Daniel Burka's Design Workshop Slides: FOWD NYC 2009

I’m dburka digg ﬂickr twitter clustershot last.fm deltatangobravo.com daniel@deltatangobravo.com

What do I do? Co-founder silverorange, creative dir. Digg, co-founder Pownce, dir. of design Tiny Speck

What’s a web designer? UX, IA, Interaction designer, Creative Dir, Prod. manager, Designer, Webmaster

What do you do? Designer, developer, product, entrepreneur, something else? In-house or freelance? Big, medium, little, lone gun? Love it, like it, hate it, or meh? Credit: “The 56 Geeks” by Scott Johnson, myextralife.com

Working titles Design lessons learned in the trenches A (semi-organized) brain dump of current design challenges Stuﬀ we got right and wrong (and what we’re doing about it) Making complex things simpler Credit: Flickr user ‘justin0842’

Ground rules Ask questions anytime... yell out if I don’t see your hand It’s more important to elaborate than to cover everything @reply me @dburka with things to cover if you’re not an out loud person

Today’s agenda A. Get the basics out of the way 1. Designing for engagement 2. Positive behaviors by design 4 of 5? 3. Handling (lots of) user feedback 4. Making complex interactions feel simple 4. Iterative design strategies + a case study What else do you want to discuss? Credit: Flickr user S.O.F.T.

Challenges 1. Encouraging people to participate 2. Promoting positive participation 3. Handling (lots of) user feedback 4. Making complex interactions feel simple 5. Managing change - Iterative design strategies

Joshua Porter (bokardo) “You probably have a community whether you know it or not.” Via ChinPosin.com

How do your people participate? Diﬀerent sites have diﬀerent issues

Reduce the barrier to entry Simplify sign-up Credit: Flickr user ‘notsogoodphotography’

Dip a toe in the water Get going quickly and get invested quickly Credit: Flickr user ‘notsogoodphotography’

Even as far as anonymity? How much do you really need to know? Credit: Flickr user ‘Photo Monkey’

E-commerce example

Start simple Easier to grok, more engaging

Show, don’t tell Showing is much more enticing (usually)

Increase beneﬁt Go beyond altruistic motivations Credit: Flickr user ‘inoxkrow’

Personal proﬁles Encourage trust and connections Credit: Flickr user ‘mrclean’

Focus on tension points Copy and design can go a long way Credit: Flickr user ‘sarahkim’

Avoid negative competition ‘King of the hill’ contests don’t scale Credit: Flickr user ‘cmichel67’

• Too basic, too static • Frustrating to climb ladder once others established Constop users list at any cost Digg • • Taps into negative self-interest as well Cutthroats climb ladder • Creates very inﬂuential users

• Easy to understand: simple sum • Fantastic incentive to participate at the beginning Pros top users listwhen beneﬁt is low Digg • • Taps into peoples’ self-interest in a positive way Healthy competition • Creates recognizable ‘celebrity’ contributors

Digg top users list Possible improvements?

Keep it positive Seems simple, but it’s diﬃcult to stay focused on it

Focus on the individual Award individuals for personal accomplishments

Self-policing Empower users to take care of issues themselves

Digg comment reporting and voting down

Mozilla.org Public site redesign in 2004

I don't like it a bit. What was wrong with the current one?

I don't like it a bit. What was wrong with the current one? Looks like your average small company website.

I don't like it a bit. What was wrong with the current one? Looks like your average small company website. Keep the old colors and ditch the new ones. It's too depressing.

I don't like it a bit. What was wrong with the current one? Looks like your average small company website. Keep the old colors and ditch the new ones. It's too depressing. IMHO the current design looks MUCH better than this mess.

Feedback is more than ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’

Collecting feedback How do you collect feedback?

Oﬀ the top of my head Collecting Pownce, silverorange feedback Feedback at Digg, Email Twitter, blogs, etc Comments! Press Focus groups Phone Stats Forums Conferences Parties! Townhalls Internal conversations Task analysis

Established vs Young Experiences with the Digg and Pownce communities via AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker

Young vs Established • Pownce was relatively young • ~270,000 users • Just over a year and a half old • Digg is relatively old • ~3+ million users and 30+ million uniques/month • Almost 4 years old

Young vs Established • Feedback has less volume • Less feedback is easier to parse • Less feedback makes it harder to ﬁnd patterns • People feel connected to the site’s growth • Positive, energetic, forgiving • Nimble and responsive site

Young vs Established • Feedback has more volume • Diﬃcult to parse and handle • Patterns are less prone to error • People have invested themselves • Patterns and familiarities have formed • Self aware communities and cliques exist • Expectations of performance have been created • And, your business may be slower too...

Types of feedback a Types of feedback • Different types require different responses, carry different weights

Types of feedback a Positive feedback “ The new stuﬀ looks great!! Now I know what you’ve been working so hard on!!! Dad “ Wow, this is so much better than the old design. Now that I’ve had a chance to use it, I love it. Thanks.

Types of feedback a Bug reports “ When I select a username I get a 404 error. Can you guys look into it? “ The thing jumps around after I click on the other thing. It’s annoying. Please ﬁx it, thanks.

Types of feedback a Negative feedback “ I want it to be like it was before... “ I hate it! (the designer should be ﬁred!!) “ It doesn’t do something I need... “ It would be easy just to... “ It’s ok, but what took so long?

Types of feedback a Expert feedback “ I am going to both share my opinion on what the problems are and actually address them...

Types of feedback a Implicit feedback • Observing user behavior • Objective metrics • Speaks for the non-commenters • People don’t do what they say • Digg commenters are typical of this: “That’s why I never come here anymore”!!

Reacting to feedback b Reacting to feedback • First step: Don’t do anything! • Immediate reaction will be to go back to the old way • Hesitate to create a ‘back’ switch • Don’t paint yourself into corners • Don’t end up implementing a patchy ﬁx instead of seeing the problem

Reacting to feedback b Reacting to feedback • Wait for a period and then collect the feedback • Identify themes and strong ideas • Try to make quantiﬁable judgements • Cherry pick great ideas (especially from experts!) • Take implicit feedback seriously... could be the opposite of the explicit feedback

c Extreme feedback Handling the extremes Riots, petitions, mass-defection threats, etc. • Take feedback seriously, but don’t sway your vision and don’t panic • BE AS HONEST AS YOU CAN BE • You don’t have to go into technical speciﬁcs, but... • Don’t be unnecessarily vague • Try (key word!) to get out in front of issues...

Required reading....

Focus on THE thing Why are people REALLY on your site or this page? Credit: Flickr user ‘ihtatho’

Remove as much as you can Is something REALLY necessary? Often a tough debate. Credit: Flickr user ‘pgoyette’

Hide what you can’t remove Contextual links and secondary content are candidates Credit: Flickr user ‘aftab’

Give options in sequence Only an option for logical sequences – handy sometimes Credit: Flickr user ‘ r o s e n d a h l’

Strongly consider ﬂow You don’t need eye-tracking software to remove impediments Credit: Flickr user ‘Mister V’

by dburka 20 minutes ago Of course, what McCain is trying to avoid anyone noticing is that the problem isn't regulators failing to do their job; it's that that man he tapped to write his economic policy - Phil Gramm - removed oversight of the instruments that are laying waste to the finance sector from the regulators' job descriptions. Reply to this comment by marktrammell 16 minutes ago We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road. 5 Replies to this comment by dburka 14 minutes ago We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road. 5 Replies to this comment by kurtwilms 12 minutes ago We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road.

? ?? ? ? ? ?

Your website sucks Trust me, it could be a lot better Photo Credit: Flickr user d-a-n-i-e-l

Dear Digg, Go fuck yourself. Your pal, — J.G.

Photo Credit: Joi Ito “If you review your ﬁrst site version and don’t feel embarrassment, you spent too much time on it.” Reid Hoﬀman, LinkedIn

Take chances and release Build with the expectation of change Listen and iterate

Read this book... How buildings learn: What happens after they’re built Stewart Brand

High road architecture

Low road architecture

Build a castle in no time!

Credit: Phil Gyford Desire paths Don’t try to predict everything

Adapt to scale This is a wonderful problem to have, don’t over-solve for it

Credit: kimballhoman Realign, don’t redesign Cameron Moll is awfully clever... read it on A List Apart

Subtraction is iteration too Try to remove as much as you add – don’t be afraid to prune Credit: Rev Dan Catt

xx x x x x

Credit: Flickr user ‘Paulgi’ Really listen to your users Both explicit and implicit feedback are crucial Communication is the key to every good relationship

A case study Digg comments

Step 1 We got it out there

Step 2 We added sophistication

by dburka 20 minutes ago Of course, what McCain is trying to avoid anyone noticing is that the problem isn't regulators failing to do their job; it's that that man he tapped to write his economic policy - Phil Gramm - removed oversight of the instruments that are laying waste to the finance sector from the regulators' job descriptions. Reply to this comment by marktrammell 16 minutes ago We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road. 5 Replies to this comment by dburka 14 minutes ago We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road. Step 3 5 Replies to this comment by kurtwilms 12 minutes ago We started revising We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road. Reply to this comment by kevinrose 10 minutes ago

Establish goals Add multiple levels of nesting Reduce complexity of nesting Discourage top-posting Increase participation Improve quality of discussions Address scaling issues Make things feel simpler & improve interactions

instruments that are laying waste to the finance sector from the regulators' job descriptions. Reply to this comment by marktrammell 16 minutes ago We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road. 5 Replies to this comment by dburka 14 minutes ago We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road. 5 Replies to this comment by kurtwilms 12 minutes ago We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road. Reply to this comment by kevinrose 10 minutes ago We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out

Measure success Add multiple levels of nesting Reduce complexity of nesting Discourage top-posting Increase participation Improve quality of discussions Address scaling issues Make things feel simpler & improve interactions

One long year... ( I’m sorry ) Credit: Flickr user xjrlokix

Then we got it right Well... sort of

Gather feedback Explicit and implicit

Set new goals (Idea is to avoid feature creep and gauge success) Make things feel simpler & improve interactions Improve performance Add most requested functionality

Create some comps Somewhere to start discussion

User test #1 Focus group novices and experts

Ask for more feedback Really? Yes.

Create reﬁned comps In this case html/css/js comps

Implement Work closely with the development team

User test #2 Perform task analysis

Launch it! It works? It works!

Achieved goals? Make things feel simpler & improve interactions Improve performance Add most requested functionality

Still weak for casual visitors Scales technically, but not socially Pseudo-pagination is cool, but not great Hard to keep up-to-date with your conversations Onerous registration to comment Done? Nope Start on next iterations

Stay ﬁt: adapt to survive and thrive If iterative design isn’t instinctual, be convincing

In summary.... Don’t try to build a perfect product, you can’t Build on ﬂexible technologies and leave room for adaptation Embrace unpredicted activities Think twice before starting from scratch Subtraction is iteration too Listen, listen, listen. Before, during, after. Plan to iterate.

Your issues... What’s been challenging you lately?

I’m dburka digg ﬂickr twitter clustershot last.fm deltatangobravo.com daniel@deltatangobravo.com

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Daniel Burka's Design Workshop Slides: FOWD NYC 2009

by Daniel Burka on Nov 19, 2009

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Daniel Burka’s Design Workshop Slides: FOWD NYC 2009 — Presentation Transcript