UX Comics: Communicating Experiences & Sharing Ideas

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BONNy COLVILLE-HyDE #UXPA2014 @ALMOSTEXACT UX COMICS: COMMUNICATING EXPERIENCES & SHARING IDEAS

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COMMUNICATING HUMAN EXPERIENCES IN DOCUMENTATION IS HARD.

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BORING

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“A lengthy description of a glass of water is no substitute for the experience of drinking a glass of water”! Ivan BRUNETTI!

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MOTIVATION & PROJECT ENERGy

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WHAT ABOUT BRAND EXPERIENCES?

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BUT WHy COMICS?

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COMICS ARE PART OF OUR VISUAL CULTURE

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COMIC HISTORy

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4000 BC!

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1070’S!

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1740’S!

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1950!

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1961!

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1976!

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1985!

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2005!

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NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

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VERBAL NON-VERBAL

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TyPES OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION Facial expressions: smiling, frowning, scowling! ! Eye contact: gaze, eye movements, pupil size! ! Body language: posture, open/closed actions! ! Gestures: hand movements, speed, ﬂow! ! Speech: tone of voice, speed ! !

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NON-VERBALS & COMICS

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“Words and pictures can combine to create effects that neither could create separately”! Scott McCLOUD!

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THE POWER OF SUGGESTION

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Great! I’ve booked my train home!

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That burger was amazing! 5 Stars!

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Dad would love that burger place – I’ll send him the details

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“…COMICS ARE FOR KIDS, CLIENTS WOULDN’T GET IT…”

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Charles Schulz

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ANyONE CAN MAKE A MEANINGFUL COMIC

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…yOU DO NOT NEED EXTENSIVE ARTISTIC SKILLS

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SKILL: DRAWING FACES

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LOOKING AT THINGS

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LOOKING AT THINGS

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SKILL: DRAWING EXPRESSIONS

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CREATING FACIAL EXPRESSIONS … EyEBROWS AND MOUTHS ARE VERy IMPORTANT!

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SKILL: DRAWING FIGURES

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ADDING WEIGHT TO THE SKELETONS 1: Skeleton 2: Sausages 3: Details 4: Inking

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ADDING WEIGHT TO THE SKELETONS 5: Erase pencil 6: Vector-ise 7: colour

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MAKING CHARACTERS IDENTIFIABLE

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GET TO KNOW yOUR CHARACTERS

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GET TO KNOW yOUR CHARACTERS

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THE LANGUAGE OF COMICS

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“Comics have a vocabulary that doesn't even require language. In fact, many of its symbols could be considered a language of their own that requires no teaching or explanation”! Kevin CHENG ‘See what I mean’!

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SINGLE PANELS

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STRIPS

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PAGES

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GUTTERS

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GUTTERS

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FRAMING

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SPEAKING

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IT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE TO BE WORDS! ? !!!

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SKILL: STORyTELLING

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STORyTELLING: THE BASIC ARC

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THE FIVE C’S OF COMICS Calligraphy! ! Composition! ! Clarity! ! Consistency! ! Communication! By Ivan Brunetti

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SCENE SETTING Key rules to note: • Use simple props to set the scene! • A few, key items are better than loads of detail (it just creates noise)! • Consider each item’s role in the story! !

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Matilda ’s Dad helps her play games on their iPad.

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UX COMICS IN THE WILD

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PRACTICAL USES FOR COMICS: CASE STUDIES

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SPEC WORK FOR PITCHES THE PROBLEM: Need to create ‘something’ for a pitch – there is no time or budget to do proper research.! ! Speculative work can come back to haunt you.! !

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Camera Shop The EXAMPLE CLIENT:

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GETTING STARTED: The client’s brief describes how they currently have a well developed customer base of professional photographers, but they want to increase the number of amateur photographers shopping with them. ! ! We could ‘guess’ what amateur photographers want, or, we could look for evidence to spark our ideas.!

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FINDING AN IDEA Via the Money Saving Expert forum

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WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? ‘Bob’ wants to buy a new compact camera.! He has shopped around, but has been overwhelmed by the variety and choice of cameras.! He doesn’t want a lot of fancy features, but he does care about the image quality.! He has up to £100 to spend.! He is looking for help to make a decision.!

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MAKING THE STORy Bob wants to buy a new camera because his current one has broken. He wants to replace his camera before he goes on holiday.! He has looked on several websites, but has been overwhelmed by the choice. He needs help to reﬁne appropriate cameras into a more manageable shortlist, or even to ﬁnd the best one for him.! The site or app needs to allow him to control his searching and browsing so he can manage the volume of results. It needs to give him choice but not overwhelm him.! He needs to be able to look at cameras based on their size (he wants it to be compact), their image quality (it needs to take nice pictures) and its price (it must be under £100).!

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PLANNING THE COMIC 1. Introduce Bob 2. Bob’s camera has broken 3. Bob looks for cameras online 4. Bob gets overwhelmed 5. Bob finds The Camera Shop 6. Bob finds ‘The Compact Camera’ finder 7. Bob filters compact cameras by price and size 8. Bob finds a camera he is interested in 9. Bob browses photos taken with the camera from Flickr 10. Bob feels satisfied and purchases the camera

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COMIC BENEFITS: •  We have evidence behind our assumptions and ideas about the audience! ! •  We can talk conﬁdently about a scenario, without having to commit to details! ! •  We still have something visual to show to clients in a pitch! !

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EXPLORING IDEAS THE PROBLEM: As a team we need to see how an idea could work as a complete product.! If we focus on designing the interface too soon, we may miss opportunities to reﬁne the process, or improve the structure.!

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User Registers for ‘My Training Buddy’ Dashboard Sets Goals Find Friends Track Performance Track Friend’s Performance Issue Performance Challenges

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Comic created for conceptual iOS fitness app ‘Training Buddy’

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Comic created for conceptual iOS fitness app ‘Training Buddy’

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COMIC BENEFITS: •  We can test the comic with target users and get feedback before we create wireframes or a prototype (faster, cheaper)! ! •  Helps all team members understand how we’re proposing a process works – little imagination is needed! ! •  We have a visual document that can be easily shared and reviewed with clients! !

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EXPANDING PERSONAS THE PROBLEM: Personas have a mixed reputation. ! They can be hard to empathise with.! Communicating a persona’s core tasks and their setting helps build understanding. !

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MEET ‘DENISE’:

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COMIC BENEFITS: •  Easier to engage stakeholders and team members with a comic than a ‘ﬂat’ persona! ! •  Comic story can trigger more questions and feedback – meaning the team is sharing more information! !

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COMMUNICATING RESEARCH FINDINGS THE PROBLEM: Long reports require a lot of effort to read! Getting things done can mean leaving out the little details! ‘Seeing is believing’ !

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COMIC BENEFITS: •  Faster to read than a report! •  Subtleties can be communicated with facial expressions and body language! •  Brings people to life (important if stakeholders & team members didn’t attend any research sessions)!

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TESTING IDEAS WITH USERS THE PROBLEM: You’re not a unicorn! and/or! You don’t have time to prototype! You want to test an existing product, before it gets re-developed!

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COMIC BENEFITS: •  Fast!! •  Participants enjoy working with comics! •  Rapid iterations!

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SHARING INFORMATION THE PROBLEM: You don’t want to write yet another blog post!

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Across the UK and around the world there have been over 80 colloquial names recorded that people use to describe this common land-based crustacean. How woodlice can help your website The humble woodlouse is known by many names Depending on where you go, you can hear people talking about woodlice using vastly different names, for instance: 'slater' (scotland), 'Grammersow' (cornwall) and even 'Boat Builder' (CANADA). Did you know? roly poly Slater Butcher boy But why should this matter to you?

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SEVEN RULES OF (UX) COMIC MAKING

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PLAN yOUR STORy: IF yOU FAIL TO PLAN, yOU PLAN TO FAIL RULE 1:

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KEEP IT SIMPLE: FOCUS ON WHAT REALLy MATTERS RULE 2:

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DEVELOP yOUR CHARACTERS: MAKE SURE THEy ARE A FAIR REPRESENTATION OF AUDIENCES RULE 3:

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CREATE EMPATHy: LOOK FOR WAyS TO GET READERS TO EMPATHISE WITH CHARACTERS RULE 4:

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DON’T BE AFRAID TO FAIL… THAT’S WHAT ERASERS ARE MADE FOR RULE 5:

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CUT OUT UNNECESSARy WORDS RULE 6:

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GET FEEDBACK: CHECK yOU’RE TELLING THE STORy yOU THOUGHT yOU WERE RULE 7:

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HAVE FUN BONUS RULE!:

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WAIT FOR INK TO DRy BEFORE USING AN ERASER! BONUS BONUS RULE!:

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ESSENTIAL READING Understanding Comics, Scott McCLOUD! Making Comics, Scott McCLOUD! See What I Mean, Kevin CHENG! Cartooning: Philosophy & Practice, Ivan BRUNETTI! ! TOOLS Comic Life, Plasq! !