ABSTRACT
With this chapter, the aesthetic design of our system steps into the limelight. Being firmly ensconced in the era of the screen-based interface, our discussion is understandably visually focused, but we recognized the rapid emergence of the screenless interface in natural language systems and IoT. So we have disbanded with the hegemony of the screen and allow aesthetic considerations for these to grace the stage as well. As with our chapters on interface and microinteractions, we approach this chapter as a series of principles or considerations rather than a stepwise process.
Our discussion includes principles such as modularity, separation, negative space, hierarchy, and flow. We address layout and visual structure, including grids, proximity, alignment, uniformity, and hierarchy. We discuss the importance of flow and how it affects our arrangement of a design. We present how human psychology makes concepts such as progressive disclosure and calls to action important. We delve into issues of context such as ergonomics, liquid layouts, the fold, and responsive design. We also cover the need to reduce; to make things simpler instead of more complex.
Once we’ve used these principles to arrive at a design that reaches our high standards, we apply that style across our primary use case and all contexts reflected in it. We refine those contexts, create a style guide, use that guide on a few more interfaces in order to test it, and then begin the process of applying that aesthetic to all the interfaces in our system, which is addressed in the next chapter. We take our prototypes to yet another level through the introduction of experience prototypes, how they can be built and how they can be used in the process of assessing and communicating a design.
