What is User Experience? February 21, 2007 William Tschumy User Experience Evangelist, Western Region Microsoft

“ Questions about whether design is necessary or affordable are quite beside the point: design is inevitable . The alternative to good design is bad design , not no design at all. Everyone makes design decisions all the time without realizing it …and good design is simply the result of making these decisions consciously …” -- Douglas Martin (book designer)

Put a different way…

“ You cannot not have a [user] experience” -- Clued In , Lou Carbone CEO, Experience Engineering

Wait a minute: I’m doing internal LOB applications… Why do I care?

The short answer is: Money

User Experience (UX) seeks to understand the implicit and explicit needs of a system’s constituencies

Understanding and satisfying your constituencies’ needs means they: Are Happier Are More Productive Require Less Training Make Fewer Mistakes

How do I get started?

All techniques start with data collection and end with specific recommendations Information gathering Analysis Recommendations > > Common goals, different methods

How do find my constituencies’ needs? User Research Personas & Scenario Prototyping Collaborative Design

User Research

Personas & Scenario Prototyping

Collaborative Design

User Research: Immersive research Intercept interviews on the street…to get quick reactions to questions Camera studies allow people to interpret their environment and activities when we can’t be there What People Say and Make Semi-structured interviews in customers’ workplaces to gather information on their daily activities and needs

User Research: Ethnography Ethnography is the study of customers in the natural context of their everyday lives. We may meet participants at their workplace, on the street, or in their home, combining interviews with observation of what they normally do. This research captures what people actually do , not what they say they do, or what they think they do. Understanding of their social environment reveals unmet user needs, motivations, beliefs, frustrations, and decision-making processes. It segments customers in those terms, evaluates customer readiness for adoption, and offers strategies for compelling customers to use the eBusiness and helps to foster long-term loyalty.

Ethnography is the study of customers in the natural context of their everyday lives.

We may meet participants at their workplace, on the street, or in their home, combining interviews with observation of what they normally do.

This research captures what people actually do , not what they say they do, or what they think they do.

Understanding of their social environment reveals unmet user needs, motivations, beliefs, frustrations, and decision-making processes.

It segments customers in those terms, evaluates customer readiness for adoption, and offers strategies for compelling customers to use the eBusiness and helps to foster long-term loyalty.

User Research: Surveys & Focus Groups In order to validate the hypotheses we form based on ethnographic research and/or benchmark and comparative usability tests, we may conduct online or phone surveys, or focus groups Both surveys and focus groups provide self-reported qualitative and/or quantitative data that informs market/user segmentation as well as the business strategy online focus phone surveys surveys groups

In order to validate the hypotheses we form based on ethnographic research and/or benchmark and comparative usability tests, we may conduct online or phone surveys, or focus groups

Both surveys and focus groups provide self-reported qualitative and/or quantitative data that informs market/user segmentation as well as the business strategy

Scenario Prototyping The scenarios show how these characters may go about doing a task typical of their role and the challenges they face within the current environment Fictitious narratives or scenarios are developed to illustrate key themes of user needs uncovered in the research. They each have different key goals and motivators. Scenario Prototypes gather requirements through narratives

Personas & Scenario Prototyping (cont’d) Scenario outlines the major features of the business or application Profiles are based off of user research, and are consistent with both the value map and the business model

Collaborative Design Respondents can work as teams, discussing individual views of the information hierarchy aloud. Card sorting is useful in early stages of development to prioritize and cluster potential content offerings, find new content areas of value, and identify new areas of functionality. This technique helps identify a user-centric view of the information architecture and nomenclature.

Collaborative Design (Cont’d) Users make word-to-image associations when describing their collage to the group/facilitator, and articulate what a product/brand/interface SHOULD be as well as what it SHOULD NOT be. Users can voice tacit perceptions that would otherwise not emerge in a focus group setting through non-verbal exercises. Collaging helps to elicit metaphorical associations or attitudes users have with specific topic areas.

Collaborative Design (Cont’d) Collaborative sessions with constituents co-design possible screens. Constituents provide immediate input and feedback - developing and revising paper-based prototypes on the fly. Rough sketches - or paper-base prototypes - shared with customers early in the design process to get their feedback on various homepage concepts. The team was able to “test” the concepts while exploring their needs and expectations in greater depth.

Usability Testing HTML-based prototype (without final visual design) test the navigation and site functionality. Testing highlighted opportunities to streamline the site structure and overall user experience. Usability testing identifies quick fixes that could be made before launch and those that would be addressed in subsequent launches.

What do I need to think about when doing experience design? Prototyping Interaction Design Information Architecture Content Strategy Visual Design

Prototyping

Interaction Design

Information Architecture

Content Strategy

Visual Design

Experience prototypes model, simulate, or otherwise dynamically represent aspects of the experiences. These prototypes are the tangible outcomes of the design activities that embody—in whole or in part—significant attributes of the relationships between experiences. These prototypes are different from Scenario Prototypes - Scenario Prototype focus on requirement gathering through narrative. Experience Prototypes focus on iterative solution development. Experience Prototypes

Experience Prototypes ‘ living’ identity Product design advertising packaging online

Describes key interactions and processes, both from a constituent perspective and system perspective. Interaction Design focuses on accomplishing a given task on a page, or on a small set of pages Information Architecture (IA) focuses on how concepts evolve over time as each constituent moves through the product or service Interaction Design & IA

Interaction Design: Flows “ Managing your home” experience –constituent perspective “ Edit Photo Title” experience —constituent perspective share/categorize manage home identify need find solution follow-up estimate/ order provider visit

Information Architecture Conceptual Model Site Map

ID, IA: One experience, Many channels

Three Key questions: What needs to be communicated to the user? How should it be communicated to the user? What organizational language does the user speak? Content Strategy

Three Key questions:

What needs to be communicated to the user?

How should it be communicated to the user?

What organizational language does the user speak?

A Content Matrix is an exhaustive listing of all the content in a given product, service or business. It relates the content between the user requirement and the position within the product, service or business. Content Strategy (Cont’d)

How should our product, service or business look visually? Visual Design

Please rank these mood boards. 1 =most favorite, 12 =least favorite Mood Boards: A basic vocabulary

Thank You! William Tschumy [email_address] 415.420.3746 User Experience Evangelist, Western Region Microsoft