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Designing Better Experiences

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Slides from the workshop @danny_bluestone and @duckymatt from Cyber-Duck Ltd gave at UX London 2013. The workshop focused on how by putting the user at the centre of design decisions you can deliver a better experience. With a mixture of theory and hands-on activities the workshop covered user research, activity mapping, card sorting and participative sketching techniques.
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DESIGNING BETTER EXPERIENCES THROUGH A USER CENTRED APPROACH Danny Bluestone | @danny_bluestone Matt Gibson | @duckymatt
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Page 1: Designing Better Experiences

DESIGNING BETTER

EXPERIENCESTHROUGH A USER CENTRED APPROACH

Danny Bluestone | @danny_bluestoneMatt Gibson | @duckymatt

Page 2: Designing Better Experiences

WHAT ISUSER CENTRED

DESIGN?

Page 3: Designing Better Experiences

The central premise of user centred design is that the best designed products and services result from understanding

the needs of the people who will use them.

Page 4: Designing Better Experiences

SOME BENEFITS OF UCD

1. Qualitative - Find out what customers actually want.

2. Context – Discover the exact context to design for.

3. Creativity – Combine UCD with branding.4. Focus - Avoid ‘analysis paralysis’.

5. Remove egos– Verify decisions with real customers.

Page 5: Designing Better Experiences

http://xkcd.com/773/

GIVING USERS WHAT THEY NEEDNOT WHAT YOU THINK THEY NEED

Page 6: Designing Better Experiences

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matski_98/8259750205/

TAKE TIME TO OBSERVE HOW PEOPLE USE YOUR DESIGN

Page 7: Designing Better Experiences

TIMOTHY PRESTRO, CEO of DMT

DESIGN FOR PEOPLE, NOT AWARDS

http://designthatmatters.org/portfolio/projects/

Page 8: Designing Better Experiences

DESIGN FOR OUTCOMES

www.ted.com/talks/timothy_prestero_design_for_people_not_awards.html and http://www.designthatmatters.org/pictures/dtm_blog/Baby_in_Firefly.JPG

Page 9: Designing Better Experiences

If the engineers could, they'd give you 40 buttons, but when you're driving it's not that

easy to use them all, so it's better to have the ones you really need.

The key thing is to make it simpler without getting rid of stuff that I might need to make the

car go quicker. http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonw92/8534697674/

LEWIS HAMILTON ON UCD

Page 10: Designing Better Experiences

As we reform the delivery of public services, they are designed around the needs of the

user, rather than has been far too often the case in the past, being designed to suit the

convenience of the government.

Francis Maude, MP

Page 11: Designing Better Experiences

Approaches Disciplines

User centred design

Self design

Activity centred design

Genius design

Interaction design

Information architecture

Usability testing

Research

Page 12: Designing Better Experiences

IS UCD ALWAYS THE BEST APPROACH?

Page 13: Designing Better Experiences

http://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/5577225117

Page 14: Designing Better Experiences

USERS ARE NOT DESIGNERS

IT IS USER CENTRED DESIGN, NOT USER CONTROLLED DESIGN

Page 15: Designing Better Experiences

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL

APPROACH

FOCUS ON OUTCOMES NOT DELIVERABLES

Page 16: Designing Better Experiences

USABILITY IS NOT A FEATURE

IT DEPENDS ON THE USER, THE ENVIRONMENT, THE TASK, AND OTHER CONTEXTUAL FACTORS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oewf/2924217723/

Page 17: Designing Better Experiences

HOW WE APPROACH UCD

1. Research

2. Design / prototype

3. Test

4. Improve

Page 18: Designing Better Experiences

RESEARCHING REQUIREMENTS

Page 19: Designing Better Experiences

FRONT-LOADING STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS

• Why is it being made?• Who are the key stakeholders and what are their goals?• How does it fit in with the wider company objectives?• Gain insight into market and target audiences• Identify competitors early on

http://goodkickoffmeetings.com/2010/04/stakeholder-frontloading/

Page 20: Designing Better Experiences

TECHNIQUES FOR EFFECTIVE INTERVIEWS

• Create an informal and relaxed atmosphere• Stay flexible • Keep it one-on-one• Allow them to speak ‘off-the-record’

Page 21: Designing Better Experiences

The turning point in many interviews is when the interviewee gets up and closes the office

door and lowers their voice.

Paul Boag, Headscape

http://boagworld.com/business-strategy/how-to-improve-your-site-using-stakeholder-interviews/

Page 22: Designing Better Experiences

DEFINING CONTEXT OF USE

1. User profiles

2. Activities

3. Environment

Page 23: Designing Better Experiences

• Speak to existing users if possible• Competitors• Ethnographic studies / research• Expert insight

TIPS FOR GETTING INSIGHTINTO USER PROFILES

Page 24: Designing Better Experiences

THE BEST USER PERSONASARE BASED ON REAL USERS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/patloika/7946438528

Page 25: Designing Better Experiences

• Ethnio for existing users• Social media• Go to the physical locations where you’ll

find your users• Use professional recruiters

HOW DO I FIND MY USERS?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oatsy40/6783078815/

Page 26: Designing Better Experiences

Accessibility is the degree to which anyone can access and use a website using any web browsing

technology.

RNIBhttp://www.rnib.org.uk/professionals/webaccessibility/background/Pages/background.aspx

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furbyx4/2968376257/

Page 27: Designing Better Experiences

WHAT ACTIVITIES DO YOUR USERS NEED TO PERFORM?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fernando/36759033

Page 28: Designing Better Experiences

FREQUENCY

WHAT WILL THE USER NEED TO DO MOST OFTEN?

Page 29: Designing Better Experiences

CRITICAL

CAN BE INFREQUENT,BUT IT IS CRITICAL TO SUPPORT

THEM

Page 30: Designing Better Experiences

ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

• Physical

• Social / cultural

• Technical

Page 31: Designing Better Experiences

DESIGN / PROTOTYPING

Page 32: Designing Better Experiences

CARD SORTING

• The ‘base’ for your information architecture.

• Gets insights and patterns into users ‘mental model’.

• It helps to increase findability in a system.

Page 33: Designing Better Experiences

The current recommendation is to test 15 users for card sorting in most projects, and 30 users in

big projects...

Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group

Page 34: Designing Better Experiences

TECHNIQUES FOR CARD SORTING

• Use lots of post-it notes or cards• Get users to sort the cards in open or closed groups• Your main job is to observe and keep the momentum • Learn from the patterns of different groups via analysis• Helps to create a record of the structure/taxonomy

Page 35: Designing Better Experiences

EXERCISE:

UNDERTAKINGCARD SORTING

In groups of 5 people:• Create the higher level categories for the

website• Write down the main sections and screens • Organise the sections into logical groups

Page 36: Designing Better Experiences

HICKS’S LAW

“THE MORE CHOICES YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE FROM, THE LONGER IT TAKES FOR YOU TO MAKE A DECISION.”

http://www.cirencalui.com/

Page 37: Designing Better Experiences

INTRODUCINGINTERACTION DESIGN (IxD)

• Helps to map out ‘flows of control’• Progresses to sketching and prototyping• Pivotal at delivering functional specifications

Page 38: Designing Better Experiences

“THE TIME REQUIRED TO RAPIDLY MOVE TO A TARGET AREA IS A FUNCTION OF THE DISTANCE TO AND THE SIZE OF THE TARGET”

FITT’S LAW

http://modetro.com/mb-games-simon-says-vintage-retro-game-70s

Page 39: Designing Better Experiences

TECHNIQUES FOR INTERACTION DESIGN (IxD)

• Use personas and interviews to inform the design.• Competitor research see what is already out there.• Ethnography can help you to understand real users.• Validate what you do with real users as early as possible.

Page 40: Designing Better Experiences

IxD –FLOW OF CONTROL EXAMPLE

http://wc1.smartdraw.com/examples/content/examples/01_flowcharts/4_other_flowcharts/control_flow_epc_diagram_flowchart_l.jpg

Page 41: Designing Better Experiences

IxD – PROTOTYPE

http://www.infoq.com/resource/articles/wireframes-start-development-projects/en/resources/3fig1.jpg

Page 42: Designing Better Experiences

START PROTOTYPESWITH PEN AND PAPER

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furbyx4/2968376257/

Page 43: Designing Better Experiences

I do not know the cognitive reasons behind this, but I have never seen this not be true. The more human your picture, the more human will be the

response.

Dan Roam, Back Of The Napkin

http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/

Page 44: Designing Better Experiences

PARTICIPATORY SKETCHING TIPS

• Encourage low fidelity

• Review as a group

• Frame critique with user stories

Page 45: Designing Better Experiences

TEST / EVALUATE

Page 46: Designing Better Experiences

DESIGNS ARE HYPOTHESES

ITERATE QUICKLY AND TEST ASSUMPTIONS

Page 47: Designing Better Experiences

ETHNOGRAPHY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alui0000/4814280779

Page 48: Designing Better Experiences

GUERILLA USER TESTING

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5tein/3609261904

Page 49: Designing Better Experiences

Lets us see how our study participants scan the search results page, and is the next best thing to actually being able to read their minds.

Anne Aula and Kerry Rodden, User Experience Researchers, Google

GOOGLE ON EYE TRACKINGhttp://www.japantoday.com/images/size/x/2013/03/urn%3Apublicid%3Aap.org%3A83a7bae63f044fbc938d2f4bea94d862.jpg

Page 50: Designing Better Experiences

INTERVIEWS

http://uxmag.com/articles/eye-tracking-the-best-way-to-test-rich-app-usability

Page 51: Designing Better Experiences

OTHER METHODS OF USER FEEDBACK

• Click tracking tools • A/B and MVT testing • Remote user testing• Expert reviews

Page 52: Designing Better Experiences

BALANCING UCD WITH CLIENT’S NEEDS

Page 53: Designing Better Experiences

EXPLAINING WATER TO FISH

http://www.flickr.com/photos/healthgauge/7387853018/

Courtesy of Karen McGrane

http://alistapart.com/column/explaining-water-to-fish

Page 54: Designing Better Experiences

WHAT WE’VE COVERED

• What is user centred design – Benefits / pitfalls

• Usability is not a feature• Researching users and activities• Paper prototyping• Getting user feedback

Page 55: Designing Better Experiences

THANK YOU!

Danny Bluestone | @danny_bluestoneMatt Gibson | @duckymatt


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