AIGA Advance for Design 4 | Scottsdale, AZ Documenting our knowledge for practice and education The...

© 2001 AIGA AIGA Advance for Design 4 | Scottsdale, AZ

Documenting our knowledge for practice and educationThe 4th AIGA Advance for Design

SummitE X P E R I E N C E D E S I G N

Usability Specialist

Steve KrugUsability Specialist, First ClassAdvanced Common Sense.

> [email protected]

Eugene ChenDirector of Design and AnalysisAaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.

> [email protected]





Not present at time of photo:

Keith InstoneWeb Usability ConsultantCurator, Usable Web

> [email protected]




Usability SpecialistA hat worn by members of a design team when evaluating and testing, or when focusing on use, i.e. almost all the time.

To be most effective, usability specialists have a strong understanding of design and vice versa.





"I was going to say I saw a duckie or a horsie, but I changed my mind."




Usability Specialist(noun, proper) Person who for one reason or another is good at helping people who design and build things—like software, alarm clocks, and fighter jets—figure out how to make them easier to use




Usability Specialist(job title / attitude) The person within an organization who eats, sleeps, breaths usability. That means:Doing usability work to improve the

quality of a project / productTeaching usability concepts to other

team members to help them do better work

Promoting usability with strategic insights based on this specialization




AThemes of what we actually do

1. Problem types, or project types

2. Primary concepts that guide the work

3. Typical collaborators

4. Immediate and the ultimate goals of the work






1. Problem types, or project types: Evaluate usability Create usability (design)


Strategy Usability

Design





1. Problem types, or project types: Determine what elements of a design

are making it hard to use, and… Help the people designing and building

it find a better solution (triage and creative problem solving)

Train them to do it on their own in the future

Project types include designing a new Web site redesigning or adding features to

an existing site






1. Problem types, or project types:

Ultimate product: UI design for

Desktop productivity applications Websites (e.g. portals, communications) Web applications (queries, transactions) In-car navigation devices Handheld devices Kiosk systems Home information-appliance and Interactive TV Computer- and web-based training/learning

products

Product Types: Revolution (next generation) Evolution (add features to existing design)






1. Problem types, or project types:

Artifacts: Reports (needs analysis, user profiles, task

analysis, evaluation, recommendations etc.) Designs (metaphors/concepts, information,

interaction, appearance) Products

Design Documentation Style guidelines, standards, and templates






1. Problem types, or project types:Processes:

Beginning: plan, research, analyze Iterate: ideate, design, prototype, evaluate End: document, train, maintain


Strategy Usability

Design





1. Problem types, or project types:a. The products and corresponding

processes for addressing them

Expert reviews User tests Consultation (listening to clients’

description of dilemma and offering advice, or problem solving with them)






1. Problem types, or project types:a. The products and corresponding

processes for addressing them (ditto, plus 1 more

thing)

Organizational “pain”: Training on usability principles & other types of usability therapy to help make the pain go away






1. Problem types, or project types:b. an inventory of tools and techniques

Techniques:

User Profiles

User Interviews

Scenarios, Task Analysis

Contextual Observation

Participatory Design

Focus Groups and Informal Testing

Formal Testing

Evaluations (Methods: heuristic evaluation, cogntive walkthrough, collaborative inspection Focus: consistency, cultural appropriateness, labels, help, icons etc.)








Strategy Usability

Design

Focus Groups

Comparative Analysis

Project Management

Evaluations

Testing

Information Design

Interaction Design

Appearance Design

User Interviews

User Profiles

Scenarios

Task Analysis

Participatory Design

Branding

Contextual Observation






Tools:

Whiteboard and sticky notes Digital camera and video camera

Director, Illustrator, Photoshop, Word, PowerPoint

Extranets and email







Expert review Informal usability testing (neighbors) Formal usability testing (recruited) Simple user profiles User interviews (preferably in

context) Annotated screenshots (hundreds) Photoshop-doctored designs (when

words fail)







(ditto, but with 3 angles)

Doing, Teaching, & Promoting each/any/all of these

techniques






2. Primary concepts that guide the work:

a. The User is centralb. To get good ideas, get lots of ideasc. Iteration is indispensable

and occurs on various levelsd. Begin with the Root Causes and Big

Picture then hone in

e. Where usability is the priority, Form tends to follow Function








a. Anything you want people to use must be many times more self-evident and forgiving than you care to imagine

b. It’s seldom too late to reconsider your basic premises

c. My mother should “get” most Web sites. (I have never heard a “Power user” complain that something was too easy to understand.)

d. All Web use is idiosyncraticCorollary: Most generalizations

about Web useand Web users are a fool’s errand.

What counts is “Does this design, in this context,

work for most users when they try it?”







c. Usability methods make the experience better (other methods contribute, too, of course)

d. User-centered techniques and attitudes can help “non-usability people” “do their thing” better

e. Organizational change is often the biggest roadblock to making it happen, so you have to think and act strategically

f. “It depends”: figure out the trade-offs, make informed decisions, “if you try to please everyone, you will please no one”





3. Typical Collaborators:

a. Internal Designer/Analysts Project Managers







b. External Users Subject-matter experts (SMEs) Product managers and marketers Engineering managers and

implementors Business executives, venture capitalists Other usability and design professionals,

e.g. branding firm, industrial designers Hired specialists, e.g. writing, illustration







a. Internal None “The Agony of the Self-employed”







b. External Web development team members

- Project managers - Designers - Developers - Marketing types - Information architects - Talented Web navigation writers

Fellow “usability specialists”







a & b. Internal, External (ditto, plus) Any one who will listen and either buys

into the concepts or sees where they promote their own agenda (“the org chart only helps me know when I am more likely to get into trouble”)






4. Immediate and ultimate goals of the work:

Getting technology out of the way, creating seamlessness

Enabling flow: reducing annoyance, recovering time Providing better human service, respect Making technology responsive to people rather than

vice-versa Similar to zoning or public planning: Maintaining

standards of cleanliness and safety in public spaces Similar to consumer advocacy: evaluating

performance/handling, comfort, convenience, reliability/safety, value

Similar to fengshui, creating harmony in environs






4. Immediate and ultimate goals of the work:

“Ship” a Web site that visitors can use for its intended purpose

Make the product as efficient, satisfying, successful, frustration-free, and foolproof as possible, given the available resources

Educate team members so usability is “built into” their future work






4. Immediate and ultimate goals of the work (ditto, plus):

Support the bottom-line (i.e., be a smart business decision, and the rest will take care of itself)





BThemes of what we need to know

1. ‘Design’ concepts and methods

2. What else beyond ‘Design’

3. Kinds of education needed for the future

4. Kinds of research to help us in the future

5. Five key colleges/universities/design schools that we look to for inspiration, leadership and recruiting






1. ‘Design’ concepts and methods:

a. From traditional design field (technical) Visual design principles (typography,

hierarchy, layout, Gestalt, color, economy etc.)

Human factors User behavior, preferences Semiotics: the science of signs Rhetoric: practices of communication

and persuasion Information Visualization (Tufte)







a. From traditional design field (people) Ability to analyze needs (facilitation,

active listening) Client management Common sense







b. New elements of our practice Design system profoundly interacted

on by user and other systems Dynamic environment (user preferences and

profiles, dynamic data and layouts, adaptation to various devices and contexts, collaboration)

Users are increasingly overloaded with information

User can easily access many competing designs, features must sell themselves

Design accesses many competing multi-cultural users

Including Novices and Norwegians







b. New elements of our practice Technology rapidly changes constraints

and opportunities. Old solutions become obstacles (e.g. file systems)

Multimedia and Multi-modal (graphics, text, sound, voice)







a. From traditional design field What he said (minus “Semiotics”) “Wayfinding” and public-space

signage

b. New elements of our practice Interaction/choice-based medium (Do

we really know what this means?) WYSINWID (“…not what I designed”) Designing large information spaces

full of unique design needs, with comparatively few well-established conventions







a. From traditional design field (ditto, plus)

Hypertext: content + user interface (as implemented today with links and navigation)

b. New elements of our practice (ditto, plus)

Hypertext: as implemented tomorrow with inclusions and collaboration [Nelson and Berners-Lee]






2. What else beyond “Design”:

a. Business operations ROI of design and usability,

development of metrics Winning an appropriate share of

development timeb. Management practices Project management (risk,

expectation, scheduling, resources, cost, quality, scope)

Motivation and leadership Evangelism and education of usability

and design, integration into culture






2. What else beyond “Design”: c. Economic, social, cultural

conditions/processes Digital divide; global culture The network as a public space; politics Accessibility issues (inc. OSHA impact) Ubiquitous computing: Processors being

embedded into everyday products Commodification of design and usability

(everyone becomes an expert) Difficulty of innovating and predicting

adoption







d. Most relevant technical disciplines to support our work?

Ethnography Psychology Cultural studies Rhetoric, persuasion, semiotics Business modeling







a. Business operations How to gauge practicality of business

models d’jour

b. Management practices Project management

c. Economic, social, cultural conditions/processes

Accessibility issues







d. Most relevant technical disciplines to support our work?

Ethnography (field work practices) Document design (e.g. Karen Schriver)

e. Other Creative problem solving (team and

individual)






2. What else beyond “Design”: (ditto, plus)

a & b. Business operations & Management practices

Bridge between technical and business, one of the few to understand both

c. Economic, social, cultural conditions/processes

Universal Usability (universalusability.org, work in progress) brings all of these issues together nicely for me






3. Kinds of education needed for the future:

a. Balance of liberal education and professional specialization

UI Design, Visual Design, Rhetoric, Semiotics, Culture, Technology, Tools

Broad, yet specialized Able to move into and contribute to

different situations, but still able to do something







b. Program features Theoretical curriculum grounded in

industry context, history and future Pioneering moments, consumer adoption trends,

case studies, revenue models

Reading list of canonical texts/papers Project-based courses

Presentation and review Studio space for community and collaboration

External community involvement Work for non-profits Guest lecturers from industry

Fundamentals taught technology-independent







a. Balance of liberal education and professional specialization

What he said (minus “Semiotics”)

b. Program features Extended exposure to Web users via

extensive field experience (e.g., conducting user tests and contextual interviews)

Multiple internships: Design firm, non-profit org, and industry






3. Kinds of education needed for the future: (ditto, plus nothing from here on. I bet Steve and Eugene are running late on time already, so adding slides here would just make them feel worse.)






4. Kinds of research to help us in the future:

a. Research in design Sophisticated user models so UIs can

“understand” and respond better Theories of design for “baby faces” (small

displays with multi-modal interaction) Value of design in the business world Evolving extensible standards

b. Research in other fields Human factors data for each new

technology (e.g. new input/output devices) Understanding canonical uses and user-

types (e.g. novice professional search strategies)







b. Research in other fields Knowledge visualization: depicting

structures and processes, plus action plans Culture and communication: semiotics and

culture models; metrics of impact of culture dimensions on performance and appeal (e.g., Geert Hofstede, Cultures and

Organizations, McGraw-Hill, NY, 1997) Theories of trust, credibility, and persuasion

(e.g., Robert Cialdini, “The Science of Persuasion,” Sci Amer., Vol, 284, No. 2, pp. 76-81, www.influenceatwork.com)







a. Research in design Compilation of Web best practices

b. Research in other fields Decision making (e.g. Gary Klein, Sources

of Power: How People Make Decisions) Eye tracking and scene perception (how do

we decide what to look at?) Visual hierarchies (what “rules” do we use

to parse the text and graphics on a page?) Pragmatic field observation methods (e.g.

Paco Underhill, Why We Shop)






5. Key colleges/universities/design schools that we look to for inspiration, leadership and recruiting:

a. Schools Univ. of California/Berkeley, EECS,

Human-Centered Computing Program Illinois Inst. of Technology, Inst. of

Design NYU, Interactive Telecomm. Program MIT, Media Lab Carnegie-Melon University, HCI Program Univ of Maryland, CS, HCI Lab Rhode Island School of Design







b. Colleagues Microsoft Apple, HI Lab IBM, User Centered Design Robert Cialdini, U. New Mex. (persuasion)

Geert Hofstede, U. of Maastricht, Neth. Umberto Eco, Univ of Bologna (semiotics) Jakob Nielsen, NNG (usability)







a. Schools MIT, Media Lab







b. Colleagues Lou Rosenfeld Lou Rosenfeld Jakob Nielsen


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