Starting Where The User Starts

Introduction to user experience, first delivered at Columbia School of Journalism on February 6, 2014.

Transcript

1. STARTING WHERE THE USER STARTS Columbia School of Journalism February 6, 2014
2. 2 Hello. My name is Matt. I’m a user researcher at
3. 3 User Experience and Product Research Team
4. 4 Product Design Development Newsroom Marketing
6. 6 What is User Experience?
7. 7 We do research to understand the users, we develop ideas to solve the users’ needs — and the needs of the business — and we build and measure those solutions in the real world to see if they work.
8. 8 Why should I care?
9. 9 We need to make journalism more user-centered.
10. 10 “The news business, however, is just a subset of the informing-our-audience business  —  and that’s the business we aim to be in.”
11. 11 Product Development Phases Strategize Optimize Assess Goal Inspire, explore and choose new directions and opportunities Inform and optimize designs in order to reduce risk and improve usability Measure product performance against itself or its competition Typical methods Field studies, user interviews, focus groups, longitudinal studies, surveys, analytics Prototyping, usability studies, user interviews, card sorting, A/B testing Usability benchmarking, online task-based studies, tree testing, surveys, A/B testing, customer feedback
12. 12 Strategize Phase | Things research can help with •  Study users in their natural environment •  Document their goals and processes •  Examine demographics, product usage, and other consumer habits •  Explore attitudes and expectations toward specific topics or existing products •  Learn about relationships between information or tasks •  Decide how to organize a task or collection of information •  Create a portrait of users that captures what you have learned •  Identify which elements of a product concept are most attractive to users and why •  Explore different solutions
13. 13 Optimize Phase | Things research can help with •  Explore attitudes and expectations toward particular design solutions •  Test a design against scenarios of use •  Probe on discoverability, usability, usefulness, and perceived value of particular functionality •  Collect informal input •  Identify what parts of the interface draw the user’s visual attention •  Check a design against guidelines •  Check a design for accessibility
14. 14 Assess Phase | Things research can help with •  Determine whether a product is meeting its usability and engagement goals •  Learn how a product compares to its competitors •  Find out whether users value a product and identify areas for improvement •  Track product improvement over time
15. 15 Quick Case Study: Redesign of NYTimes.com •  Personas | Strategize •  Usability Testing | Optimize •  Tree Testing | Asses
16. 16 What are personas? •  Design tools for modeling and prioritizing user interactions •  A way to build empathy for our readers •  Archetypes (not stereotypes) Creative Commons – Attribution (CC BY 3.0) Women and Man designed by Lil Squid from the Noun Project
17. 17 Usability Testing •  One-on-one sessions conducted at The New York Times building or remotely via GoToMeeting •  Can include interview questions, discussion, directed tasks •  Usually between 6 and 12 users •  Goal to solicit feedback surrounding the usability and/or utility of a given product in an effort to inform design decisions Creative Commons – Attribution (CC BY 3.0) Talking designed by Claire Jones from the Noun Project
18. 18 Tree Testing •  Online test to evaluate the findability of content within a menu structure •  Users are asked to navigate through a menu to identify where they believe they would find a piece of information •  Provides metrics for assessing relative findability
19. 19 Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. Learnability | How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design? Efficiency | Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks? Memorability | When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency? Errors | How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors? Satisfaction | How pleasant is it to use the design? What is usability?
20. 20 Usability Utility Usefulness
21. 21 To make something more useful… 1.  Get hold of some representative users 2.  Ask the users to perform representative tasks with the design 3.  Observe what the users do, where they succeed, and where they have difficulties with the user interface 4.  Shut up and let the users do the talking
22. 22 Step One: Goals What are the most important things that every user must be able to accomplish on the site?
23. 23 Step Two: Scenarios You're planning a vacation to New York City, March 3 − March 14. You need to buy both airfare and hotel. Go to the American Airlines site and jetBlue sites and see who has the best deals.
24. 24 Make the task realistic User goal Browse product offerings and purchase an item. Poor task Purchase a pair of orange Nike running shoes. Better task Buy a pair of shoes for under $40.
25. 25 Make the task actionable User goal Find movie and show times. Poor task You want to see a movie Sunday afternoon. Go to fandango.com and tell me where you’d click next. Better task Use fandago.com to find a movie you’d be interested in seeing on Sunday afternoon.
26. 26 Avoid clues and describing the steps User Goal Look up grades. Poor task You want to see the results of your midterm exams. Go to the website, sign in, and tell me where you would click to get your transcript. Better task Look up the results of your midterm exams.
27. 27 Moderation techniques | Think-aloud In a thinking aloud test, you ask test participants to use the system while continuously thinking out loud — that is, simply verbalizing their thoughts as they move through the user interface. •  Cheap •  Robust •  Flexible •  Easy to learn
28. 28 Moderation techniques | Echo This table is weird, well, hmmm, not sure what, uh… Not sure what..? Table is weird…? Creative Commons – Attribution (CC BY 3.0) Wonder Woman and Wolverine designed by Nefi Florián from the Noun Project
29. 29 Moderation techniques | Columbo If I close here will I lose my work? Uhm, you are wondering if…? I am just not really sure if I should pick "close" or "cancel" or "ok." I guess I don't know the difference between these buttons. Creative Commons – Attribution (CC BY 3.0) Wonder Woman and Wolverine designed by Nefi Florián from the Noun Project
30. 30 Moderation techniques | Boomerang Do I have to register to buy this? What do you think? What would you do if you were at home now? What would you do if you were really doing this on your own? Creative Commons – Attribution (CC BY 3.0) Wonder Woman and Wolverine designed by Nefi Florián from the Noun Project
31. 31 Tips on recruiting participants •  Don’t wait •  Define your criteria •  Write a screener •  Get people to fill out your screener •  Be selective
32. 32 Thanks! bitly.com/CJUXslides m@mattdiaz.org twtr/mattdiazorg fb/mattdiazorg lnkd/mattdiazorg flickr/mattdiazorg 4sq/mattdiazorg Sources and additional background When to Use Which User Experience Methods | Nielsen Norman Group High level overview of user research, lays out several dimensions: attitudinal/behavioral, qualitative/quantitative, context of product use, as well as how research approaches vary based on your stage in the product cycle. What do Prototypes Prototype? | Houde + Hill, Apple Computer Really great piece, although a bit academic, laying out a framework for thinking about different kinds of prototypes and how you can use them to communicate and answer questions. Introduction to Usability | Nielsen Norman Group Basic introduction to usability concepts. Turn User Goals into Task Scenarios for Usability Testing | Nielsen Norman Group Tips on designing a usability test. Thinking Aloud: The #1 Usability Tool | Nielsen Norman Group Explanation of the "think aloud protocol" which is an extremely simple and effective technique for conducting moderated research. Talking with Participants During a Usability Test | Nielsen Norman Group Simple techniques for interrupting or asking users questions during a session. How to find great participants for your user study | Michael Margolis, Google Ventures Bunch of solid recruiting tips. Remote Usability and UX Research Tools | Nate Bolt, Facebook Handy roundup of remote research tools.