UX Architecture for the Small Guy

Welcome to the Church of User eXperience Design Today’s Sermon UX Architecture for the Small Guy Leading Today: Gary Barber @tuna 

  User Experience Design DEF: a subset of the field of experience design that pertains to the creation of the architecture and interaction models that impact a user's perception of a device or system. The scope of the field is directed at affecting "all aspects of the user’s interaction with the product: how it is perceived, learned, and used Don Norman ...like any other machine - they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem. 

  User Experience DEF: the perception left after a series of interactions. Eric Reiss “Design is the art of gradually applying constraints until only one solution remains” Unknown 

  Two Hotels UX is about perception and product confidence www.flickr.com/photos/10634319@N00/3206552644 

  Two Web Sites UX is about removing the frustration 

  Usable UX “Usability is something we do in UAT, right?” Client www.flickr.com/photos/51035583134@N01/1647545 www.flickr.com/photos/52971398@N00/2193315363 

  Design Reality Stakeholders SPEC DESIGN DEV UAT Customers 

  Small Project Reality Stakeholders SPEC DESIGN DEV Customers 

  Wish List - Agile UX Stakeholders Interation Zero USER BUSINESS TEST DEV DESIGN BRAINSTORM USER USER TEST RESEARCH INFORMATION TEST DESIGN DEV CUSTOMER BUILD Customers 

  Roles with UX Project UX ARCHITECT DESIGNER DESIGNER DEVELOPER DEVELOPER PROJECT MANAGER PROJECT MANAGER 

  Small Projects Stakeholders SPEC DESIGN DEV Customers 

  The Web is Not Print www.flickr.com/photos/11550160@N03/2875431305 

  Web is Print? Web Print 

  Is it Bad Habits • No Budget • No Skills • No Time • We’ll do it next time • It doesn’t work • No one else is doing it 

  Money Talks “But, I just want a website for $X dollars” Client www.flickr.com/photos/60648084@N00/2243154949 

  UX & User Centered Design UCD doesn’t appear to work well with Small Projects 

  Reality Check for UCD UCD doesn’t appear to fit with Small Projects 

  UCD focuses on the Users “If the user can’t use it, it doesn’t work” Susan Dray 

  Remove the Users? Client “Maybe we’re better off without the Users” Client www.flickr.com/photos/32145599@N08/3046354228 

  Business + User Focus Centralised Business and User based Approach www.flickr.com/photos/20998477@N00/2794222271 

 UX Architecture is not a  Methodology “I don’t care about User Experience I just want to sell products” Client 

  UX Tool Kit Over 50 tools, techniques and methods to ensure the best UX www.flickr.com/photos/41894148532@N01/2517652 

  Should it Stay or Should it Go Remember every project is different “it Depends” www.flickr.com/photos/32742419@N04/3114975462 

  Business Research • Stakeholder Interviews • Business Requirements • Competitor Review • Expert Review • Peer Review • Web Analytics Review 

  Stakeholder Interviews Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : You are going to be talking to your client anyway, why not ask a few open ended questions, to gather even more information

  Business Requirements Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Even better if the client has these done for you. Sometimes a Brainstorming session helps cement the real vs political requirements.

  Competitor Review Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Don’t overload this process, keep it short and snappy, if it adds nothing new to the list, move on. Like a lit review for the Web. www.flickr.com/photos/26332965@N00/478614736

  Expert Review Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Not a replacement for User Testing. Use only if budget is really tight. Can only really give you the general problem areas. No one is an expert. www.flickr.com/photos/21170057@N03/2667839445

  Peer Review Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Do them on forums, down the pub, be open with your peers to get real feedback. Avoid the back slapping crowd. Review, review and review www.flickr.com/photos/8765199@N07/3622174097

  Web Analytics Review Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Greatly dependent on the depth of the statistics available, Often poor on small projects. Pay Special attention to the Search Analyics. Experienced analysis can bring out worthwhile user pathways

  Information Research • Content Audit • Card Sort 

  Content Audit/Inventory Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Remember content is king, this has to be done. You can’t design without at least a sketchy idea of what the content is. Expect lost content to be found later.

  Card Sorting Required: Time: Cost: Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Good tool for information or functional categorisation. Don’t over use. Don’t over analyse, users can get it wrong. Can use Affinity Diagram as well for general logical grouping.

  Customer/User Research • User Priming • User Interviews • Field Studies • User Surveys • Focus Groups  • Personas • User Stories • Task Analysis • Mental Models www.flickr.com/photos/28260247@N07/3366216596  www.flickr.com/photos/22023529@N00/341543757 www.flickr.com/photos/77309394@N00/105439262

  User Priming Required: Time: Cost: Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Some users will “cheat”, expect this, but you will notice it, people find this easier to do than a diary. Helps start an interview. Drawing the experience www.flickr.com/photos/49106033@N00/459905744 www.flickr.com/photos/37484601@N00/3513672579 www.flickr.com/photos/35955268@N00/474693912

  User Interviews Required: Time: Cost: Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : A very small pool is okay 4-5 people. Interviews don’t have to be long, just open ended. Forget transcripts, you will not have the time to do them. Record if you must, just you will not review it.

  User Surveys Required: Time: Cost: Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Unless you are very experienced or have training in survey writing, don’t DIY. Real costs can be very high for Small Projects.

  Focus Groups Required: Time: Cost: Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : At best they are artificial constructs, open to group dynamics like a jury. Not suited to UX research at all. Avoid! www.flickr.com/photos/23799098@N03/3752407910

  Field Studies Required: Time: Cost: Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Shadowing and contextual enquiry useful. Allow for believe what you see not what the user tells you. Ethnographic Studies also applicable.

  Personas Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Making fake people, good generalist behavioural patterns in personas. Maybe a Persona Pattern Library is in order. Sketched personas better than detailed ones. Adhoc Personas should be considered. www.flickr.com/photos/33947185@N00/3681279223

  User Stories Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Easy to compile from previous research. Fast and effective, look for simple patterns of task and behaviour. Don’t over analyse, accept what is.

  Task Analysis Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Summary tool for listing task patterns, functionality, information processes and refining them. KIS. Will feed into story boarding, flow diagrams and prototyping. Can use GOMS on this too. www.flickr.com/photos/83565115@N00/3274919185 www.flickr.com/photos/81098106@N00/2757285670

  Mental Models Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Good for confirming information and functional categorisation. Behaviour and task based nature takes too much time. Need a faster analysis method.

  Brainstorming • Critical to all project types • Bridge from Research to Design • Generate New Ideas from Research • Pattern Matching • Time to see the Patterns www.flickr.com/photos/37996578526@N01/3513906216 

  Design • User Testing • Navigational Design • Story Boarding • FLow Charting • Mood Boards • Wireframes • Graphical Mockup • Prototyping www.flickr.com/photos/22023529@N00/537603811 www.flickr.com/photos/41211045@N00/34679639  www.flickr.com/photos/22023529@N00/8044425

  User Testing Required: Time: Cost: Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Do it anywhere, coffee shop, lunchroom, remotely. Avoid the lab. Small pools are allowed. Should be used to confirm and discover all the time in UX. At least consider A/B testing.

  Navigational Design Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Small content mean less categorisation, less options. Still look for new pathways to navigate. Use simple Tree testing. http://www.flickr.com/photos/19762676@N00/3316195479

  Story Boarding Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Can be traditional, photoboard, stick figures, movieboard, flash based screen prototypes. Lots tool available. Remember to keep it sketchy, produce at a fast and furious rate. Also consider Task and Story Boards as Swinlanes. www.flickr.com/photos/70321513@N00/3975307520

  Flow Charting Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Work well with Use Cases. Task, functionality and screen flow can all be mapped. Helps bridge designers and developers. Combine wireframes and flowcharts to get wireflows. www.flickr.com/photos/38869431@N00/1121226671 www.flickr.com/photos/49503215066@N01/268374764

  Mood Boards Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Quick and easy to produce. Show emotional landscape. Supporting the visceral response of the cognitive process. Need to elicited an emotional response. www.flickr.com/photos/32729422@N00/2181557066

  Wireframes Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Need to be quick, not detailed masterpieces. Document the basics and move on. Do we really need them if rapid prototyping is used. Use Pattern Libraries. www.flickr.com/photos/32729422@N00/2181557066 www.flickr.com/photos/33472412@N00/3307873748

  Graphical Mockup Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Mockups in Photoshop can take too long, move to Browser mockups. Consider collaged mockups from competitors or like functional sites to get visual direction, like an extention of Participatory Design.

  Prototyping Required: Time: Cost: n/a Reliability: Influence: Small Projects: Small Guy Parable : Use paper, pens, bottle tops, whiteboards to interactive generators from Axure to Screenflow. Document with photos or screenshots, KIS. Use Pattern Libraries. Give the site a human personality. www.flickr.com/photos/68453525@N00/3605778917

  UX Elements of Rapture Stakeholder Interviews User Testing Business Requirements Task Analysis Content Audit Mood Boards User Interviews Graphical Mockups Navigational Design Prototypes Brainstorming 

  Waterfall vs Whirlpool Regardless of Waterfall or Agile projects, UX can be used in both 

  UX is Hard Client wants a cheap option - don’t go with the Gut! www.flickr.com/photos/35723943@N00/165144643 

  Design is about Failure Concept Generation Add Add Final No. of Ideas Ideas Product Ideas Time “Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.” C.W. Ceram 

  Lost Ideas Concept Generation Lost Ideas No. of Final Ideas Product Lost Ideas Time “The public is more familiar with bad design than good design.” Paul Rand 

  Time to Get Ideas! “The only thing more expensive than writing software is writing bad software” Alan Cooper www.flickr.com/photos/41534655@N00/243010900 

  Selling UX Reality check - UX can be seen as expensive window dressing www.flickr.com/photos/24995774@N06/2358339193 

  No Jargon! Just like IT cut the techo-babble, so we have too. www.flickr.com/photos/79446887@N00/2844238907 

  Speak Business Talk like an Accountant, Marketeer, Human Resources, CEO www.flickr.com/photos/14718994@N03/2279273026 

  CEO’s Love Design Clients like to be involved, it’s more interest than Accounts www.flickr.com/photos/34281632@N03/3646744137 

  The Commandments • UX is about Business and Interation BUSINESS Zero USER TEST DESIGN DEV BRAINSTORM RCH Users INFORMATION USER TEST USER TEST RESEA DEV DESIGN CUSTOMER • Stop the old ways BUILD • UX can be Agile • User research is important • Don’t go with the gut • Selling UX is more important than the design Is too much documentation drowning UX in costs? 

  Questions GARY BARBER @tuna manwithnoblog.com radharc.com.au 

  Local UX Resources • UX BookClub - uxbookclub.org • Usability Professionals’ Association - www.upassoc.org • Information Architect Institute - iainstitute.org • Mailing Lists: ✴ IxDA - ixda.org 

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UX Architecture for the Small Guy

by Gary Barber on Nov 03, 2009

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UX Architecture for the Small Guy — Presentation Transcript