An introduction to a better web-based user experience

This talk was given on June 14, 2015 at the Special Libraries Association conference in Boston, and sponsored by the Taxonomy division.

Transcript

1. An Introduction to Developing a Better Web-based User Experience Sarah Barrett, SLA Boston, June 2015 http://taxonomy.sla.org/eval
2. First, an anecdote.
3. “An introduction to developing a better web-based user experience.”
4. “An introduction to developing a better web-based user experience.”
5. “An introduction to developing a better web-based user experience.”
6. Some Assumptions: • You’re not hiring anyone • You need some ideas to integrate into your current work & process • You don’t think you’re a designer
7. UX and IA need you.
8. User Experience Information Architecture Taxonomy
9. Tools, resources, vocabulary How to know what to do, how to do it, and how to talk about it.
10. Resource: Christina Wodtke’s “Fundamentals of User Experience Design” presentations http://bit.ly/1QwN94Y
11. Resource: Abby Covert’s book, How to Make Sense of Any Mess. http://bit.ly/1ITELZm
12. How to figure out what to do
13. Vocabulary time: Heuristic - “A heuristic is just a fancy word for a measurement of something that can't readily be quantified.” - Smashing Magazine
14. Find the right heuristics Make them work for you.
15. Resource: Dan Brown’s “8 Principles of Information Architecture.” http://bit.ly/1dEtm1H http://bit.ly/1QX4bnO
16. Dan Brown’s 8 Principles of IA: 1. The principle of objects – Treat content as a living, breathing thing, with a lifecycle, behaviors and attributes. 2. The principle of choices – Create pages that offer meaningful choices to users, keeping the range of choices available focused on a particular task. 3. The principle of disclosure – Show only enough information to help people understand what kinds of information they’ll find as they dig deeper. 4. The principle of exemplars – Describe the contents of categories by showing examples of the contents. 5. The principle of front doors – Assume at least half of the website’s visitors will come through some page other than the home page. 6. The principle of multiple classification – Offer users several different classification schemes to browse the site’s content. 7. The principle of focused navigation – Don’t mix apples and oranges in your navigation scheme. 8. The principle of growth – Assume the content you have today is a small fraction of the content you will have tomorrow.
17. Resource: The heuristic evaluation sheet that I use. http://bit.ly/1QwMqkj
18. “Links should be differentiated from other interactive functions.”
19. “The system resembles the user’s real world.”
20. What do your users need? Do primary research! But make it count.
21. Resource: Indi Young’s Mental Models. http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/
22. Guidelines for primary research: 1. You can get great information from four people.
23. Guidelines for primary research: 1. You can get great information from four people. 2. It’s a lot like a reference interview.
24. Guidelines for primary research: 1. You can get great information from four people. 2. It’s a lot like a reference interview. 3. Always identify research objectives.
25. Guidelines for primary research: 1. You can get great information from four people. 2. It’s a lot like a reference interview. 3. Always identify research objectives. 4. Listen for problems, ignore their solutions.
26. Taking it further: decide what “good” really means. Dan Klyn on Performance Continuums http://bit.ly/1Gm6pdH
27. How to do it
28. Translate your ideas into plans Stick to words, you can still do great design.
29. “Users need to navigate by state.”
30. For a vacation rental site What’s there? What’s important?
32. Home Page About About Author Link to Pen Name page Series for New/Featured Book Title Summary Link to Series page On every page Top Navigation • Blog • Most recent/important series title • Pen Names • More by Author New/Featured Book Title Cover image Summary Buy on Amazon Buy on Smashwords Buy on other services Link to Book page Newsletter About Sign up for the newsletter Newest Blog Post Title Excerpt Read more link Author Website: Preliminary Site Model These diagrams are intended to define the templates and give an idea of what elements will be on each template, before we start designing what they should look like. In each case, when a box is nested, that element (like a book, series, etc.) can show up one time, or many times, depending on what is needed. A series will have many books show up, but probably only one pen name associated with it. For an author’s website What’s there? What’s important?
33. Home Page About About Author Link to Pen Name page Series for New/Featured Book Title Summary Link to Series page On every page Top Navigation • Blog • Most recent/important series title • Pen Names • More by Author New/Featured Book Title Cover image Summary Buy on Amazon Buy on Smashwords Buy on other services Link to Book page Newsletter About Sign up for the newsletter Newest Blog Post Title Excerpt Read more link Author Website: Preliminary Site Model These diagrams are intended to define the templates and give an idea of what elements will be on each template, before we start designing what they should look like. In each case, when a box is nested, that element (like a book, series, etc.) can show up one time, or many times, depending on what is needed. A series will have many books show up, but probably only one pen name associated with it.
34. Exercise Time!
35. http://healthlibrary.uwmedicine.org/
36. http://healthlibrary.uwmedicine.org/
37. What’s on the page? Write down what you see on this page. What content, metadata, and links to types of pages are here?
38. How is it ranked? Based on how things are on this page, what’s most important? What is the page currently prioritizing?
39. Does that seem right? Re-rank the elements on the page, if needed. Write down questions that need answering.
40. What do we have? Testing and Evaluation What do we need? Research and Design thinking How should we do it? Planning and Specification
41. Taking it further: Plan how to get there Change is hard, it needs to be planned.
42. Resource: Switch by Chip & Dan Heath.
43. How to talk about it
44. Talk to anyone who will play along.
45. Test early and often. Review of testing tools: http://bit.ly/1vcII27
46. Resource: Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher & William Ury.
47. Taking it further: Look for stories, not just data.
49. Thank you! #SLA2015 @documentalope @factorfirm http://taxonomy.sla.org/eval