Intro to UX

1. Introduction to User Experience Research Human Factors, Usability, and Neuromarketing Prepared by: Daniel Berlin – Experience Research Director March 29, 2011 Endicott College

2. Today’s Presentation 2 <ul><li>What the heck is a Human Factor?

3. How can you measure usability?

4. Usability Research

5. Eye Tracking

6. Neuromarketing – that’s right, we can read your mind

7. Biofeedback and Neurofeedback

8. Ok, but how does this affect me?</li></li></ul><li>Hi! I’m Dan Berlin 3 <ul><li>BA in psychology from Brandeis U.

9. MBA and MS in Human Factors in Information Design from Bentley U.

10. Seven years in technical support

11. Sat as a participant for a usability study for a product I was working on

12. Realized that user experience (UX) work is the perfect combination of computers and psychology

13. Quit my job and enrolled in Bentley’s two year full-time program

14. Two years at an interactive agency performing usability and neuromarketing research

15. Then did some freelance UX consulting for about a year

16. Am now an Experience Research Director at Mad*Pow</li></li></ul><li>What the heck is a Human Factor? 4

17. What the heck is a Human Factor? Stand up 5

18. What the heck is a Human Factor? Hop up and down a few times, then stop 6

19. What the heck is a Human Factor? Lift one foot off of the floor 7

20. What the heck is a Human Factor? Wait for it… 8

21. What the heck is a Human Factor? Now hop up and down a few times on one foot*, then stop 9 *Please don’t hurt yourself, or others around you

22. What the heck is a Human Factor? A little harder on one foot, eh? 10

23. What the heck is a Human Factor? That’s a Human Factor (you can sit down now) 11

24. What the heck is a Human Factor? 12 <ul><li>Humans are good at some things, but not all

25. We are better walkers than we are swimmers

26. Can see better in the day then we can at night

27. Human Factors are what makes us tick: cognitively and physically

28. How we perceive, think, and move

29. UX practitioners apply knowledge of Human Factors when designing and evaluating software and websites

30. Ergonomics for the mind</li></li></ul><li>Find the red circle 13

31. Find the red circle 14

32. Find the red circle 15

33. Don’t make me think 16 No thinking Some thinking Fuhgeddaboudit <ul><li>An interaction is intuitive when the user does not have to think

34. We can guide them via visual and interaction design</li></li></ul><li>What the heck is a Human Factor? 17 <ul><li>To the right: elementary perceptual tasks

35. Good at: position, length, direction

36. Bad at: area (of a circle), volume, saturation

37. This is why you will see line or bar graphs to convey data

38. You will never (well, shouldn’t) see a graph that uses color saturation to convey data (i.e. using different shades of orange)</li></li></ul><li>What the heck is a Human Factor? 18 Gestalt Principles Invariance <ul><li>Designers build affordances into their work to take advantage of our strengths and to bolster our weaknesses

39. Term coined by James Gibson, a Gestalt psychologist</li></ul>Emergence Reification Multistability

40. 19 Dark blue bar separates the navigation from the rest of the page. The most important text on the page has the biggest font size. Vertical lines divide the blue bar into buttons. White space separates the news articles. Alternating gray and white rows create separation. <ul><li>We do not have to think about what these design elements mean – we just know</li></li></ul><li>How can you measure usability? 20

41. How can you measure usability? 21 <ul><li>First off, what does ‘usability’ really mean?

42. ISO 9241: “The effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments.”

43. Effectiveness: Do people make mistakes?

44. Efficiency: Can they accomplish the task in a reasonable amount of time?

45. Satisfaction: Does the interaction drive people crazy?</li></li></ul><li>How can you measure usability? 22 <ul><li>Well… there is no way to accurately measure usability

46. But there are ways to understand users and learn how they expect to interact with an interface

47. Discovery interviews

48. Paper prototypes

49. Card sorting

50. Focus groups

51. And there are ways to learn how an existing interface performs

52. Usability studies

53. Expert/heuristic reviews

54. KLM/GOMS</li></li></ul><li>What is a usability study? 23 <ul><li>In a usability study, 5-15 participants are asked to perform tasks on an interface

55. A moderator sits next to the participant to observe and ask questions

56. Usability moderators are like computer psychologists

57. Instead of asking how people feel about their mothers, we ask about how they feel about the interactions

58. Yes, this is a ‘study’ but no, there are typically no numbers to crunch

59. We gather mostly qualitative data

60. Not cost-efficient to have enough participants to get statistical significance

61. 5-8 participants will catch a majority of the problems</li></li></ul><li>Eye Tracking 24 <ul><li>Eye tracking has been around since the late 19th century

62. Infrared light bounces off of your retina and back to sensors in the monitor/headset</li></ul>Today Yesterday

63. Eye Tracking 25 Heat Map Gaze Plot <ul><li># of fixations for all participants

64. Order of fixations for one participant</li></li></ul><li>Eye Tracking 26

65. Eye Tracking 27 Areas of Interest <ul><li>Break the page up into separate “areas of interest” or AOIs

66. Compare the fixation data between important areas and less important ones

67. If people are staring at the navigation, they may be having a hard time finding a link

68. Are people looking at the call to action?

69. Call to action = the link on the page that the business wants the users to click (the ‘buy’ button)</li></li></ul><li>Eye Tracking 28 Area 3 Area 4 Area 5 Area 6 Area 1 Area 2 <ul><li>Participants looked at “Area 1” almost two seconds longer in the second design</li></li></ul><li>Neuromarketing – that’s right, we can read your mind 29

70. Neuromarketing – that’s right, we can right your mind 30 <ul><li>Okay, not really

71. But we have the technology to try</li></ul>fMRI EEG/EMG Blood oxygenation Brain waves

72. Neuromarketing – okay, we can’t read your mind… 31 <ul><li>Galvanic skin response, heart rate, breathing rate, and skin temperature can be measure to determine ‘fight or flight’ response

73. Is the participant calm and cool, or anxious?

74. These have been used for decades as a measure of internal state</li></ul>GSR mouse Bioharness Output Bioharness

75. Neuromarketing –… but we can try 32 <ul><li>Daimler-Chrysler fMRI study

76. ‘Attractive’ cars light up the facial recognition area of the brain

77. Campbell’s Soup label</li></li></ul><li>Neuromarketing – there is no ‘buy’ button in the brain 33 <ul><li>Researchers won’t find an fMRI pattern or brain wave that will accurately predict if a person is going to buy something (or sign up for a newsletter, etc.)

78. What they will find are patterns that indicate favorable or negative responses to an interaction

79. We know as much about the brain as when doctors were using leeches, possibly less</li></li></ul><li>Okay, but how does this affect me? 34 <ul><li>You interact with interfaces all day long

80. Careers in user experience

81. Information architect

82. Usability specialist

83. Visual designer

84. Experience designer

85. Grad school

86. Bentley University – MS Human Factors

87. George Mason – MA Graphic Design

88. Tufts – MS Human Factors Engineering

89. U. of Maryland – MS Systems Engineering

90. U. of Michigan – MS Computer Science

91. Carnegie Mellon – MS Human Computer Interaction

92. Your future career WILL involve user experience

93. The product your company sells

94. How your company interacts with customers

95. How you collaborate with your coworkers</li></li></ul><li>Thank you! 35