Usability Anonymous: A 12 Step Program for Better User Experiences

Usability Anonymous A 12 Step Program for Better User Experiences
Jay Goldman • Radiant Core, Inc.
David Crow • Microsoft Canada

$yourName

Hi! My name is $yourName , and I have a Usability Problem.

We write BAD code. But we do GREAT design.

1• Admit You Have a Problem You are powerless to design GOOD usability alone and the user experience of your software has become unmanageable.

Know thy User.

G o o g l e This!
Personas
Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Analytics (web or other)
Guerilla Usability Tactics

2• Believe in a Power greater than yourselves (and we don't mean Jakob Nielsen)

David Verba, Adaptive Path • RWE 2007: Practical Design for Developers

Citizens Police City Homeless Police City Citizens Homeless Priority

3• All this could be yours Make a decision to recognize the value of GOOD design.

http://mac.blorge.com

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works .” — Steve Jobs

4• Make a searching and fearless inventory of your user experience shortcomings.

Opportunity Matrix Value Cost Effectivness

Stick Figures 101 Dave Gray, XPLANE http://communicationnation.blogspot.com/2005/12/visual-thinking-practice-draw-stick.html

G o o g l e This!
Scott McLoud, Understanding Comics
Kevin Chang, Creating Conceptual Comics
Dave Gray, XPLANE & VizThink

5• Admit to yourselves, and to another human being, the nature of your problems.

“ The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein

Talk to your users!

6• Be entirely ready to remove these defects of character.

Of the top 10 feature requests, 5 had been in Office for more than a release.

7• Ask for help! It's out there.

G o o g l e This!
Jenifer Tidwel, Designing Interfaces
welie.com, Patterns in Interaction Design

8• Make a list of all users you've harmed, and then make their lives better.

Focused on Tasks (Products, Features) Objective/Quantifiable Focused on Experiences (People, Activities, Contexts) Subjective/Qualitative

9• Made direct amends. Make direct amends to people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

http://www.bumfonline.com/images/BurningBridges.jpg

10• Continue to take a personal inventory and when you are wrong, promptly admit to it.

Iterative Practitioner Observe Analyze Design

Observe Analyze Solve Know thy User Prototype to find possible Solutions Prototype to flesh out a Solution

G o o g l e This!
Card sorting
Affinity diagrams
Wireframes
Sketching (Bill Buxton, Sketching User Experiences )
Low fidelity prototypes (paper, etc.)
High fidelity prototypes (software)

11• Without users, it doesn’t matter. We’re building things for people. No people = no things.

12• Pay it Forward Having had an awakening as a result of these steps, try to carry the message to other developers and to practice these principles in any projects you're involved with.

Thanks!

Usability Anonymous: A 12 Step Program for Better User Experiences

by jgoldman on Oct 25, 2007

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Usability Anonymous: A 12 Step Program for Better User Experiences — Presentation Transcript