User Experience Design Heuristics

User Experience Design Heuristics Presented by Nathanael Boehm Thursday 22 January 2009

What is User Experience Design?

User Experience is defined by the perception people develop and retain following their interaction with an interface, device or service.

Therefore User Experience Design is about consciously designing an interface, device or service to ensure users develop a desired perception: a positive experience.

User Experience Honeycomb Copyright Peter Morville

Heuristics in Design

Design between user-testing points

Absence of active user input

Based on:

general research and experience

project-specific knowledge of users

documented checklists and guidelines

Heuristics in Testing

Laboratory-style simulation versus real-world use of product by real people.

Each aspect generally evaluated in isolation.

Won’t pick up all accessibility and usability problems.

Usability vs. Accessibility

Accessibility : Ability to access the product or service

Usability : Ability to use and interact with the product or service once it has been accessed

Accessibility is not about blind users

Colour blindness and poor sight

Epilepsy

JavaScript and client configuration

Web browser compatibility

Bandwidth and connectivity

Screen resolutions

Mobile devices

Input/output device limitations

Search engines

Data access

Printing

Heuristic Accessibility Testing

Colour contrast

Cross-browser compatibility

Variety of screen resolutions

Mobile devices

JavaScript disabled

CSS disabled

Search engine indexing performance

Slow Internet connections

Accessibility is Mandatory

W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Disability Discrimination Act 1992

World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

2000 Government Online Strategy Agencies must achieve level "A" conformance Level "AA" conformance recommended

Commonwealth Disability Strategy

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Priority 1 includes:

Screen is readable without stylesheets

Information conveyed with colour is also available without colour

Text equivalents for non-text elements (images)

Control flickering

Simplest language

Row and column headers in tables

Naked pages: Done right

Naked pages: Not so good Copyright The Good Guys - www.thegoodguys.com.au

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Priority 2 includes:

Foreground/background contrast

Use stylesheets to control presentation

Relative units (resizability, flexibility)

Dynamic content is accessible

Header elements

Metadata

Site map

Tables only for tabulated data

Usable design

Interfaces, language and processes appropriate to the user; considering:

cognitive schemas and metaphors

business

situation and environment

education and training

culture

Considerations in Usable Design

User-focused rather than system-focussed

System feedback to users

Control, flexibility and freedom

Consistency and standards

Error handling/prevention, exception support

Considerations in Usable Design

Minimising thought-process disruption and need for recall

Efficiency & performance

Aesthetics & simple/ minimalist design

Help and guidance

Useless error messages Copyright The Good Guys - www.thegoodguys.com.au Now what do I do?

Cognitive load & disruption

A bit of science Positioning downlights so they illuminate work areas.

Making an exception an exception At this screen during a normal transaction the ATM would be asking you if you want a receipt. I normally say "No" which in this exception would cancel the transaction. It's not obvious it's an exception.

Post-development

There are just some things that are either impossible to anticipate, plan for and document.

There are some aspects of implementing usable design that require experience and diligence from the developer.

There is always going to be the need to assess and calibrate designs post-development.

Detail matters – small tweaks

Dynamic menus:

Show trigger & visuals

Gaps & buffers

Timing

Effects

Dynamic menus:

Gaps & buffers

Timing

Effects

Dynamic menus:

Gaps & buffers

Timing

Effects

Dynamic menus:

Gaps & buffers

Timing

Effects

Accessibility assessments

How a heuristic accessibility assessment is conducted:

Examining source code

Page assembly deconstruction

Running it through validators

Screen readers

SEO analytics

Testing against W3C WCAG

Usability assessments

How a heuristic usability assessment is conducted:

Exploratory navigation

Interactive component/widget analysis

Asset load sequence & timing analysis

Assessment against principles such as:

Jakob Nielsen’s Ten Usability Heuristics

Bruce Tognazzi’s First Principles of Interaction Design

Conclusion

Heuristic expert accessibility and usability design input and assessment is an important part of the process. However …

It alone does not constitute user-centred design and must complement end user testing.

Conclusion

“ In the absence of detailed information, we all work from assumptions about who the user is, what he or she does, and what type of system would meet his or her needs. Following these assumptions, we tend to design for ourselves, not for other people.”

- Human Factor: Designing Computer Systems for People by Richard Rubinstein and Harry Hersh

Conclusion

Heuristic expert accessibility and usability design input will get you in the ballpark but involving real users to inform the design throughout the project and validate the output is essential.