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Peter Stahl Josh Damon Williams eBay Hot Studio Checking the Feel of your UI with an Interaction Audit

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What’s in this for you <ul><li>Discover why “Feel” matters </li></ul><ul><li>Find out what an Interaction Audit is </li></ul><ul><li>Learn our ground-breaking methodology </li></ul><ul><li>See scintillating Feel findings </li></ul><ul><li>Marvel at what an Audit can do for you </li></ul><ul><li>Ponder exciting future advancements </li></ul>

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“ Who are these guys?” <ul><li>Peter Stahl </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Lead User Experience Designer at eBay </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Design patterns, holistic design </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Led the interaction audit </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Plays oboe </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Josh Damon Williams </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Senior User Experience Designer at Hot Studio </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Wide variety of projects and roles </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Key strategist for interaction audit </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Plays turntables </li></ul></ul>

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Interaction Audit team <ul><li>eBay </li></ul><ul><li>Deborah Adams Estrada, Jennifer Anderson, Jennifer Kelly, Preston Smalley , Peter Stahl, Karenina Susilo </li></ul><ul><li>Hot Studio </li></ul><ul><li>Jon Littell, David Paige, Josh Damon Williams </li></ul><ul><li>Persistent Systems </li></ul><ul><li>Prasad Bartakke, Chaitrali Dhole, Rajesh Gode </li></ul>

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Part 1 Why audit interactions?

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Look & Feel

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Look & Feel

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silk

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water

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[photo of mouse and/or trackpad and/or Wacom tablet ] Feel: How you operate it with your hands

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<ul><li>Q: What interactive elements to use? </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Q: What interactive elements to use? </li></ul><ul><li>A: All of them </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Q: What interactive elements to use? </li></ul><ul><li>A: Hmmm… </li></ul>

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Feel affects: <ul><li>Learning curve </li></ul><ul><li>Mental bandwidth needed to operate UI </li></ul><ul><li>User success (or errors) </li></ul><ul><li>Site personality </li></ul><ul><li>Brand promise </li></ul><ul><li>Adoption (or abandonment) </li></ul>

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eBay Site Experience: a Holistic View

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Feel

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Part 2 What we did

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Project phases <ul><li>Strategy </li></ul><ul><li>Data Collection </li></ul><ul><li>Analysis </li></ul><ul><li>Recommendations </li></ul>

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Project phase 1: STRATEGY

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Ark of the Covenant A “compelling artifact”

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Example flow: New user finds an item, bids for it, registers as member

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Example flow: User bids on a Watched item, is outbid, rebids

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Example flow: New seller lists item for sale, creates Seller account

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Audit checklist

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Project phase 2: DATA COLLECTION

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FILE MAKER Ω Our FileMaker Pro database

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Database Fields (partial list) <ul><li>Very relevant: </li></ul><ul><li>Task & subtask </li></ul><ul><li>Step description </li></ul><ul><li>Page & URL </li></ul><ul><li>Action (syntactic) </li></ul><ul><li>Screen shot close-up </li></ul><ul><li>Instructional text </li></ul><ul><li>Click/keystroke record </li></ul><ul><li>Less relevant: </li></ul><ul><li>Region on page </li></ul><ul><li>Icons </li></ul><ul><ul><li>symbol, meaning, behavior </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Interface elements </li></ul><ul><ul><li>label, type, style, notes </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Comments on Feel </li></ul>

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Project phase 3: ANALYSIS

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Roll of Paper

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Scrolls unrolled Flows as storyboards

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Ideas for presenting findings

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Radial charts to track Feel metrics

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Emotional flow to track Feel effects

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A course correction

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Project phase 4: RECOMMENDATIONS

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[DOCUMENT FORMAT SLIDE (FROM MY NOTEBOOK)]

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<ul><li>“ Affordance” </li></ul><ul><li>A visual cue that some interaction is offered </li></ul><ul><li>“ Affordance Inconsistency” </li></ul><ul><li>A single visual cue offering multiple interactions </li></ul>

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Affordance Inconsistencies: Hyperlink User action… System response… Affordance Inconsistencies: Hyperlink Loads new page Clicks link… Immediate in-line response Clicks link…

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Affordance Inconsistencies: Hyperlink User action… System response… Opens modal dialog box Clicks link… Expands/collapses in-line page content Affordance Inconsistencies: Hyperlink Clicks link…

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Affordance Inconsistencies: Hyperlink Clicks link… Jump to anchor elsewhere on page Clicks link… Opens content in new browser window Affordance Inconsistencies: Hyperlink User action… System response…

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Affordance Inconsistencies: Hyperlink Clicks link… Closes a popup layer Clicks link… Adds assistance frame to window User action… System response… Affordance Inconsistencies: Hyperlink

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Affordance Inconsistencies: Tab Affordance Inconsistencies: Tab

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<ul><li>“ Task” </li></ul><ul><li>A path to accomplish an immediate goal </li></ul><ul><li>“ Task Inconsistency” </li></ul><ul><li>A single goal accomplished via multiple paths </li></ul>

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Task Inconsistencies: Filtering Data 1. Submit a form 2. Click tabs 3. Click criteria links 4. Click “toggle” link Task Inconsistencies: Filtering Data

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5 x Enable/Disable Form Section Inconsistencies Task Inconsistencies: Enable/Disable Section of a Form 1. Checkbox 2. Tabs 3. Dropdown menu 4. Radio buttons

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<ul><li>“ Data Object” </li></ul><ul><li>A representation of a data record or other piece of data </li></ul><ul><li>“ Data Object Inconsistency” </li></ul><ul><li>A single data object represented multiple ways </li></ul>

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Data Object Inconsistencies: Members CAPTURES Data Object Inconsistencies: eBay Member

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Data Object Inconsistencies: Members Data Object Inconsistencies: eBay Member

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The Interaction Audit report

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Part 3 Actions & Future Directions

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A page from the Interaction Audit

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Interaction goals <ul><li>Low learning curve, due to… </li></ul><ul><li>Consistent cues for actions </li></ul><ul><li>Predictable behavior of affordances </li></ul><ul><li>Instant recognition of interface elements </li></ul><ul><li>Allow eBay member content to shine </li></ul>

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Clean-up teams <ul><li>The Clickers links and buttons </li></ul><ul><li>The Swappers tabs and toggles </li></ul><ul><li>The Submitters forms and form elements </li></ul><ul><li>The Shufflers sorting and filtering </li></ul><ul><li>The Disclosers overlays and sections </li></ul>

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An eBay design pattern

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Clean-up process <ul><li>Find problem area in the audit report </li></ul><ul><li>Recommend simpler set of interactions </li></ul><ul><li>Document as design patterns </li></ul><ul><li>Engineering creates code components </li></ul><ul><li>New and upgraded site areas use the cleaned-up interactions </li></ul>

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What about interaction inconsistencies without obvious solutions? Example: Customize page layout

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6. Paired ordered lists w/buttons Task Inconsistencies: Customize page layout 3. Schematic picture with buttons 5. Hyperlinks 2. Dropdown menu 4. Form in floating dialog 1. Form on its own page

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Basic requirements: restaurant Basic requirements: - Clean dishes & utensils - Courteous staff - Accurate check tabulation - No cockroaches

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Site-specific values: restaurant Basic requirements: - Clean dishes & utensils - Courteous staff - Accurate check tabulation - No cockroaches Site-Specific Value: Marrying food and wine felicitously So must have: Comprehensive wine list Site-Specific Value: Joy in boundless variety So must have: Extensive menu Site-Specific Value: Convenience So must have: Speedy customer throughput

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Basic requirements: interaction design Basic requirements: - Navigable interface - Orientation cues - Consistent basic interactions - No cockroaches

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Site-specific values: interaction design Site-Specific Value: - Plethora of tools to help buyers - Compatibility So must have: - Dense pages - Progressive discovery Site-Specific Value: - Clean, friendly, safe - Tons of fun add-in applications So must have: - Transparency - Visual app framework Site-Specific Value: - Perceived simplicity - Convenient adding & editing of lists So must have: - Sparse pages - Direct manipulation Basic requirements: - Navigable interface - Orientation cues - Consistent basic interactions - No cockroaches

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Values can vary depending on the conversation

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“ Feel” metrics

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Feel metrics: objective <ul><li>Page dimensions </li></ul><ul><ul><li>height, width </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Number of interactive entities </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Hyperlinks, buttons, form elements, icons </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Interactive density </li></ul><ul><ul><li>No. of interactive entities ÷ page size </li></ul></ul><ul><li>“ Jack-in-the-boxiness” </li></ul><ul><ul><li>No. of mouse-over elements ÷ page size </li></ul></ul>

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Feel metrics: semi-objective <ul><li>Number of syntactic actions in a task </li></ul><ul><li>“ Reloadiness” </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Latencies in response to interactions </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Number/frequency of tool switches </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Mouse to keyboard and back </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Amount of dynamic behavior </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Pop-up layers, video, “sponginess” (layout changes triggered by mouse-over) </li></ul></ul>

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Feel metrics: subjective <ul><li>Number of different interaction styles, metaphors, paradigms in a page or task </li></ul><ul><li>Simplicity/complexity </li></ul><ul><li>Flatness/bumpiness </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Flat = uses only hyperlinks & other primitives </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Bumpy = uses more advanced interactions </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Cognitive load </li></ul>

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What we’ve learned <ul><li>Nowadays it’s important to check “Feel” </li></ul><ul><li>An Interaction Audit can be compelling, actionable, and spark real improvement </li></ul><ul><li>Audits should focus on flows and be representative of real user experience </li></ul><ul><li>Simple tools work; storyboards are key </li></ul><ul><li>Audit for inconsistencies in Affordance, Task, and Data Object representation </li></ul><ul><li>Clean up obvious problems first </li></ul><ul><li>Harder problems require site-specific values </li></ul><ul><li>“ Feel” metrics may hold promise </li></ul>

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Thank you!

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And thanks to Flickr users who generously license their photos with Creative Commons attribution http://flickr.com/photos/ ihtatho /627226315/ http://flickr.com/photos/ cyberslayer /952121271/ http://flickr.com/photos/ dsevilla /97727582/ http://flickr.com/photos/ [email_address] /2334570947/ http://flickr.com/photos/ amanky /1377593634/ http://flickr.com/photos/ mastrobiggo /2341517672/ http://flickr.com/photos/ shuttleworth /1578035901/ http://flickr.com/photos/ joebeone /1764153258/ http://flickr.com/photos/ michaelcr /856252290/ http://flickr.com/photos/ scenicaviator /289331019/ http://flickr.com/photos/ 0olong /310216817/ http://flickr.com/photos/ thomashawk /2269208776/ http://flickr.com/photos/ briansolis /1411905457/

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Questions