Any UX/UI Designers?

[Taheerj]

I'm greatly in need of a User Experience Designer or User Interface Designer to give me some professional advice for a final year project for university.

I'm designing an app which will make a specific task an easy process with the high accessibility of a smart phone. Im all good on the visual design side of things. Its just the actual User Experience or Interface which is confusing.

My question is what techniques and methods do you recommend for planning a User Experience? Flowcharts? Diagrams? A written outline of the process? Or anything you don't mind sharing with me.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Paul Murray]

I find flow charts, and wire frames the most helpful. With the flow chart I can see the "flow" (who'd have thought it) of the app or website, so I can show which pages are linked to which others. Look at something like Mind Meister for creating your flow chart and just getting a good visual overview of how the pages and content are linked.

Wireframes are good for visualising layout and functionality once you know what content you have. It's also a quick and easy way of working out how you're going to show/hide content and transition between it. I do pen and paper wireframes at the early stages, then work these up in Fireworks, then transfer them to Photoshop as a pixel-perfect design that I can give to a developer.