{"id":393,"date":"2015-02-05T20:15:48","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T19:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.f1arquitectura.com\/blog\/?p=393"},"modified":"2015-03-03T15:13:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T14:13:37","slug":"applying-architecture-to-product-design-lesson-1-circulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.f1arquitectura.com\/blog\/applying-architecture-to-product-design-lesson-1-circulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Applying Architecture to Product Design: Lesson 1 \u2013 Circulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lesson1\"<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on the Percolate Blog<\/a> by Melissa Mandelbaum<\/a>.
<\/a><\/font><\/em><\/p>\n

In spring of 2009, I graduated from architecture school. At the time, the post-recession economy was rough and not much was happening for architects. With an interest in entrepreneurship and technology, I took a risk and decided to try working at a tech startup. Much to my surprise, I fell in love with the industry and 5 years later, I\u2019m now a Product Designer at Percolate in NYC.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Since my career pivot, I\u2019ve noticed many interesting parallels between architecture and product design. Although the mediums are different, it\u2019s amazing to see how many of the design principles and processes are the same. To some degree, even the tools can be applied to both design industries.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Over the years, I\u2019ve enjoyed applying lessons learned in architecture school to product design. I\u2019ve also loved sharing the lessons with friends and watching them apply those ideas to their design practices.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Throughout the next few weeks, I will be sharing lessons learned in architecture school and how I apply them to product design at Percolate.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Hope you find this mini-series interesting and useful. Let\u2019s get started.<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Circulation<\/span><\/font><\/h3>\n

One of the greatest lessons I learned in architecture school is the importance of circulation systems in the design of buildings.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Think about some of your favorite buildings. In order to move between floors, you need stairs, elevators and ramps. To move between rooms on floors, you need hallways and corridors. The methods of circulation are key functional elements in all buildings.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

When I moved from architecture to product design, I immediately realized the concept of circulation was very much applicable to the design of software applications. To see what I mean, look at the following diagram I created to show how how moving between floors in a building is similar to moving between screens in a mobile app. The purpose of stairs in the building is the same as it is for the tabs in the app. In both cases, it\u2019s the primary method of helping people move between core spaces.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\"Apps-as-Architecture\"<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Circulation greatly affects our perception of both products and architecture. Think about renting an apartment on the 7th floor of a building. If you entered your building and had to climb 7 flights of stairs to reach your apartment, your legs would be in great shape, but you might feel tired and have a less pleasant experience. If you entered the same apartment building and got to take an elevator to reach your apartment, your perception of the building might be more favorable.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

The circulation of buildings not only affects your perception of them, but also your usage and behavior within them. Continuing the apartment example, stairs would likely lead you to go home less frequently than you would if you had an elevator in the building. The presence of an elevator would likely lead you to carry home bigger, heavier items. The lesson learned is that we make a lot of choices based on available circulation systems.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Circulation in Percolate Apps<\/span><\/font><\/h3>\n

At Percolate, the design team spends time thinking about circulation systems in our iOS and Android apps. This is more commonly referred to as \u201cnavigation\u201d. Our first mobile app, Photographer<\/a>, includes a full screen list navigation. Users tap the hamburger icon in the top left and are brought to a full screen list where they select a destination. This navigation was chosen to focus the user\u2019s attention on the app\u2019s core functionality, which is taking pictures and viewing pictures in the media library.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\"Hamburger-Nav_2\"<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

This full screen list navigation feels a lot like getting into an elevator, selecting a floor, then getting off of at the desired place. In architecture, the elevator method of circulation is often a good one. However, when there are only a few destination points, you might start to wonder: \u201cIs an elevator really necessary?\u201d<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

With this question in mind, we decided to explore simpler navigation systems as we designed new apps. Earlier this year, during the development of Ambassador<\/a>, an employee advocacy app, we sketched and iterated on navigation systems. In doing so, we noticed tabs improved the experience in these ways:<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n