Buttons?
Aug 2021 - Apr 2022
Thesis, Design Research, Critical Inquiry
Designed by: Lin Tsai Wei
Supervised by: Clement Zheng
PROJECT SUMMARY
My thesis research investigated our relationships with user interface (UI) buttons, and questions the nature of these buttons. I then proposed a new approach to designing these buttons. Finally, I developed a website and built an unconventional button maker tool to introduce this new design approach.
RESEARCH
Common UI buttons can be categorised into Expansion, Navigation, and Tool. I chose to focus on Navigation type buttons.
I also looked into the common ways people interact with these buttons and how the buttons communicate information to us.
BUTTONS AS DOORS?
"Click to enter"—Navigation buttons transport us from one virtual environment to another. What if we think about buttons as doorways? And if buttons were doors, then what is a click? I broke down a click into four steps and compared it to the process of crossing through a doorway.
If we were to approach the design of a simple click like a user journey, what kind of buttons could we create?
BUTTON MAKER
To demonstrate this new approach to designing UI buttons, I developed an unconventional button maker for designers and developers to explore the possibilities of the new messages and experiences that buttons could bring.
The website also has a conventional button maker to highlight the contrast between the current approach and the new approach to designing UI buttons. Current designs are often confined by the attribute-filling approach, concerned largely with the appearance of the button.
The library provides possible use cases, where unconventional buttons could convey new messages or add a twist to a familiar user experience.
And finally...
