Designing the User Experience

Designing the User ExperienceJason Wehmhoener and Nadine Schaeffer, Cloudforest DesignNovember 7, 2012

Designing theUser Experience✤ Goals✤ Methods ✤ Research ✤ Design ✤ Validation✤ Engaging a Designer✤ Resources

Goals✤ Useful✤ Usable✤ Desirable✤ Findable✤ Accessible✤ Credible✤ Valuable Peter Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php

Research

Research✤ Who are our users?✤ What are their tasks?✤ How do our users think about their tasks?✤ Where do our user’s tasks intersect with our product?✤ How can our product make our user’s tasks easier and more enjoyable to accomplish? Catching up on e-mail http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/yourdon/2715583000/lightbox/

Who are ourusers?✤ A persona is a ﬁctional person who represents a major user group for your site. Personas generally include the following attributes: ✤ Name & photo ✤ Demographics (age, education, ethnicity, family status, income, etc) ✤ Job title & responsibilities ✤ Goals ✤ Tasks ✤ Work environment ✤ Characteristic quote

Surveys andinterviews✤ Surveys are useful tools for measuring attitudes or collecting self-reported data.✤ Interviews can offer greater opportunity for dialog, deeper exploration of issues.✤ Both techniques rely on participants to clearly understand and honestly report their perspective.

What are ourusers’ tasks?✤ Scenarios are a story or narrative that describes a persona’s: ✤ goals and motivations ✤ tasks ✤ the steps of interaction involved in carrying out those tasks✤ Enough detail to make the story compelling, not overwhelming

Interested Lead Gen FlowWhat are our Required info? Street Address? Phone Number? Annual kWh?users’ tasks? No Yes Scr Opportunity in Salesforce BB1 Scope Edit Ne Mailing List Opportunities Cross-Reference with Home Ownership DB Provisional Ranking Projects Cu Create Design Site Design✤ User ﬂows describe the Ranked Rank Lead interactions required by the users’ tasks in greater detail No Above Threshold? Yes Contact Customer✤ Emphasis is on decision points, requirements for forward Discuss Pricing Pricing progress, and potential error Designed Select Offers & Generate Proposals Yes states Present Proposals Proposals Sold Capture Signature Signature Measured Perform eAudit

Setup User: SuperHow do our users Admin, Auditor Tasks: Setup Logo/Colors Users, Billingthink about their tasks? Contexts, Groups, Portal IP Ranges Admin Budget, and Portal Configuration Users Role Developer Groups ACL Auditor Billing Contexts Allocate Thresholds Email Setup Budget Policies Triggers Digest Reporting Notifications Method TXT✤ A concept model can be used to Monitoring Key Key Server describe the structure of the Virtual Data Security/ Management VPN objects that make up a system Center Network Support Network / Type Co and their relationships with Zones Encryption IP Address Ba one another Region US West Firewall Cus US East✤ Concept models help designers EU frame the design problem and understand the problem domain Provision Workloads Dashb User: User: All Us Developer Workload/Vapp Scope varie

How do our usersthink about their tasks?✤ A mental model is a set of beliefs held by a particular user about a system they are using.✤ In a poorly designed system the user’s mental model may vary from the system’s underlying concept model by a great deal✤ By seeking to understand users’ mental models, we can adjust the concepts our system is based on in order to more closely meet expectations.

Ethnography✤ Ethnography is the process of conducting user research in natural real world settings with the goal of gaining a descriptive understanding of the subject’s tasks from their point of view.✤ The ethnographer aims to take a holistic perspective that places the subject’s behavior in context.

Customer journey mapA customer journey map describes the different touch points that characterize the customer’s interaction with the service.

Prototyping✤ Prototyping is useful for exploring potential solutions to a problem in the context of a tight feedback and iteration loop✤ Fidelity (low, medium, high) ✤ Visual ✤ Functional ✤ Content

Design

InformationArchitecture✤ Information architecture is....✤ Information architecture deliverables can include: ✤ Concept maps ✤ Site/application architecture maps ✤ Navigation wireframes

ContentStrategy✤ Good content is appropriate, useful, user centered, clear, consistent, concise, and supported✤ Create Once Publish Everywhere (COPE)✤ Separate content from presentation✤ Content strategy deliverables can include: ✤ Content inventory ✤ Content analytics and search metrics ✤ Editorial style guide

InteractionDesign✤ Interaction design (IxD) deﬁnes the structure and behavior of interactive systems.✤ IxD deliverables can include: ✤ Wireframes ✤ Speciﬁcations ✤ Prototypes

Graphic Design✤ Graphic designers use image and typography as a foundation for creating communication tools that convey a message from a client to an audience.✤ Graphic design deliverables can include: ✤ Photoshop or Fireworks comps ✤ Speciﬁcations ✤ Production graphics

Validation

UsabilityTesting✤ Usability testing is the process of observing users as they attempt to successfully complete the system’s tasks.✤ Usability test goals can include: ✤ noticing user difficulty with specific tasks or their interactions ✤ exploring alternative implementations of a specific set of functionality, content or appearance✤ Observations should be recorded in detail for later analysis✤ Analysis should result in a set of clear recommendations for actions that can be taken to increase the system’s usability, or at minimum suggest direction for future design exploration.

A/B Testing & OtherOptimizationTechniques✤ A/B or split testing compares the effectiveness of two versions of a marketing communication to determine which version results in a better response or conversion rate.✤ A small percentage of users are shown an alternate version and response/conversion metrics are recorded.✤ Advanced optimization software can make the process of running through a series of tests much faster by automating the promotion of successful versions.✤ A may perform better for one audience segment, while B performs better for another, opens the door to automated optimization based on audience segmentation.

Analytics✤ Click tracking can assist site owners in their efforts to understand: ✤ navigation patterns ✤ terminology preferences (via search logs) ✤ the value of speciﬁc types of content or individual content or advertising assets ✤ where customers are falling out of a conversion funnel ✤ demographic usage patterns ✤ seasonal usage patterns ✤ lifetime value of individual customers or customer types ✤ many other narratives unique to your business

The Design Team Client Design Information Interaction EngineeringStakeholders Management Architecture Design User Content Graphic Users Analytics Research Strategy Design

Engaging a designer✤ Be prepared ✤ Are all team members in place at the start of the project? ✤ Do you have clearly deﬁned personas and scenarios for your product? If not, are you prepared to engage in an ethnographic research project in order to understand your users in the context in which they will be carrying out their tasks? ✤ If our goal is to improve the design of an existing product, are you prepared to examine and address gaps between the concept model underlying the design of your product and the mental model your users employ as they complete their tasks? Is your product architecture capable of adapting to changing requirements?✤ Plan to iterate ✤ Get feedback from actual users on changes in design direction. ✤ Systematically incorporate feedback in each revision of the design. ✤ There is always room for improvement. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. ✤ Pay attention to and learn from the behavior of your users.

Resources✤ Shopping for Innovation: What you need to know before hiring a design ﬁrm http://www.core77.com/reactor/11.05_shopping.asp Note the “Hollywood Model” (our preferred method for team building)✤ AIGA: How to hire a [graphic] designer http://www.aiga.org/how-to-hire-a-designer/✤ The User Experience Team Kit: How to hire a UX team and incorporate user-centered design methods into your software development lifecycle process http://ixda.org/sites/default/ﬁles/UX_Kit_Aug09.pdf✤ The T-Model and strategies for hiring IA practictitioners http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/10/the-t-model-and-strategies-for-hiring-ia-practitioners- part-1.php✤ Taking the mystery out of hiring UX talent http://uxmag.com/articles/taking-the-mystery-out-of-hiring-user-experience-talent✤ Designing the right team for UX: an art and a science http://uxmag.com/articles/designing-the-right-team-for-ux

Thank youhttp://cloudforestdesign.com

Designing the User Experience

by Jason Wehmhoener on Nov 07, 2012

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 9

Statistics

Designing the User Experience Presentation Transcript