“Mass society and mass media theory, which evolved from the 1920s, led to the concepts of mass audiences and mass markets which have been pre-eminent paradigms in media research and the public sphere throughout much of the twentieth century.
Macnamara, J. Beyond voice: audience-making and the work and architecture of listening as new media literacies. In ‘Continuum. 2013. DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2013.736950
However, as far back as 1927, John Dewey argued that thinking of people as a mass or aggregate is not useful in understanding how communication or society works. In 1958, noted British sociologist Raymond Williams wrote in Culture and Society: ‘There are in fact no masses; only ways of seeing people as masses’. Even when people are forced to become part of a large ‘viewing public’, they remain agentic individuals each interpreting and sometimes resisting content and messages.”
“What are referred to as ‘new media’ and ‘social media’ have provided plurality and plenty in voice, but lead to the breakup of mass audiences preassembled through traditional media concentration, regulation and mass marketing – a phenomenon referred to by various authors as ‘demassification’, ‘fragmentation’ or ‘atomisation’.” Macnamara, J. Beyond voice: audience-making and the work and architecture of listening as new media literacies. In ‘Continuum. 2013. DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2013.736950
So how do we identify, begin to understand and connect with our intended users and audience? UX (user experience) – in design and technology promotes an iterative process of developing and adjusting digital media projects to user needs and experiences. This process relies on watching, listening, talking and modifying the digital artefact accordingly to the user’s interactions.
Image: https-//medium.com
UX is about letting the validation of hypotheses guide the work of the development of the digital artefact. This implies that we don’t make decisions based on their preferences. A hypothesis might read like this: “I believe that persona A has a need to do (or a desire to know) XYZ”. Simply stating what you think isn’t enough, it’s helps to identify something concrete that can be tested and validated.
Image: https-//www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/03/guide-user-testing/
UX is driven by 3 basic stages: think, make and check. This process is not linear, and UX tends to happen through a cycle where you develop and refine your project based on what you learn through the user’s experience.
Aspects of the think stage involve: • Research • Ideation • Sketches • Storyboards
Make involves designing a prototype. As we saw in topic 9 - a rapid prototype might be a lowfidelity wireframe or a rough black and white sketch of the structure of your digital project. • Prototypes • Wireframes
Check is where you test your prototype with your audience and validate or invalidate it, taking your newfound knowledge back to the think stage to start over again. It’s important to consider that you won’t be testing an advanced interactive prototype. Testing starts with using the part of the product that was created in the previous step. Be it a navigation system or the information architecture.
10 Usability tips for User Interface Design Jakob Nielsen’s (https://www. nngroup.com/ ) 10 general principles for interaction design.
#1: Visibility of status The interface should always keep users informed about what is going on. When users know the current system status, they learn the outcome of their prior interactions and determine next steps. Example: “You Are Here” indicators on mall maps have to show people where they currently are, to help them understand where to go next.
#2: Match between interface and the real world The design should speak the users’ language. Use words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than specialised jargon. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order. The way you should design depends very much on your specific users. Terms, concepts, icons, and images that seem perfectly clear to you and your colleagues may be unfamiliar or confusing to your users.
#3: User control and freedom Users often perform actions by mistake. They need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted action without having to go through an extended process. #4: Consistency and standards Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing.
#5: Error prevention Good error messages are important, but the best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place. #6: Recognition rather than recall Minimize the user’s memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another. Information required to use the design (e.g. field labels or menu items) should be visible or easily retrievable when needed.
#7: Flexibility and efficiency of use Shortcuts — hidden from novice users — may speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the design can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
#8: Aesthetic and minimalist design Interfaces should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in an interface competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility. #9: Help users recognise, diagnose, and recover from errors Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no error codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution. These error messages should also be presented with visual treatments that will help users notice and recognise them.
#10: Help and documentation It’s best if the system doesn’t need any additional explanation. However, it may be necessary to provide documentation to help users understand how to complete their tasks. Help and documentation content should be easy to search and focused on the user’s task. Keep it concise, and list concrete steps that need to be carried out.