metaphor's experience design is driven by consideration of the "moments of engagement" -- touchpoints -- between people and brands, and the ideas, emotions, and memories that these moments create. commercial experience design is also known as experiential marketing, customer experience design, and brand experience. our designers are tasked to identify existing touchpoints and create new ones, and then to score the arrangement of these touchpoints so that they produce the desired outcome.
user interface design encompasses services sometimes called "interaction design" or "user experience design."
user interface design is about making sure that people can easily accomplish desired tasks while on websites or using applications. is navigation intuitive? is content accessible? does a shopping or bill paying process actually work? traditionally, interface design focuses almost exclusively on this kind of functionality. and, while classic design is a metaphor hallmark, over the years we've broadened our capabilities to encompass customers' expectations, desires, and/or experience with competing products.
A METAPHOR USER INTERFACE DESIGN ENGAGEMENT CAN INCLUDE:
community + business audit - we rapidly gather information and metrics relating to people using an interface and also to the operational and brand goals of that interface.
community profiling + persona development - we drill down into end-user behavior, constructing scenarios that describe how people interact with a system, and even building personas that detail "who" a given user is based on their needs and behavior (rather than just demographics). personae may have names and qualities - or they may just be general "types" (e.g. "topic diver") - and are constructed to help clients link business goals with user priorities.
interaction strategy - often in parallel to persona development, we model the entire experience that surrounds and involves an interface. this is usually a document that links community insights with competitive considerations, content typology, branding attributes and business implications - and distills this into a high-level design recommendation.
design requirements - coming out of a client-approved interaction strategy, it's vital to document all the elements and functions associated with new architecture. this codification prevents subsequent design from overlooking key user, system, and business requirements.
wireframes - clients receive paper- or screen-based schematics that de-emphasize graphic design (branded colors, illustrations, images) in favor of categories of information. the purpose of a wireframe is to display all a page's elements (links, advertising inventory, text, images) and make it clear how they fit and work together. sometimes wireframes will be accompanied by schematics of navigation flows.
user interface specifications + style guides - metaphor builds an "instruction manual" that explains how to use the wireframes and requirements to actually render a given interface. no detail is left out, such that a development team could actually take over the job from this point and create both a usable and a beautiful site. alternatively, specifications can be used for vendor selection - they can be disseminated as part of an RFP and pricing can be compared on an apples-to-apples basis. metaphor itself, of course, can complete the process of visual design and site development too.
