UX Mental Models

One of the cardinal rules of thumb in UX design is to leverage existing mental models.

It's no coincidence we have "files" scattered across our "desktop", or we load web "pages". All these metaphors were leveraged in the early days of computing to help users understand brand new concepts using existing mental models. But what happens when you introduce a concept with no easy real world metaphors?

Transcript

1. Mental Models UX Boston Feb 20, 2014 @davewasmer ! #uxception
2. Disclaimer Not a UX expert
3. What is a Mental Model? an intuitive understanding of a system based on past experience and/or logic
5. Mental Models in App UI duolingo
9. Mental Models in App UI Paper
11. Mental Models in App UI AWS EC2
13. Mental Models in App UI Heroku
15. Mental Models in App UI Kinvey
16. What is a Backend?
17. What is a Backend? Users?
18. What is a Backend? Data?
19. What is a Backend? Business Logic?
20. Kinvey Features User Mangement Data Storage Collection Hooks Custom Endpoints Scheduled Code File Storage Email Templates Open Graph Google Places Foursquare Data Links Auth Links Push Notifications External BL
22. How do we handle this?
23. How do we handle this? Simplify
26. How do we handle this? Anchoring
27. Mailchimp Email
28. Twilio Phone + SMS
29. Amazon EC2 Instances
31. Heroku Dynos
32. Kinvey ?
33. Kinvey Users + Analytics?
34. Kinvey Data
35. Your app’s mental model?
36. Keep in mind …
37. Keep in mind … Painful to change
38. Keep in mind … You are biased
39. Keep in mind … White lies can be helpful
40. This is challenging stuff But also exciting
42. Think this is fun too? Kinvey is hiring!
43. @davewasmer