The Bigger Context

(Presentation at the HTML5 Symposium at USQ on 19th November 2012)

While embracing HTML5 presents many exciting opportunities, there are also pitfalls to avoid. As digital practitioners, we have a responsibility to our end users, to make sure their needs and goals are put at the heart of a collaborative design process. This talk brings the design process to life by illustrating how it works at some of the largest and most creative organisations in the world. The takeaway will be a series of techniques and lessons learned that can be applied straight away, to ensure that the use of HTML5 always takes account of the bigger context - helping students to learn.

Transcript

1. THE BIGGER CONTEXT PHIL WHITEHOUSE @CASABLANCA
2. CONFESSION Going to start with an admission of guilt I’m not a developer / graphic designer / UX architect Running software development teams for 16 years // important lessons The Bigger Context - what do I mean by that?
3. CHALLENGE Software design > The bigger context is often overlooked Example: Typical challenge set by clients Build a website, build a mobile app, build a social campaign Host of assumptions
4. 2010 > Clients asked for Facebook campaign Seduced by the statistics Overlooked the bigger context People were on Facebook to connect with their friends and families :- not brands
5. 97% DO NOT WANT BRANDS IN THEIR SOCIAL SPACE Most people don’t want brands in their social space People outside marketing can see this is obvious My experience is that software developers get so close to the solution, they often miss the bigger context too
6. LUCKY Pause for thought Biggest context of all We are all incredibly lucky to be alive, with these amazing tools at our disposal
7. Think about it in Universal terms Human beings have been around for 5,000 years Want to know how long that is in the big scheme of things? It’s the tiniest slither of time // It’s inevitable that most life on this platform will get wiped out It’s happened many times before Of all the species that have ever lived on earth, they reckon that about 99.9999% of those species are extinct.
8. See http://www.chronozoomproject.org/
9. OH, HAI! And yet here we are. And not only are we here, But we’ve also invented the Internet The single most powerful communication tool ever in the history of mankind. And it’s only been around for one generation. We’re just getting started!
10. POWERFUL We’re at the beginning of an incredible journey for our species! Never before has so much power been available to so many people With a laptop, and a connection to the internet, you can change the world In the time it takes me to give this talk
11. GENERATIVE And out of all the lucky people working with the web right now, you’re among the luckiest! Your work is the most generative Do your job well, and you pass the flame not to just one person, but many And they in turn can pass it on Creative industries: best way to improve an idea is to put it someone else’s head
12. Imagine if you could’ve put it in his head? Imagine if you could share ideas without boundaries, in the time it takes to say these words The people in this room get to make this happen How cool is that? But you know what they say about great power...
13. RESPONSIBILITY With great power, comes great responsibility. Collectively, our industry has the potential to affect the path of history As software designers, in this age, we have a responsibility to not stuff it up! To make the best software possible.
14. THE DESIGN FALLACY Now, this talk is called The Bigger Context And we’ve looked at the biggest one of all But now we need to look at the context in which your software will be used It’s possible to design software that’s beautiful and easy-to-use, and it can still crash and burn.
15. COLOR Anyone heard of the iPhone app called Color? (Not my typo) Take photos and share them other people in your vicinity. Launched in March 2011. 1m downloads. Google offered to buy out the company for $200m
16. And this guy - Bill Nguyen - CEO of Color - turned them down. Amazing story. And last month...
17. ...they closed their doors. What happened? Seriously misjudged the context in which the app might be used.
18. SOCIAL? They saw: people sharing photos with strangers. Primary purpose? I’ll say it again: It’s possible to design software that’s beautiful and easy-to-use, and it can crash and burn. On the flip side, if we put the context at the heart of the design process, we can pretty much guarantee success.
19. THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT There are several important factors affecting your student’s ability to learn *outside* your control, outside the software. Remarkable the different types of people that exist. Very few of them are like you. I’m going to list a few factors.
20. CONCENTRATION Does your app require deep levels of concentration? Will it be in a noisy classroom?
21. RECALL We have information at our fingertips. Do we need to learn facts, or just learn where we can find them? I interview lots of people, and rarely hire them based on their ability to recall facts. I care about your experience and how you apply it. If your students don’t see a need for future recall, it’s less likely to sink in.
22. CONTEMPLATION leaders in the business field / any field pretty much universally agree that you need time away from your challenges to process information, to assess your options. Does your app support this? Can they pause at their convenience and pick up where they left off, regardless of where they are?
23. CREATIVITY Simple truth: some people are more creative than others. Creative people are creative in different ways e.g. software vs graphic design and yet they’re overlapping in the field of data visualisation. For me, that’s one of the reasons why I think software design is so interesting. Does your app have specific expectations about how the creative process works?
24. CRITICAL THINKING (And problem solving) As an employer >one of the most important skills I’m looking for. Designers, software developers, strategists, marketers, project managers - they all need these skills. If you can improve these abilities you’re giving them a huge gift.
25. RELATIONSHIPS The parent / teacher / student relationship. People make all sorts of assumptions about this, but it’s a dangerous territory. Example: Cisco.
26. CANT SHARE THE CISCO WORK, SORRY! Should teachers be able to observe the IM conversations between students? NO! Not by default. Erodes trust. But administrator can access them if needed.
27. Distraction More broadly, the problem you’re going to face is that your students can learn from *Anyone* Why should they learn from you? There are so many sources out there. Maybe they don’t have a choice - but we already know that people don’t learn well under those conditions And if they don’t use the other sources, there’s always y’know Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, and so on. It’s helpful to think of your app as being in a competitive environment. It has to fight for attention. On the plus side, The way we collaborate has fundamentally changed The tools are free and, for the large part, outstandingly good Google Docs is indistinguishable from magic If your app can capitalise on this, leverage this, you’re onto a winner
28. ASSUMPTIONS Getting a sense of what I mean by the bigger context Want to talk about a few other assumptions which can be dangerous
29. Attribution PERSPECTIVE The main one relates to perspective Touched on this earlier Please don’t take it personally Developers are often too close to the underlying software architecture to see a process through the eyes of the student.
30. Attribution GAMIFICATION GAMIFICATION Another assumption I’ve noticed creeping into the software design world relates to Gamification Using gaming elements or procedures to inspire progress On the face of it, school is the perfect landscape to explore this Seth Priebatsch refers to school as a game which is broken Schools are near perfect game ecosystems, containing motivated players, challengers, awards, rules, allies, enemies, levels, appointment dynamics, incentives and disincentives and yet we've based education on the wrong rewards. We've replaced the real reward (learning) with a fake reward (test and exam results). http://philwhitehouse.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/game-which-is-broken.html
31. Attribution NEW HORIZONS The point about all this is that we’re exploring glorious new horizons. You’re at the cutting edge. As you explore this new frontier, you’re going to make mistakes. Embrace your mistakes Get closer to your end user to try and figure out how to solve problems
32. As a creative agency, I’ll share some of the considerations we take into account when we’re designing a system. Just going to talk about the start of the design process. The foundation. May or may not be helpful
33. RESEARCH Takes many forms. Stakeholder interviews / competitor analysis / persona review / user interviews / prior research. Then challenge the brief. They asked for (a), but what the users need and usually what the business needs is (b).
34. Case study: eBay Assumption: All about training
35. CANT SHARE THE EBAY WORK, SORRY! Actually all about collaboration.
36. Process, cont. Fixed budget = prioritised requirements. Finally! BUT NOW based on actual context, and actual need - not preconception and subjectivity. And this understanding of the actual context helps us figure out exactly how requirements should be met.
37. This process of understanding the user and the underlying context reveals all sorts of opportunities. This is often how innovation happens Example: Honda.
38. FORGOTTEN SOMETHING? WAIT A MINUTE... Wait a minute...what kind of conference is this? If you’re wondering when I’m finally going to mention HTML5...
39. This is it. This is the point to bring technology into the software design process. Remember that great power? Well, we can use it responsibly. Now we know where they’re using it and why - Geolocation Now we know what they need to learn - WebGL can help visualise it Now we know they won’t have wi-fi - enable Appcache And so on.
40. SKETCH We can get excited and start sketching (brilliant for quick prototypes) These days we’re non just creating a web site or a mobile app It’s an experience that has to work cross platform Sketching is the only thing that works, that allows us to explore multiple options and technologies in pursuit of the right one
41. PROTOTYPE We often use paper prototyping to quickly test designs. Luck of having your audience accessible to you.
42. Attribution COMMON PITFALLS
43. Attribution COMMON PITFALLS PERFORMANCE
44. Attribution COMMON PITFALLS http://is.gd/EyfolP Full link: http://www2.nissan.co.jp/SP/NOTE/SPECIAL/
45. http://is.gd/EyfoIP You cannot depend on people using the same device you’ve got or same level of broadband they might be on 3G using a blackberry It is part of your responsibility to ensure that the experience is optimised for everyone
46. I’ll save you looking that up. Plugins such as YSlow do not give you a true representation of how the page is currently performing. But still!
47. You might think Yeah, my users are going to love this - it’s quirky!
48. Whereas actually they think it’s annoying as all hell. They’re just trying to get their homework done.
49. http://is.gd/EyfoIP LAUNCH So much focus on developing the product, they forget about the launch Maybe in the back of their mind, they hope it’s going to be like this:
50. YAY ...but if you don’t plan your launch properly, it’s far more likely to be like this:
51. BOO The reality is that you have to plan for it. Big bang launch, or alpha / beta launch? Publicise offline or online?
52. Distraction That distraction we talked about earlier, it could just as easily be....
53. Opportunity ...an opportunity. Think through how people will find your app, what problems they might have and how you’ll help trouble shoot. Expectations are very high.
54. ADAPTATION Another thing to think about: A platform for adaptation Once you’ve built it, then what? Let data drive your decisions - if possible. Google Website Optimiser Design with this in mind
55. Attribution — “Confession booths” by g_sinchon — “Harrow Hurdles” by psi_mon — “facebook like button” by Sean MacEntee — “The Blue Marble” by crew of Apollo 17 — Chronozoom by UC Berkeley, Microsoft Research, Moscow State University — “Laptop” by CollegeDegrees360 — “Feel my Fire” by marc.nicolas — Albert Einstein by Yousuf Karsh — “Padlock” by zebble I’d like to thank a few people for sharing their photos...
56. Attribution — “Downhill from here” by Phillie Casablanca — “Can't Concentrate: 14/365” by SashaW — Total Recall by Arnie — “Meditation” by rubyblossom — “Crayons 1” by scienceatlife — “V0009499 Anatomy of the brain” by wellcome images — “Worcester Academy/Danish School Relationship” by Worcester Academy — “Different Perspective” by Douglas Brown — “8-Bit 1-Up Mushroom” by ~JoeCoool ...and their videos and whatnot...
57. Attribution — “Contrail Creation” by Jeff Kabina — “London - Archive Research” by Magh — Research images by DT / Sam Smith — Cisco / eBay designs by Stephen Waller / Sam Smith / Simon Doggett — Pitfall by Activision — LOLs by Nissan — Gangnam Style by Psy — Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network — “Tumbleweed” by Jez Arnold — Wachowski Brothers for The Matrix
58. FINAL THOUGHTS We have this awesome opportunity And great responsibility We have everything we need to do an amazing job. And by understanding the bigger context, we can change the world.
59. THANK YOU (slides available via twitter.com/casablanca) Thankyouverymuch!