About this book#
Welcome to the User Interfaces Workbook! This workbook catalogues additional resources and valuable skills that you can learn as an Interaction Designer through workable tasks and activities focused on UI Design skills and the Interaction Design process. The tasks in this book started as individual worksheets provided to students of this course as homework activities. After feedback from students and tutors they are now available to all students as a side activity they can print and take with them to learn from in future or during their time in this course. Hopefully the hard work that has gone into making these activities proves helpful to you on your journey learning Interaction Design!
User Interface Design, or UI for short, makes up the second component of Interaction Design. You most likely have already encountered the term UI/UX or User Interfaces/User Experiences. This is a general term often used to refer to the work interaction designers are tasked with. Remember, the UI aspect of an interface is incomplete without the UX!
UI Design is the more fun and vibrant side of interaction design! You will need skills in visual communication such as Graphic Design, Publication Design, Animation, and Object Design in order to make the best of this skill requirement. Tasks in this workbook will cover a range of topics from best practices in layouts to principles of UI design. Many of the topics will be covered in other visual design subjects such as Graphic Design, and thus the tasks in this section all assume you have a fundamental knowledge of visual communication methods.
Do I have to complete these tasks?#
No, you don’t have to complete the tasks in this book to pass this course. These worksheets are provided as additional learning and you are recommended to pick and choose the skills you would like to learn or improve.
Note, your class tutor may recommend completing or assign some activities as homework.
How to read this book#
Each page in this book is a task that can be attempted to learn a core skill required of Interaction Designers. There are multiple workbooks provided for different core skills: User Experience Design (UX), User Interface Design (UI), Usability Testing, and Prototyping. To attempt a task or if you have been assigned one by your tutor, navigate to the appropriate section number (e.g. Design of the Desktop) using the menu and read through the task. Some tasks may come with additional readings, software to download, questions to answer, and links will be provided where possible. As you complete tasks from this workbook, remember to keep track in your process journals as any activity you do will count towards participation in your course.
Let us know if this was helpful!#
Do remember let us know if this workbook was helpful or if any of the tasks need updating. This course and its content are always being improved based on student feedback. The best way to provide feedback is through the MyExperience survey at the end of term, but you can also contact your friendly course convenor!