Responsibly Responsible: No Flight Required

A brief (5 Minute) Presentation for the Atlanta Web Design Group on lessons learned about responsible responsive design for youth website users.

Transcript

1. RESPONSIBLY RESPONSIVE: NO FLIGHT REQUIRED BRAD WEAVER SUCKERPUNCH STUDIOS Thursday, June 27, 13
2. ASSUME MAKES A WHAT OUT OF YOU AND ME? Thursday, June 27, 13
3. RESPONSIBLE TALK •Scott Jehl - multiple talks when discussing Boston Globe project •Ethan Marcotte - “The Map is Not the Territory” •Jordan Moore - Smashing Magazine Responsive design is the second coming. Now, we need to make sure it works on phones that are 6 years old in Bangladesh. But f*ck IE8. Thursday, June 27, 13
4. RESPONSIBLE TALK •The mobile only user is coming, fast •Low-income and youth users are rapidly dropping PCs, many don’t have one today •By far, most Americans use iPhones or Android devices to access the web when on mobile •90% of new mobile penetration in developing countries such as India, African nations Thursday, June 27, 13
5. MY SITE’S MOSTLY LOCAL, NO CORPORATE USERS, SAVVY YOUTH TARGET. NOT MY CONCERN. RIGHT? Thursday, June 27, 13
6. I THOUGHT I KNEW... BRAD WEAVER CREATIVE DIRECTOR •User Experience Designer with 16 years of experience in creative strategy •Degrees in Political Science, Statistics, and History •Trained in Acxiom, Nielsen/Claritas, and other analysis methods •Segmentation & demographic analysis for $100M+ campaigns •Project lead on mobile apps starting in 2005, 2 years prior to iPhone release •Passion is taking complex information and making it accessible and usable Thursday, June 27, 13
7. OUR PROJECT •Founded in 2008, by Derek Smith, former Chairman and CEO of ChoicePoint •Over 7,000 youth, nonprofits and donors are currently using the platform •An online tool to serve, support, and develop young social entrepreneurs •Enables students to track, verify, and document service hours that can be "cashed in" for grants to nonprofits •A social networking site, designed specifically for youth, that allows them to raise awareness, funds and volunteers for causes they care about IN SUMMARY, THIS IS A YOUTH-ORIENTED SITE, SPECIFICALLY USERS UNDER 18. Thursday, June 27, 13
8. SO... RESPONSIVE, MOBILE-FIRST DESIGN. NO BRAINER. RIGHT? Thursday, June 27, 13
9. SHOCKING RESULTS •Only 21% of website visitors were on a mobile device. •IE8 usage was 22%, IE7 usage was 6%. •60+ different devices registered regular, frequent visits behind the log-in firewall. •A deeper look into TOS revealed that TOS was significantly higher on desktop than mobile. MOBILE DEVICE USE Thursday, June 27, 13
10. •We sat down with users across multiple demographics to find out why mobile usage was so low. •The site has problems (which is why we’re working on it now), but most did not cite usability as the problem. •Many just didn’t want to manage their accounts on a mobile device, it was easier to do on a desktop and they felt most sites had the same problem. •More importantly, we found that the 60+ devices accessing the site regularly were on every carrier, connection speed, and user knowledge level imaginable. •For many users, mobile was their only personal connection, yet they still chose public computers over mobile when managing accounts without apps. WAS IT US OR THEM? THIS IS A UX COMPLETE REBUILD, SO IS THE SITE THE ISSUE? Thursday, June 27, 13
11. LESSONS LEARNED Thursday, June 27, 13
12. •Most youth users can’t use mobile devices at school or at many after school activities, they address “open” or “approved” website tasks on school computers. •The digital divide, when it comes to both connection speed and device quality/ age, is even more pronounced among youth. •Less than 50% of AA & Hispanic homes have broadband. •AA & Hispanic youth account for ~40% of <18 population. •While many students have high-end mobile devices, they often don’t have enough of a data plan to browse indefinitely as carriers remove unlimited plans. YOUTH ≠ MOBILE & FAST MOBILE IS BIG AMONG YOUTH, BUT MONEY ISN’T Thursday, June 27, 13
13. •We saw youth, local, and big data. We spent little time focusing on older browsers or feature phone devices. This almost blew up in our face. •We learned to spend significant time and budgeted hours getting an experience that gracefully degrades well when dealing with students, even at the expense of mobile features. •Content-first is even more critical with youth-oriented applications, despite the tendency to think that design and interaction matters more. RESPONSIBLE IS CRITICAL WE WERE BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE, WITH A DISASTER AHEAD Thursday, June 27, 13
14. LOG HOURS CREATE & SUPPORT CAUSES EARN POINTS CIVIC RESUMÉ CONSOLIDATE GET YOUR ACTIONS IN BUCKETS, TO HELP ORGANIZE FUNCTIONS Thursday, June 27, 13
15. •I shall repeat: content-first is even more critical with youth-oriented applications, despite the tendency to think that design and interaction matters more •Non-broadband users complete 58% less tasks online in the same amount of time than broadband users •By pushing important actions, rather than important information, to the forefront you make it easier on slow connection users •It is irresponsible to build pages that are larger than 2MB, and I am guilty of doing it time and again to “wow” site visitors RESPONSIBLE IS CRITICAL WE WERE BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE, WITH A DISASTER AHEAD Thursday, June 27, 13
16. •Responsive design isn’t enough, you’ve got to be responsible with the context and content relative to your users. •Analytics can only tell so much of the story. •Focus groups, even guerrilla ones, are critical to getting the responsive design process right. •Don’t make assumptions based on what society tells you a particular demographic does. •Just because the web community is saying it’s true doesn’t mean it’s true for your particular project. Find out for yourself by taking a look at the numbers and, more importantly, talking to your users. KNOW YOUR CONTEXT YOU CAN’T PREDICT WHO OR HOW PEOPLE WILL USE YOUR SITE Thursday, June 27, 13