• product means designing something that sells and creating something that's right for your customers by completely understanding what they feel, what they think and what they want

Chapter 4 - User Interfaces Begin with Words

• As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product
• Apple was revolutionary in that it saw computers as an appliance, not as a business machine, but for that to happen, the computers had to be easier to use
• the success of product design depends on understanding the human and the capabilities of the machine
• the design of the UI starts with copy, a list of things what the user will do to achieve their goals and how system will respond ← informed by pain matrix and all the user research, it’s also quicker than designing
• words are building blocks of all interfaces, interface is just a set of tasks driven by words and symbols, they all get your closer to who and why of the product, as oppose to how and what (users don’t care what’s inside of the box as long as the box does what they need done)
• 3 keys step to write out an UI
  • map out the sequences of interactions - flows
  • for each screen of the flow list components needed
  • write the actual copy for the screen, no Lorem Ipsum
• creating user flows (an example of Rowling’s spreadsheet) - just like outlining story, your characters and subplots, screen flow needs to be smooth and logical
• important also where people are starting from, assumptions about your customers etc.
• also helps to open the lines of communication open with the rest of the team, pays of to be the most verbose
• best to start at the essence of the product, most essential flow first, everything else secondary (e.g. snapchat the app open cameras the first - content creation the most encouraged flow)
• An example Canary: of creating user flow with TextEdit (no possibility for visual design) and then raw HTML pages (obvious when page overloaded or not linear)
• flows allow to quickly map out the whole journey, how parts related and what can and needs to be prototyped and looked at from technical perspective
• important to always keep moving along and refine later - first idea will always be shit
• after flows, you should write out your screens - list everything that needs to be included in your screen, doesn’t have to be in order, should be more and not less, you can add a drawing of the interface
• writing and sketching interface allows you to weed out bad ideas before you invest to much, and allows to flesh copy - an important interface element