Walking a Mile in Your Users' Shoes

A talk about User Empathy, as given at Railsconf '19

Transcript

1. Walking a Mile in Your Users’ Shoes
   Jameson Hampton
   

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2. @jameybash
   

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3. 2 Traits of Programmers
   @jameybash
   

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4. A 3rd Trait for Programmers
   @jameybash
   

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5. What does it mean to work in tech?
   

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6. Everyone needs applications!
   ● Advertising
   ● Finance / Banking
   ● Health care
   ● Education
   ● Non-profits
   ● Agriculture
   This is a
   PERK of our
   industry
   @jameybash
   

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7. But why does industry matter?
   

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8. @jameybash
   Gender
   User Demographics: Stack Overflow
   

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9. @jameybash
   Race & Ethnicity
   User Demographics: Stack Overflow
   

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10. User Demographics: Stack Overflow
    @jameybash
    Age
    

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11. @jameybash
    Parents’ Education Level
    User Demographics: Stack Overflow
    

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12. Observations on those demographics…
    ● They might kind of look… like us.
    ● When we build applications, we think about what would
    feel intuitive.
    ● If a developer works for Stack Overflow, and their
    application feels intuitive to them, maybe it’s pretty safe
    to guess that it will be intuitive to most their users too.
    @jameybash
    

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13. @jameybash
    User Demographics: Census of Agriculture
    

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14. User Demographics: Census of Agriculture
    @jameybash
    

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15. User Demographics: Census of Agriculture
    @jameybash
    

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16. User Demographics: Census of Agriculture
    @jameybash
    

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17. @jameybash
    

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18. Case Study #1: MediCapt
    

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19. MediCapt: “Transforming the documentation
    and prosecution of sexual violence”
    @jameybash
    

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20. Challenges I Expected To Face
    ● Privacy concerns:
    ○ Implemented custom PIN system; no storing images on
    camera roll
    ● Chain of custody
    ○ Digital “paper trail” of everyone who accessed files
    ● Lack of wifi
    ○ Planned a NoSQL solution to rely on eventual consistency
    @jameybash
    

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21. Then I actually went to DRC…
    …and it completely changed how I was thinking about the project
    @jameybash
    

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22. Challenges I *Actually* Faced
    ● Lack of resources, more than just wifi
    ● Inexperienced user base
    ● Language barriers
    ● Lack of tech support
    ● Trust issues
    @jameybash
    

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23. Non-standard solutions to non-standard problems
    ●
    A lot of market research & highly specialized
    equipment
    ●
    Being willing to build stuff from scratch
    ●
    A completely different kind of UI than what we’re
    used to
    @jameybash
    

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24. Case Study #2: Agrilyst
    

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25. Agrilyst: Your Virtual Agronomist
    @jameybash
    

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26. Site Visits!
    @jameybash
    

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27. Language: i18n
    ¿”Agrilyst”
    en español?
    ● English
    ● Spanish
    ● French
    ● Arabic
    @jameybash
    

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28. Layout/UI: Calendar View
    ● What is user
    friendliness?
    ● Something simple
    & intuitive to use
    ● Relies on existing
    familiarity!
    @jameybash
    

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29. Mobile App
    ● You could make the most
    perfect application in all the
    world, but if it’s not available
    for the device that your users
    actually use, it is worthless to
    them.
    @jameybash
    

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30. Features: ”Plant Sites”
    @jameybash
    

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31. Case Study #3(ish): Accessibility
    

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32. @jameybash
    

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33. Screen Readers
    ● Alt text for photos
    ● Photos/screencaps of text
    ● Unicode “fonts”/excessive emoji
    @jameybash
    

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34. Use of color in design
    @jameybash
    

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35. Takeaway: Lessons in Empathy
    

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36. Cultivating empathy for
    your users is essential for
    creating an app that
    actually works for them
    @jameybash
    

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37. Predicting what people’s
    pain points will be is hard
    – and developers are bad
    at it
    @jameybash
    

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38. Make sure you’re solving the
    right problems by meeting
    your users and getting a feel
    for what it’s like to be them
    @jameybash
    

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39. Simple, clever solutions
    can often be just as
    valuable as highly
    technical solutions
    @jameybash
    

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40. Fostering empathy will
    improve your applications
    — and it will improve the
    world!
    @jameybash
    

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42. Thanks for listening!
    jameybash.com
    @jameybash
    

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