation.

• Who are they?
• What do I want them to do?

These two questions will help you maintain FOCUS. What is focus? Well, back to the dictionary for this one. A few great definitions for focus:

1. A center of interest or activity
2. Close or narrow attention; concentration
3. A condition in which something can be clearly apprehended or perceived

Why, then, is focus important to you as an interface designer? More often than not, interface designers are faced with a set of goals. This series looks at getting into their heads; a part of this is understanding that each person’s head (way of thinking and living) is different, and usually very specified. Since the globalization of information, people are able to and often do consume very different forms of media than their immediate colleagues and friends. This means that every person, no matter where they live, has a specific makeup. It is your job to understand what kinds of people will be using your interface, and make the interface most accessible to that group.

Do you see the ties yet? Let me paraphrase.

Since your audience is specific, your interface will be specific. The way you achieve this specificity is through proper focus. The way you achieve proper focus is through understanding both the makeup of the ideal user who will be using your interface and what you want them to do with the interface.

Using the information of each of these separate considerations will supplement the other. So, you’re designing an investment query site aimed at small businesses? You know then that your audience won’t be high school or college students. You also know that the purpose behind the interface isn’t to provide a social networking platform. Instead, you can probably narrow your audience to small business owners or prospective business owners; you can also decide the most efficient way the user can complete an investment query.

Obvious, right? The truth is, there are many, many interfaces that try to infuse other purposes into their original purpose. This only waters down the effectiveness of the interface, and causes the user to become disinterested, annoyed and frustrated, or sidetracked.

A point of clarification…

This doesn’t mean, necessarily, that your interface has to be limited to only one purpose or one audience. The point is, be careful to make sure that the purpose is clearly defined, and that you stay focused on that purpose.

Conclusion

Whew, that’s a lot of reading. Basically, what we are trying to say is this.

• Your interface should have a specific purpose or purposes
• Your audience should also be specific
• Because of these two things, you must keep your interface focused and specific to your audience and purpose

Hopefully you got something out of this post! Feel free to comment and let us know how you keep your interface design focused.