UX Architecture for the Small Guy

Leading Today: Gary Barber @tuna

Church of User eXperience

Design

Welcome to the

Today’s Sermon

UX Architecturefor the Small Guy

© istockphoto.com

User Experience Design

DEF: a subset of the field of experience design that pertains to the creation of the architecture and interaction models that impact a user's perception of a device or system. The scope of the field is directed

at affecting "all aspects of the user’s interaction with the product: how it is

perceived, learned, and used

...like any other machine - they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem.

Don Norman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_design




User Experience

DEF: the perception left after a series of interactions.

“Design is the art of gradually applying constraints until only one solution remains”

Eric Reiss

Unknown

Two Hotels

UX is about perception and product confidence

www.flickr.com/photos/10634319@N00/3206552644

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10634319@N00/3206552644


Two Web Sites

UX is about removing the frustration

Usable UX

“Usability is something we do in UAT, right?”Client

www.flickr.com/photos/51035583134@N01/1647545 www.flickr.com/photos/52971398@N00/2193315363





Design Reality

Stakeholders

Customers

SPEC

DESIGN

DEVUAT

Small Project Reality

Stakeholders

Customers

SPEC

DESIGN

DEV

Wish List - Agile UX

DESIGN

USERTESTUSER

TEST

USERTEST

DESIGNDEV

DEV

Stakeholders

Customers

RE

SE

AR

CH

BUSI

NES

S

INFOR

MATIO

NCU

STO

MER

InterationZero

BUILD

BRAI

NST

ORM

Roles with UX Project

DESIGNER

DEVELOPER

PROJECT MANAGER

UX ARCHITECT

DESIGNER

DEVELOPER

PROJECT MANAGER

Small Projects

Stakeholders

Customers

SPEC

DESIGN

DEV

The Web is Not Print




Web is Print?

Web

Print

Is it Bad Habits

© istockphoto.com

• No Budget

• No Skills

• No Time

• We’ll do it next time

• It doesn’t work

• No one else is doing it

Money Talks

“But, I just want a website for $X dollars”

Client




UX & User Centered Design

UCD doesn’t appear to work well with Small Projects

© istockphoto.com

Reality Check for UCD

UCD doesn’t appear to fit with Small Projects

UCD focuses on the Users

“If the user can’t use it, it doesn’t work”Susan Dray

© istockphoto.com

Client

Remove the Users?

“Maybe we’re better off without the Users”


Client



Business + User Focus

Centralised Business and User based Approach




UX Architecture is not a Methodology

“I don’t care about User Experience I just want to sell products”Client




UX Tool Kit

Over 50 tools, techniques and methods to ensure the best UX




Should it Stay or Should it Go

Remember every project is different“it Depends”




Business Research • Stakeholder Interviews

• Business Requirements

• Competitor Review

• Expert Review

• Peer Review

• Web Analytics Review




Stakeholder InterviewsRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : You are going to be talking to your client anyway, why not ask a few open ended questions, to gather even more information


n/a



Business RequirementsRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Even better if the client has these done for you. Sometimes a Brainstorming session helps cement the real vs political requirements.


n/a



Competitor ReviewRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Don’t overload this process, keep it short and snappy, if it adds nothing new to the list, move on. Like a lit review for the Web.


n/a



Expert ReviewRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Not a replacement for User Testing. Use only if budget is really tight. Can only really give you the general problem areas. No one is an expert.


n/a



Peer ReviewRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Do them on forums, down the pub, be open with your peers to get real feedback. Avoid the back slapping crowd. Review, review and review


n/a



Web Analytics ReviewRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Greatly dependent on the depth of the statistics available, Often poor on small projects. Pay Special attention to the Search Analyics. Experienced analysis can bring out worthwhile user pathways


n/a



Information Research

• Content Audit

• Card Sort






Content Audit/InventoryRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Remember content is king, this has to be done. You can’t design without at least a sketchy idea of what the content is. Expect lost content to be found later.


n/a



Card SortingRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Good tool for information or functional categorisation. Don’t over use. Don’t over analyse, users can get it wrong. Can use Affinity Diagram as well for general logical grouping.






Customer/User Research• User Priming

• User Interviews

• Field Studies

• User Surveys

• Focus Groups

• Personas

• User Stories

• Task Analysis

• Mental Models

www.flickr.com/photos/50138555@N00/580711370 www.flickr.com/photos/22023529@N00/341543757 www.flickr.com/photos/28260247@N07/3366216596 www.flickr.com/photos/77309394@N00/105439262





User PrimingRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Some users will “cheat”, expect this, but you will notice it, people find this easier to do than a diary. Helps start an interview. Drawing the experience

www.flickr.com/photos/49106033@N00/459905744 www.flickr.com/photos/37484601@N00/3513672579 www.flickr.com/photos/35955268@N00/474693912







User InterviewsRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : A very small pool is okay 4-5 people. Interviews don’t have to be long, just open ended. Forget transcripts, you will not have the time to do them. Record if you must, just you will not review it.




User SurveysRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Unless you are very experienced or have training in survey writing, don’t DIY. Real costs can be very high for Small Projects.




Focus GroupsRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : At best they are artificial constructs, open to group dynamics like a jury. Not suited to UX research at all. Avoid!




Field StudiesRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Shadowing and contextual enquiry useful. Allow for believe what you see not what the user tells you. Ethnographic Studies also applicable.




PersonasRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Making fake people, good generalist behavioural patterns in personas. Maybe a Persona Pattern Library is in order. Sketched personas better than detailed ones. Adhoc Personas should be considered.

www.flickr.com/photos/33947185@N00/3681279223http://www.flickr.com/photos/20561948@N00/117335513

n/a





User StoriesRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Easy to compile from previous research. Fast and effective, look for simple patterns of task and behaviour. Don’t over analyse, accept what is.


n/a



Task Analysis Required:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Summary tool for listing task patterns, functionality, information processes and refining them. KIS. Will feed into story boarding, flow diagrams and prototyping. Can use GOMS on this too.


n/a







Mental ModelsRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Good for confirming information and functional categorisation. Behaviour and task based nature takes too much time. Need a faster analysis method.


n/a



Brainstorming• Critical to all project

types

• Bridge from Research to Design

• Generate New Ideas from Research

• Pattern Matching

• Time to see the Patterns




Design• User Testing

• Navigational Design

• Story Boarding

• FLow Charting

• Mood Boards

• Wireframes

• Graphical Mockup

• Prototyping

www.flickr.com/photos/22023529@N00/537603811 www.flickr.com/photos/22023529@N00/8044425www.flickr.com/photos/41211045@N00/34679639







User TestingRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Do it anywhere, coffee shop, lunchroom, remotely. Avoid the lab. Small pools are allowed. Should be used to confirm and discover all the time in UX. At least consider A/B testing.

www.flickr.com/photos/13316988@N00/3231977570www.flickr.com/photos/25642587@N00/2724175411





Navigational DesignRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Small content mean less categorisation, less options. Still look for new pathways to navigate. Use simple Tree testing.


n/a



Story BoardingRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Can be traditional, photoboard, stick figures, movieboard, flash based screen prototypes. Lots tool available. Remember to keep it sketchy, produce at a fast and furious rate. Also consider Task and Story Boards as Swinlanes.

www.flickr.com/photos/37074888@N00/4037629205www.flickr.com/photos/70321513@N00/3975307520

n/a





Flow ChartingRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Work well with Use Cases. Task, functionality and screen flow can all be mapped. Helps bridge designers and developers. Combine wireframes and flowcharts to get wireflows.


n/a





Mood BoardsRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Quick and easy to produce. Show emotional landscape. Supporting the visceral response of the cognitive process. Need to elicited an emotional response.


n/a



WireframesRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Need to be quick, not detailed masterpieces. Document the basics and move on. Do we really need them if rapid prototyping is used. Use Pattern Libraries.


n/a







Graphical MockupRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Mockups in Photoshop can take too long, move to Browser mockups. Consider collaged mockups from competitors or like functional sites to get visual direction, like an extention of Participatory Design.

© radharc.com.au

n/a

PrototypingRequired:

Time:

Cost:

Reliability:

Influence:

Small Projects:

Small Guy Parable : Use paper, pens, bottle tops, whiteboards to interactive generators from Axure to Screenflow. Document with photos or screenshots, KIS. Use Pattern Libraries. Give the site a human personality.


n/a





UX Elements of Rapture

Stakeholder Interviews

Business Requirements

Content Audit

User Interviews

Navigational Design

Brainstorming

User Testing

Task Analysis

Mood Boards

Graphical Mockups

Prototypes

Waterfall vs Whirlpool

Regardless of Waterfall or Agile projects, UX can be used in both






UX is Hard

Client wants a cheap option - don’t go with the Gut!




Design is about Failure

“Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.”C.W. Ceram

© istockphoto.com

AddIdeas

AddIdeas Final

Product

Time

No. ofIdeas

Concept Generation

Lost Ideas

“The public is more familiar with bad design than good design.”Paul Rand

© istockphoto.com

Final Product

Time

No. ofIdeas

Concept Generation

Lost Ideas

Lost Ideas

Time to Get Ideas!

“The only thing more expensive than writing software is writing bad software”

Alan Cooper




Selling UX

Reality check - UX can be seen as expensive window dressing




No Jargon!

Just like IT cut the techo-babble, so we have too.




Speak Business

Talk like an Accountant, Marketeer, Human Resources, CEO




CEO’s Love Design

Clients like to be involved, it’s more interest than Accounts




The Commandments

Is too much documentation drowning UX in costs?

© istockphoto.com

DESIGN

USERTEST

USERTEST

USERTEST

DESIGNDEV

DEV

RESEARCH

BUSINESS

INFOR

MATIO

NCU

STOMER

InterationZero

BUILD

BRAINSTORM

• UX is about Business and Users

• Stop the old ways

• UX can be Agile

• User research is important

• Don’t go with the gut

• Selling UX is more important than the design

Questions

GARY BARBER

@tuna

manwithnoblog.com

radharc.com.au

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Australia License Typeface - Footlights Flickr attribution on relevant slide

Local UX Resources

• UX BookClub - uxbookclub.org

• Usability Professionals’ Association - www.upassoc.org

• Information Architect Institute - iainstitute.org

• Mailing Lists:

✴ IxDA - ixda.org

UX Architecture for the Small Guy

Design

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