Something I learned about
A Business Graduate turned UX-er
Newbie on

Contents of this slide are solely based on
my personal learning experience and observation.
sa@netizentesting.com @ChiewSA
I might be wrong!
Let’s talk!
Do not expect the following slides to be visually appealing.
I’m trying the lean way with words, you can call it ‘LEAN EXCUSE’.
When One Shares, Everyone Wins

“Thanks for your great talk.
So, can I conclude that we should focus
on UI first, then only UX?”
A respond by an audience, after a very good UX talk by a speaker. @UXSG

I was shocked by the response
The speaker had made it clear that “you should focus on UX first,
then UI..”
On my mind..
“Hey, I would have had the same thought as the audience if I
were listening to the same talk a year ago. Because, you won’t
really understand UX until you try it yourself..”
Reason for created this slide: sharing my mistakes, observations and experience.

I read books and I thought I will be doing quite good.
I did not believe in UX, until I experience it myself.
Although I did not admit, I doubted UX.
Some Mistakes
The same happened to me (business graduate), my friend (communication graduate) and even UI graduates..

Reading is good
but you have to experience it yourself
You have to experience the first ‘heartbreaking’ moment when you test your design with real users.. (& more)

Like many people..
I thought it is only about DESIGN (visual/graphic)
UX = UIUser Experience User Interface

What Really Happened Behind
UX Iceberg - http://conversionxl.com/8-effective-ways-of-measuring-ux/
This is what people see
uxtactics.com

Then I realized.. UX≠UI
There are many interesting diagrams concerning UX (simply Google it!), this is my favourite.
http://www.helloerik.com/treatise-on-user-experience-design-part-1
This caught my interest!

What I like about UX
Using DESIGN to solve problem..
Utilizing the power of design to achieve your business objective
and/or empower your users to achieve their objectives.

The $300 million button story
Problem: Customers do not purchase from a major e-commerce site.
Approach: Usability Testing to find out that the real problems.
Findings: Users did not know that they can purchase without member
registration (design flaws).
Fixes: Removed and replaced ‘Register’ button with ‘Continue’ button and
add a simple description.
Results: purchase increased by 45%, additional 300 million sales in the first
year.
Read more: http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button/

A typical UX design process involves..
There are many step-by-step processes proposed by different practitioners,
It typically starts with Research -> Analysis ->Design -> Test -> Iterate

We will talk a bit about..
& more
+
Only quick intro and some tips based on my past learning.

Usability testing (or User Testing)
is a technique used in user-centered interaction design
to evaluate a product by testing it on users.
This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice,
since it gives direct input on how real users use the
system.
I FIND YOUR LACK OF TESTS DISTURBING
T E S T I N G

Myths about Usability Testing
“Can you conduct Usability Testing to solve this problem for my site?”
(or User Testing)

Myths about Usability Testing
Of course, I CAN’T ..
Usability Testing is to identify the REAL PROBLEMS, rather than
solving identified problems.

Knowing where is the problem is half the battle won.
If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 55
minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding
the solution.
– Einstein, Albert.
You understand your products more than me.
If you already know what is the (real) problem, you probably know better than anyone else on how to fix it..
Don’t rush for answers
Asking the right questions can be crucial to solve a problem

Usability Testing
• Test early saves you $$$!
Testing at the earlier (or multiple) stages allows you to tweak
quickly and more easily.
It can be very discouraging to tweak a product when it is already
finalized.
It might be too late to make big changes during UAT before
product launch.

Usability Testing
• It’s OKAY to test with prototype/wireframe.
It is easier to tweak a prototype/wireframe than a final product.
Also, it provides good validation insights too.
When tested with prototype/wireframe, users are able to
provide function-focused feedbacks, without being distracted
with UI.
What if I do not have a product to be tested?
You can test on: competitors site, landing page, crowdfunding
campaign, survey forms and more.

Usability Testing
• Test with 1 people using right method > test
with 10 people using wrong method..
Usability Testing sounds easy. In fact, it needs practices to be good.
Asking right questions at the right time is essential.

Usability Testing
A common testing session involves:
User – The one who is going to test a product.
Moderator – moderate the test session by probing user (tasks & questions).
Observer – observes the user interaction and take notes.
Most people see observer an easy role as a note taker.
If you wish to learn more about Usability Testing and case studies that I involved, plz visit http://blog.netizentesting.com

The Unsung Observer
There are generally 3 stages that I encountered on my learning as an observer
Level 1 - Only listen to what user said (think aloud)
Level 2 - Identify issues by observing both what user said and do
Level 3 - Identify issues by just observing what user do without having them talk
I once thought that I will be good and handling the observer job well after reading some tips of being an observer.
‘Only listen to what user said’ in the level 1 is the common mistake that most beginners faced. (Observation from our workshop).
The risk when you reached ‘level 3’,
your complacence might bring you biased data.
Believe in the user, not your own judgement.

Similar to Usability Testing, “You’re not your users”, you test it out to understand the mental model of your users.
Information Architecture (IA)
Is all about on how information is organized,
structured, and presented to users.
IA is important for large site.
Card Sorting – improves findability of a system
a simple technique used to design information architecture.
Put it simply, it helps to organize information

With good IA, comes good UX.
(Validated with Tree/Usability Testing)
Think IA of product categories in shopping mall
Consumers know that DSLR and Point-and-Shoots camera are usually placed together
Camera
Laptops
Printers

Card Sorting
• Usually low-tech (can be high tech too)
• Easy to conduct and effective
The process:
Sorting a series of cards, each labelled with a piece of content or
functionality, into groups that make sense to users.
You can use either Open Card Sorting, Closed Card Sorting or combination of both

Open Card Sorting
Participants are asked to organize topics from content within your website into groups
that make sense to them and then name each group they created in a way that they
feel accurately describes the content.
You will analyze a sitemap alike results
Topics/
Contents
www.
Learn more: http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/card-sorting.html
Learn more: http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/card-sorting.html
Step-by-Step: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/card-sorting-how-many-users-to-test/

Open Card Sorting
Learn more: http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/card-sorting.html
Tips:
Do not ask them to perform content grouping and group naming at the same time!
Perform grouping first, then only proceed to naming.
Authorize participants to rearrange the content grouping from time to time.
(This usually appears when they’re asked to name the groups).
Feel free to learn the reasons why they grouped or named cards in certain ways.
You’re recommended to arrange the cards vertically. (Easier to view)
✓Learn more: http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/card-sorting.html
Step-by-Step: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/card-sorting-how-many-users-to-test/

Closed Card Sorting
Participants are asked to sort topics from content within your website into
pre-defined categories.
It works best when working with a pre-defined set of categories.
Fixed Categories.
Participants need
perform naming.
Learn more: http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/card-sorting.html
Step-by-Step: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/card-sorting-how-many-users-to-test/

Tree Testing (aka. Reversed Card-Sorting)
Tree Testing evaluates the findability of information.
In another words, it evaluates IA (Information Architecture)
It provides answers to “How well users can find items on site?”
Can be conducted before or after Card Sorting.

Tree Testing Example
Home
Camera
DSLR
Point-and-Shoots
Lens
Accessories
Flashes
Tripod
FAQ
Different from traditional usability testing, it is not done on website but a simplified
version of the site structure.
Sample site contents
Should also study whether participants
managed to find the right answer with
first/single or multiple attempts.
“You wish to buy your friend a
DSLR, where do you think you find a DSLR?”
Choices: Camera, Lens, Accessories, FAQ
Ask a question for participant to answer
It can be very complicated on a large site
Recommended Remote tools for Card Sorting / Tree Testing : www.optimalworkshop.com

Improvement Validation (Example)
Usability Testing Results (Design 1 - Before Card Sorting)
2/8 users failed to find item A
4/8 users found item A with difficulty
2/8 users found item A easily
Usability Testing Results (Design 1.1 - After Card Sorting & IA Improvement)
3/8 users found item A with difficulty
5/8 users found item A easily.
Can further validate through Tree Test with more users.

Best Practices
“Can you share some best practices?”
This is the questions that we always get, but..

There is no silver bullet
No One-Size-Fit-It-All solutions

“UX without Research is not UX”
- Nielsen Norman Group
I like this statement but I can’t agree completely with it..
I know there are many designers that craft great UX without user research..

You should conduct research
(testing/interview etc.) but..
There are some design principles that help you improve UX of your products

Some useful design principles
Adapted from Intro to the Design of Everyday Things – Udacity, by Don Norman
Affordances
&
Signifiers
Discoverability
&
Feedback
These are some of the most important characteristics of good designs

Affordances & Signifiers
It took me quite a while to have clear understanding between these two.
The next few slides will further illustrate the difference..
An affordance is often taken as a relation between an object, or an environment,
and an organism that affords the opportunity for that organism to perform an action
Signifier, a sign's physical form (such as a sound, printed word, or image) as distinct
from its meaning
With affordances,
you know you can do something
(perform an action) with it.
With signifiers,
you know what you can do with
it (as described).

Affordances
Affordances
You can throw things in..
(that fit the shapes)
It is a box shaped thing that
you can move, push etc..
Signifiers
Words and graphics that describe what you can throw inside..

Affordances without signifiers
It took me a while to figure out where
should I insert my cash.
I felt stupid and bad for making the
people queueing behind me waited
for a longer time.
Then I found out, I was not the only
one who faced this problem. (phew!)
There are no stupid users, but not-so-good designers.
If u cant make users happy using your product, at least, don’t make them feel stupid..
Parking Pay Station
Signifier
Signifier
Signifier
False
Signifier

Discoverability & Feedback
Affordances & Signifiers are major contributors to Discoverability & Feedback.
Discoverability is about all operations can be discovered by systematic exploration of
menus
Feedback is about sending back information about what action has been done and
what has been accomplished, allowing the person to continue with the activity
Discoverability
(Gulf of Execution)
What can I do?
Feedback
(Gulf of Evaluation)
What happened?

Affordances & Signifiers
A button that I can click to understand how this site works
(affordance) (signifier)
Click on this icon* to navigate to homepage
(affordance) (signifier)
*Signifiers are not only words. Think of Facebook Like Button & Instagram Like Button.

Discoverability – What I can do here?
Learn more about it
Perform search
Room listing
With help of affordances/signifiers
Account & Help

With help of affordances/signifiers
Business Interest – prominent buttons that drive user actions
B
B

Feedback – What happened then?
With help of affordances/signifiers
more selections after inserting keywords

Home, Explore, Camera, News, Profile.
Viewing Style 1, Viewing
Style 2, Locations, Tagged
Photos
More options
Back
Discoverability of Instagram – What can I do here?
To unfollow
(signifiers + affordances)
View Photos

Feedback of Instagram – What happened then?
FEEDBACK
FEEDBACK - You’re now on this page
FEEDBACK
Selected Section
(highlighted)
FEEDBACK
Selected Section
(underlined)
FEEDBACK – Disabled Function (faded)
(signifiers + affordances)

If you were designing a product
• Ask 2 questions.
“Do they know what actions can be taken?” (Discoverability)
“Do they realize what happened?” (Feedback)
Hey! Of course there are more things to learn and ask!

“Hey, that’s Design Thinking/Lean Startup!”
A response that I received when I talked to Design Thinking and
Lean Startup practitioners about the approach we do in UX
design.
I did research and attended their workshops.
Indeed, there are some similarities…
UX Pals?

UXD vs Design Thinking vs Lean Startup
Similar Traits UXD Design Thinking Lean Startup
Empathy
Understand users’
interaction with
product
Understand real
needs of users
Validate ideas with
users
Testing
User testing and
research
Test prototype to
learn
Test fundamental
business
hypotheses
Iteration Prototype* Prototype* MVP*
(UX Design or User Centered Design)
Be HUMAN in your DESIGN..

There are more things
to explore about UX
Service design
Spatial design
Information Architecture
Spatial design
Design Thinking
Lean UX
Product Management
Industrial Design
Visual Design
Content Strategy
Human-Computer-Interaction
Usability
Interaction Design
UX is not applicable to only digital products.

Internet-of-Things Demand of UX
The web is getting more and more personalized too.

Design for Accessibility is not about creating ugly sites
that cater to disabled individuals.
Instead, it can be SELFISH and all about YOU
Simply put, you will get old one day and accidents happened
My Latest Takeaway about UX
Learn more: http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2014/10/uxsg-slides-selfish-accessibility.html

ENEMY of UX?
YOU
U X
Ignorance is the Enemy..

READY TO EXPLORE?
If there is any UX topic that you find it interesting, google it!
There’re plenty of articles and discussions.
Get into experiment as soon as possible.
If you’re shy to find someone for user interview/testing
I’m here: sa@netizentesting.com / @ChiewSA
U
XFirst appeared on http://blog.NetizenTesting.com

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