Post on 03-Dec-2014
description
Creating a Great User Experience in SharePoint
SPTechCon SFO 2014
Who Is Marc?• Co-Founder and President of Sympraxis
Consulting LLC, located in the Boston suburb of Newton, MA, USA. Sympraxis focuses on enabling collaboration throughout the enterprise using the SharePoint application platform.• Over 30 years of experience in technology professional services and software development. Over a wide-ranging career in consulting as well as line manager positions, Marc has proven himself as a problem solver and leader who can solve difficult technology problems for organizations across a wide variety of industries and organization sizes.
• Awarded Microsoft MVP for SharePoint Server 2011-2014
Session Overview Building solutions in SharePoint isn’t simply about getting the functionality right based on the business requirements.
Developers and designers must think about the entire user experience. How should the user feel when they use this piece of
functionality? Will they see it as saving them work or creating new work? How will it compare to what they see on the consumer Web?
We’ll look at good and bad examples from SharePoint itself, as well as specific customizations.
Forrester Report on SharePoint Adoption“Dissatisfaction is centered on several areas, including adoption challenges, a dislike for the SharePoint user experience, a preference for other tools like email and skepticism over its business value.”“Business management’s dissatisfaction with SharePoint and perception of its value is hurt by uninspired user experiences.
Microsoft SharePoint faces a challenging future: Forrester | PCWorldhttp://www.pcworld.com/article/2027391/microsoft-sharepoint-faces-a-challenging-future-forrester.htmlSharePoint Adoption Faces Three Barriers: Mobile, Social, Cloudhttp://www.slideshare.net/johnrrymer/share-point-survey-2012-slideshare
Use SharePoint as an out-of-box application whenever possible - We designed the new SharePoint UI to be clean, simple and fast and work great out-of-box. We encourage you not to modify it which could add complexity, performance and upgradeability and to focus your energy on working with users and groups to understand how to use SharePoint to improve productivity and collaboration and identifying and promoting best practices in your organization.
What’s the Solution?
SharePoint
Microsoft Doesn't Advise You Customize SharePoint 2013http://www.cmswire.com/cms/information-management/microsoft-doesnt-advise-you-customize-sharepoint-2013-016608.php
What Is “User Experience”?User experience (UX or UE) involves a person's emotions about
using a particular product, system or service. User experience highlights
the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and
product ownership.How does the user feel when they are finished with using
SharePoint?“User experience” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience
Consumer Web The consumer Web is
both a source of inspiration and an anathema for enterprise developers
Our users expect no less than what they see on Facebook, Dropbox, Google, etc.
It’s an expectations problem
Image from The Conversation Prism http://www.theconversationprism.com/
How Can We Succeed?
Form vs. FunctionForm Function
Typically the domain of Designers, Marketing
folks
Typically the domain of
Developers, IT folks
RealityIt has to be both:“function requires
form” The Form v Function Ratio by Dan Antion http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/The-Form-v-Function-Ratio
Information ArchitectureA sound Information Architecture provides: Consistency Simpler maintenance One version of the
truthUse wisely: Content Types Managed metadata List-based Site
ColumnsImage from “Explain IA Poster” http://userallusion.com/blog/2010/10/explain-ia-poster/
Be the User Don’t think about what
SharePoint does or how it does it. Think about what your users want.
Too many developers eschew SharePoint as a collaboration tool. Use what you build.
If it’s too slow or cumbersome to you, guess what? It’s worse for your users.
Collaborative Development Sit with your users Listen to what they
are asking for Repeat what they
want Iterate, iterate,
iterate Lather, rinse,
repeat – It’s never “done”
Agile with a small “a” – roll with the punches
Consultative Services Don’t expect your
users to understand all functionality
Training can’t cover everything –demonstrate patterns
Be an internal consultant
“How can I help you to solve your requirements?”
Use the “Mom Test”Questions to ask:• Can a relatively
inexperienced technophobe make sense of this?
• Do we feel like people will need training? Why?
• How often will they use it?
• Is it visually appealing?• Is it “accessible”?
Don’t Talk About Budget (Too Much) Your end users don’t
care about your budget
Figure out how to help them
Look for quick wins – they can help fund the big changes
Decide if the workloads SharePoint supports are important enough
Find executive support
Speed Matters
Two Seconds
Boston Globe, February 02, 2013: Instant gratification is making us perpetually impatient ow.ly/i8Pth
Ramesh Sitaraman, a computer science professor at UMass Amherst, examined the viewing habits of 6.7 million Internet users in a study released in 2012. How long were subjects willing to be patient?
Do you think that’s gotten any longer?
Size Matters Views should show
the amount of information required to make decisions, no more
Carefully balance server side and client side code
Large images can kill the UX
Lowest Common Denominator Know your user base
Browsers Brands Versions
Screens Size Resolution Shape
Bandwidth Available RAM
Image from NetMarketShare – timeframe = Q1 2014http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&qpcustomd=0&qptimeframe=Q
“It works on my machine” doesn’t
cut it.
Mind the Fold If users have to scroll
every time they land on a page, you’ve put things in the wrong place
Eyes scan from upper left to lower right, much as a TV “paints” the screen
Image 2: F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/
Use Real Estate Wisely Decide on your design
aesthetic Few dense pages vs. many sparse pages
Graphics vs. text Color vs. monochrome
Pet Peeve: Executive images or senseless banners
Error Messages Please, please,
please NEVER: “Contact your administrator”
Correlation IDs – Good idea, horrible execution, especially for SharePoint Online
Tell the user: What happened? What did I do to make it happen? How can I fix it?
Relinquish Control Remove the
developer from the equation
List-Based Settings vs. Property bags
Give users control – it’s their system
Focus on important development work
SharePoint 2010 Example:Switching Views
Additional Thoughts and Contradictions Consistency to a fault -
Don’t be constrained by what SharePoint gives you
Yet, you’ve bought a box, don’t stray too far out of it
Name it – it’s not SharePoint
Visual cues – not just textIt always comes back to “It
Depends”
Remember…
Form vs. FunctionForm Function
Typically the domain of Designers, Marketing
folks
Typically the domain of
Developers, IT folks
RealityIt has to be both:“function requires
form” The Form v Function Ratio by Dan Antion http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/The-Form-v-Function-Ratio
Contact InformationEmail marc.anderson@sympraxisconsulting.
comTwitter @sympmarc
Blog http://sympmarc.com
SPServices http://spservices.codeplex.com
SPXSLT http://spxslt.codeplex.com
Books http://sympmarc.com/books
The Middle Tier Manifesto
http://bit.ly/middletier