A basic overview of User Experience principles for research, strategy, and design. Includes a little on history, cognitive sciences, gamification, information architecture, LeanUX, research tips, and work samples. Originally gave talk at HackingAsbury on June 22, 2013

1. @chrispalle
@wisdomandcraft
#hackingasbury
human-Centric
research
strategy
design
wisdom
+ craft
UXPRINCIPLES+PROCESS
June 22, 2013
Monday, June 24, 13

2. wisdom
+ craft
@chrispalle
@wisdomandcraft
#hackingasbury
AGENDA
INTRODUCTION
BASICUXPRINCIPLES+concepts
UXASPRACTICE
QUESTIONS?
Monday, June 24, 13

3. WISDOM+CRAFT DEEP DIGITAL
COMPETENCIES
Product+ServiceDesignUserResearch
UXStrategy+PlanninG
CONTENTSTRATEGY Branding+Identity
CommunityManagement
wisdom
+ craft
PROJECTMANAGEMENT
Monday, June 24, 13

4. @chrispalle
@wisdomandcraft
#hackingasbury
human-Centric
research
strategy
design
wisdom
+ craft
BASICUXPRINCIPLES
Monday, June 24, 13
When it comes to what UX is, ultimately there are basically two camps: Those who think we can design a person’s experience (this is called User Experience “Design”) and those who
think we can only design and build a thing – for someone to experience. I’m in the latter group. I believe the user owns their experience. This is important for two reasons: 1- i believe
it’s audacious to think we actually have the ability to manipulate the mind at the level of “experience” so much that we can claim to have designed it. 2 - it forces us to ask, “well, if i
don’t control the experience what can I do to understand it?” and simply, it begins with listening.

5. wisdom
+ craft
NOTTHEPRESENTATIONLAYER
Monday, June 24, 13
the presentation layer is simply the touchpoint in a product or service for others to experience.

6. wisdom
+ craft
NOT THE PRESENTATION LAYER
http://wirewax.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/smart-tv-just-got-smarter/
Monday, June 24, 13
it’s about the social interactions between person and machine and between other people.

7. wisdom
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BASICGOALSOFUX
Easy-to-Use
Useful
Memorable Desirable
Monday, June 24, 13
most basic: Easy-to-use, intuitive, User-Friendliness i.e. Do people even get it?
also fairly basic: useful. Does it provide value?
i put memorable and desirable on the same level because while most times we want our products and services to be memorable and desirable, sometimes, we just need to worry about
one.

8. wisdom
+ craft
THINKHOLISTICALLY
Institutional
rules+objectives
human
wants+needs
Technical
feasibility
Monday, June 24, 13
while we do put them at the forefront. It’s naïve to think we need to only consider our users’ wants and needs.
(this also creates the “Problem Space” which we can talk more about later)

9. wisdom
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DEEPROOTSINCOMMUNICATION
Proto-writing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing
Early Chinese Pictograms
Cuneiform
Protowriting
Kanji
Monday, June 24, 13
How did we get here? There are millennia of progress, to take a look at a few key highlights..
simple language, symbology plays a critical role

10. wisdom
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BOTHSCIENCE+ART
http://www.panomatics.net/theundividedmind/
Monday, June 24, 13
Both Art and Science

11. wisdom
+ craft
THEARTS+ARCHITECTURE
Monday, June 24, 13
I personally think Da Vinci’s artwork is stunning, but also look at these sketches. think about the human-centeredness he instilled in our scientific thinking. Additionally, In architecture,
as we move away from gothic and move into the renaissance, the shapes become less harsh, more rounded. (from crosses to circles)

12. wisdom
+ craft
COGNITIVESCIENCES
get symbology from
early mediabisrto
Psychology
Anthropology
Artificial Intelligence
Education
Linguistics
Neuroscience
Philosophy
Monday, June 24, 13
But this is the core of where our understanding begins. The way people think as a consideration of User Experience is the most critical component to the foundation of our practice.

13. @chrispalle
@wisdomandcraft
#hackingasbury
human-Centric
research
strategy
design
wisdom
+ craft
BASICCONCEPTS
Monday, June 24, 13
By no means is this meant to be comprehensive, but these basic concepts should help you give a bit more thought to how we can better serve people though our organizations’
products, services, ideas.

14. wisdom
+ craft
GAMIFICATION
Monday, June 24, 13
Badges! Levels! and Leaderboards! oh yeah!!

15. wisdom
+ craft
GAMIFICATION
Monday, June 24, 13
not.
Okay. I just have to get this out of the way. Yes, things like Reputation, Status, Achievements will motivate, but that’s just the shallow surface, it’s the underlying principles at work that
make these effective. Leveraging principles that we’ve learned from the cognitive sciences, motivate change in behavior by making the difficult more enjoyable. We’re aiming to create a
sense of flow through engagement with appropriate challenges & rewards.
Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, though.

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LOSSAVERSION
Once we “own” something,
we tend to not want to lose it.
Monday, June 24, 13

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SOCIALPROOF
If someone else is doing it,
others are likely to follow –
especially in uncertain times.
E.G. Reviews, Demonstrations
Monday, June 24, 13

18. wisdom
+ craft
FEEDBACKLOOP
Ford Fusion Dashboard Nest Thermostat
Monday, June 24, 13
we understand our world better and are motivated to change when we know how we impact it.

19. wisdom
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KANO’SMODEL
Monday, June 24, 13
Blue– Performance is parity: theoretically, for every dollar we spend, we get two dollars of performance, but this just on-par with our competition.
Green– If we don’t meet the most basic needs of our users, they will never be satisfied.
Red– In order to break out of the “box of indifference,” we need create something exciting, stimulating e.g. Delighters
Surprises, Being Considerate, Gifting, etc.

20. wisdom
+ craft
HICK’SLAW
Monday, June 24, 13
time to make a decision increases with complexity
Related to the “Paradox of Choice” - more options can lead to a mental freeze.
Solution: try using 7 ± 2 (old rule of “Chunking”)

21. wisdom
+ craft
FITTS’LAW
What the???
Monday, June 24, 13
time required to move to target is a function of the size and distance
seems basic, but can lead to errors and slow performance (human) – Why in the world would we put the Power button next to the delete key???? I guess Apple believes they don’t make
mistakes. ;-)

22. wisdom
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AFFORDANCES
Learn more about: J.J. Gibson and Donald Norman
Monday, June 24, 13
Affordance is a concept first raised by 20th century psychologist J.J. Gibson and popularized by Donald Norman. It basically means that when we see something that interactive, we
should immediately understand what to do with it.

23. wisdom
+ craft
AFFORDANCES
Monday, June 24, 13
I call this a “Norman Door.” This is a unidirectional door. Notice how confusing it is know whether, as a user, we Push or Pull? So much, the designer needed to spell it out - wasting
cognition and space by adding clutter and noise to the design.

24. wisdom
+ craft
To help gather (and share) information
about users, tasks, and goals
To put a human face on analytic data
To spark new design concepts and
encourage collaboration and innovation
To share ideas and create a sense of
shared history and purpose
STORYTELLING
Source: Storytelling for User Experience by Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks
Monday, June 24, 13
Storyboarding can bring raw research facts and data to life, or draw together disparate data into a cohesive whole that the team can act upon.

25. wisdom
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LEANUX
State your desired outcomes
Hypothesize; Write the test first
Design an Experiment
Make an Minimally Viable Product (MVP)
Get out of the Building
Team Synthesis
Repeat
Ideas
Build
Test
Measure
Data
Learn
Source: Either Josh Seiden, Jeff Gothelf, or Anders Ramsey (sorry guys, can’t remember where we saw this first)
Monday, June 24, 13
Most important on this list: (GET OUT OF THE BUILDING)

26. @chrispalle
@wisdomandcraft
#hackingasbury
human-Centric
research
strategy
design
wisdom
+ craft
INTERVIEWING+
RESEARCHTIPS
Monday, June 24, 13
Okay, with all this chatter about getting out of the office and getting feedback, we wanted to give you some practical tips on how to get some good feedback.

27. wisdom
+ craft
SCIENTIFIC METHODREVIEW
Retain or Reject Hypothesis
Develop Theory
Observation or Experience
Define Problem
Hypothesis
Gather Evidence
Monday, June 24, 13
Quick review.

28. wisdom
+ craft
• Stay Objective
• Be aware of your own interactions; may influence responses
• (Especially your initial greeting)
• Listening is a Gift
• Ask open ended questions
• Don't ask "leading questions"
• Don't Interrupt - two ears, one mouth :-)
• Take Awesome Notes
RESEARCH!
Monday, June 24, 13
Self-awareness. Don’t be too cold, though. You want to be comfortable, but most important, you want your subjects comfortable so they can be more candid.
(leading questions have the answer for which we’re looking baked into the question)

29. wisdom
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• Use the “5 Whys”
• Get to the Cause (not just the correlation)
• Body Language Speaks Volumes
• Be conscious of how you posture yourself
• Use it to your advantage to engage the interviewee
• Be Culture Conscious
• Don’t be assumptive, be careful of your own biases; myopia
• Look for key “action” words
• We’re trying to identify their tasks
RESEARCH!
Monday, June 24, 13
5 Whys
Remember we’re looking for motivations, goals, behaviors. So, get to the root: For every response to a “Why” question, ask “Why” to the response. The rule-of-thumb is that you’ll
get to the root with 5 “whys”

30. wisdom
+ craft
TENDENCIES+BIASES
“Not Invented Here”
Design by Committee and Personal Preference
(or my idea’s the best)
Disabilities (not having them)
Attractiveness Bias & Aesthetic Usability Effect
Monday, June 24, 13

31. @chrispalle
@wisdomandcraft
#hackingasbury
human-Centric
research
strategy
design
wisdom
+ craft
UXASPRACTICE
Monday, June 24, 13
Just as with the concepts, this section is in no way meant to be comprehensive. Just want to give some ideas about what we do and how we get there.

32. discovery strategy design
Business Analysis
Technical Feasibility
User Research
Usability Studies
Ethnography
Card Sorting
Analytics
Planning + Scoping
Waterfall vs. Agile
Vision Articulation
Content
Messaging
Sketching
Prototyping
Information Architecture
Service Design
Detailed Design
Implementation
Monday, June 24, 13
There are really only two modes of activity, which you see in detail on the next slide, but when you’re not static, you’re either learning or generating; thinking or doing.

33. wisdom
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CONTINUOUSINNOVATION
This is part of w+c’s proprietary Design Research Framework™
Monday, June 24, 13
This is how we work together. Cycles can be short, cycles can be long.

34. wisdom
+ craft
EMPATHYMAPPING
http://www.gogamestorm.com/?p=42
Monday, June 24, 13
Empathy Maps, originally developed by XPLANE, is a quick and dirty way to get the institutional knowledge (what your organization already knows) about your end users out in front to
help the team build empathy for them. This can also be used to developed hypotheses for personas that can tested in the field with primary research.

35. wisdom
+ craft
PERSONAS
Monday, June 24, 13

36. wisdom
+ craft
SKETCHING
Monday, June 24, 13

37. wisdom
+ craft
PROTOTYPING
Monday, June 24, 13

38. wisdom
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GONEWRONG
Monday, June 24, 13

39. wisdom
+ craft
SERVICEARCHITECTURE
Monday, June 24, 13

40. wisdom
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CONTENTMAPPING
Monday, June 24, 13

41. wisdom
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INFORMATIONARCHITECTURE
Monday, June 24, 13

42. wisdom
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INFORMATIONARCHITECTURE
Monday, June 24, 13

43. wisdom
+ craft
INFORMATIONARCHITECTURE
Monday, June 24, 13

44. wisdom
+ craft
INFORMATIONARCHITECTURE
Monday, June 24, 13

45. wisdom
+ craft
@chrispalle
@wisdomandcraft
#hackingasbury
THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?
Monday, June 24, 13