Getting better at this "usability" thing

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The challenge

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The desired outcome

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No content

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Ethnographic Research

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Ethnographic Research

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Contextual Enquiry

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Participatory Design

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Prototyping

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Usability Testing

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Parallel track to ongoing development work Activities prior to development Ongoing user familiarisation (‘urban safaris’) User Research ‘Generic’ personas Personas for target audience Study of patterns Usability tests to uncover specific usability issues Conversation tool Artifacts

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Set aside a day a month

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1. User Familiarisation Step out of your environment

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'I don't know who discovered water, but it wasn't a fish.' Step out of your environment

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You are not the user you are not the user

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hang out with people who don’t use a computer 8 hours a day

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architect cleaner waitress policeman teacher gardener farmer midwife receptionist musician builder marine biologist nurse florist photographer sales assistant nanny plumber sharetrader banana ripener accountant journalist coach politician student machine operator truck driver manager secretary

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Urban safaris

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Observing in context How do people actually use and experience websites? How often do they use them? How satisfied are they? What are their wants and needs? What are their suggestions for improvement?

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People do strange things on their computers

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Passwords on post it notes

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You do not have their undivided attention

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Personas

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Personas

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Mood board

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2. Ideation thinking of alternatives

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Brainstorming Rules Defer judgment Encourage wild ideas Build on the ideas of others Stay focused on topic One conversation at a time Be visual Go for quantity

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Brainstorming session

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Have a conversation with your team

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Participatory Design: Card Sorting

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Card Sorting Workshops “great exercise, I’d use this in my own work!” “chance to get involved at basic level” “good to interact & hear how others in team were thinking”

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3. Usability Evaluation …from the bottom up

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Study Patterns

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www.welie.com

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Study Patterns

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A C E G

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4. UCD artefacts start a conversation with your team

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Examples Reading and discussing scenarios Identifying opportunities for design Producing a paper prototype Developing a picture use scenario Presenting design ideas Group discussions DIS Seminar – Melbourne – August 2004

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Make the data real Walls – beyond whiteboards by Mark Rettig (www.marcrettig.com/writings/rettig.walls.72dpi.pdf )

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Make things together

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Collaboration

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So can you start using these techniques tomorrow?

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It’s easy and it’s fun

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You are not the user

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There are a lot of techniques out there

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You can learn about patterns

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Start tomorrow!

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thank you justine@userfaction.com

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Flickr

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Flickr new