The Science of UX Design

transcript

Zack NaylorAIGA Statewide Pivot: Crossroads

Aug. 20, 2011

e Science of UX Design

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Art is not Design

Not for us anyway.

Art aims to

Inspire

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PvnAJNEr__c/TUIqWcUJdVI/AAAAAAAAAoA/F1pPI5hZFt4/s1600/napoleon2g.jpg

Design solves

Problems

Art is

Interpreted

http://www.davidlester.net/abstract%20and%20interpretive.htm

Design is

Understood

Not all Design is created equal.

Nor is any design philosophy universally appropriate.

Self Design

Genius Design

User Centered Design

Self Design

Solves your own problem.

Self Design

Solves your own problem.

I hope.

Self Design

When is Self Design appropriate?

When YOU are the user.

Genius Design

Draws from your experience.

Genius Design

Draws from your experience.

Genius Design

When is Genius Design appropriate?

...not really ever...

Genius Design

...except...when you have sufficient domain experience with

both the product & users

Focuses on behavior, use & context.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

“User centered development process shifts from focus on the way the product is made, to how the product is used.”

- Mike Kuniavsky “Observing the User Experience”

We call it

User Experience Design

(UX) for short

The Elements of User ExperienceA basic duality: The Web was originally conceived as a hypertextual information space;but the development of increasingly sophisticated front- and back-end technologies hasfostered its use as a remote software interface. This dual nature has led to much confusion,as user experience practitioners have attempted to adapt their terminology to cases beyondthe scope of its original application. The goal of this document is to define some of theseterms within their appropriate contexts, and to clarify the underlying relationships amongthese various elements.

Jesse James Garrettjjg@jjg.net

Visual Design: graphic treatment of interfaceelements (the "look" in "look-and-feel")

Information Architecture: structural designof the information space to facilitateintuitive access to content

Interaction Design: development ofapplication flows to facilitate user tasks,defining how the user interacts withsite functionality

Navigation Design: design of interfaceelements to facilitate the user's movementthrough the information architectureInformation Design: in the Tuftean sense:designing the presentation of informationto facilitate understanding

Functional Specifications: "feature set":detailed descriptions of functionality the sitemust include in order to meet user needs

User Needs: externally derived goalsfor the site; identified through user research,ethno/techno/psychographics, etc.Site Objectives: business, creative, or otherinternally derived goals for the site

Content Requirements: definition ofcontent elements required in the sitein order to meet user needs

Interface Design: as in traditional HCI:design of interface elements to facilitateuser interaction with functionalityInformation Design: in the Tuftean sense:designing the presentation of informationto facilitate understanding

Web as software interface Web as hypertext system

Visual Design: visual treatment of text,graphic page elements and navigationalcomponents

Concrete

Abstract

Conception

Completion

FunctionalSpecifications

ContentRequirements

InteractionDesign

InformationArchitecture

Visual Design

Information DesignInterface Design Navigation Design

Site ObjectivesUser Needs

User Needs: externally derived goalsfor the site; identified through user research,ethno/techno/psychographics, etc.Site Objectives: business, creative, or otherinternally derived goals for the site

This picture is incomplete: The model outlined here does not account for secondary considerations (such as those arising during technical or content development)that may influence decisions during user experience development. Also, this model does not describe a development process, nor does it define roles within auser experience development team. Rather, it seeks to define the key considerations that go into the development of user experience on the Web today.

task-oriented information-oriented

30 March 2000

A UX process starts with understanding the problem instead of de"ning the solution.

A successful design is the perfect

marriage of user needs and

business goals.

Perfect marriage of business needs and user needs + picture

User Needs Business Goals

The Nerdery Embedded UX

Physical Device Constraints

Physical Device Constraints Integration ConstraintsAPI

Software Constraints

Software ConstraintsUser Constraints

Software ConstraintsUser Constraints Budget Constraints$

You don't know what you don't know, until you know

that you didn't know it

How do we make informed design decisions?

Research

Just like science.

http://reeleyes.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/309-back-to-the-future/

a type of inductive theory, in that its content (i.e. empirical data) could be expressed within some formal system of logic whose elementary rules (i.e. scientific laws) are taken as axioms.

Scienti"c theory:

Scienti"c Method:1. Define a question2. Gather information and resources (observe)3. Form an explanatory hypothesis4. Perform an experiment and collect data, testing the hypothesis5. Analyze the data6. Interpret the data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis7. Publish results8. Retest (frequently done by other scientists)

UX Method:1. Define a question2. Form a hypothesis3. Observe4. Collect data5. Analyze the data6. Report results 7. Create a solution8. Retest (often done by the same designer/team)

Young, Indi. 2008. Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior.

Why do research?

Build empathy.

Inform decisions.

Why do research?

oroughly de"nes the problem.

Why do research?

Design for the end user.

Deductive Reasoning:1. Men are mortal.2. Zack is a man.3. Therefore, Zack is mortal.

Inductive Reasoning:1. Small text is hard to read.2. Most people can understand larger text.3. Therefore, we can assume larger text will be easier to read.

Abductive Reasoning:1. Iʼve seen people have a hard time reading small text.2. Sometimes, people understand a message better if itʼs a picture. 3. We can abduct, people may understand our content better with pictures.

This is the good stuff

We’re now using scienti"c theory, applied to creative process in order to solve problems through design.

www.zacknaylor.com

@zacknaylor

http://speakerrate.com/talks/8176

Sources:

“Observing the User Experience”- Mike Kuniavsky

http://www.uie.com/articles/five_design_decision_styles/ – Jared Spool

“Mental Models” - Indi Young

Thoughts on Interaction Design - Jon Kolko

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

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

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