Usability and user-centred design

A talk I gave to the graduate employees of a software development firm.

Transcript

1. Intro Usability & User Centred Design Justine Sanderson | RHE, Auckland 24 February 2006 © 2006 Userfaction Ltd
2. The challenge
3. The desired outcome
4. Why Usability? 63% of software projects exceed their budget estimates, with the top four reasons all relating to product usability: frequent requests for changes by users, overlooked tasks, users' lack of understanding of their own requirements, and insufficient user analysis communication and understanding (Lederer & Prassad, 1992).
5. Why Usability? Cost of changes throughout the development lifecycle
6. Usability Usability means designing things that actual human beings can use for their intended purpose steve krug – don’t make me think
7. User Centred Design To develop an experience based on the patterns inherent in your stuff that empowers users to accomplish their goals. jeffrey veen
8. User Centered Design
9. User Centred Design Process
10. Ethnographic Research
11. Field Studies
12. Contextual Enquiry
13. Participatory Design
14. Prototyping
15. Usability Evaluations
16. 1. User Research Step out of your environment
17. Observing in context How do people actually use and experience computers? How often do they use them? How satisfied are they? What are their wants and needs? What are their suggestions for improvement?
18. What people say (market research/focus groups) What people do (ethnography/contextual enquiry) What people make (lead users/participatory design) Explore
19. 'I don't know who discovered water, but it wasn't a fish.' Step out of your environment
20. You are not the user you are not the user
21. 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
22. hang out with people who don’t use a computer 8 hours a day
23. People do strange things on their computers
24. Passwords on post it notes
25. You do not have their undivided attention
26. Personas/User Profiles
27. Personas/User Profiles
28. Frequency of use
29. Personas/User Profiles
30. Mood board
31. Scenarios/Use Cases
32. Use Cases 1.  The user sees a welcome message on the ATM's screen. 2.  The user takes a valid Huntington bank card from their wallet. 3.  The user slides the bank card fully into the marked slot. 4.  The user waits five seconds for the ATM to respond. Feedback: The ATM displays "Please enter your four-digit personal identification number" on the screen. 5.  Using the physical keypad attached to the ATM, the user correctly enters their four-digit PIN. 6.  The user presses the Enter key. […] 7.  The user removes their bank card and returns it to their wallet. 8.  The user watches the screen for 15 seconds. Feedback: The ATM redisplays the welcome message. 9.  The customer leaves.
33. Use Cases
34. Goal/Task Analysis
35. 2. Ideation designing / alternatives
36. Ideation/Develop Alternatives Multiple alternatives increases the probability of success Most developers tend to adopt a "satisficing" strategy that focuses on initial, satisfactory, but less than optimal, solutions. Never be satisfied with a single opinion or the first idea. It is best to "saturate the design space" with ideas before making decisions and to consider alternatives (i.e., better design solutions, throughout the design process). Ball, L.J., Evans, J.B.T. And Dennis, I. (1994), Cognitive processes in engineering design: A longitudinal study, Ergonomics, 37(11), 1753-1786.
37. Brainstorming session
38. 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
39. Have a conversation with your team
40. Participatory Design: Card Sorting
41. 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”
42. From Users to Goals to Structure http://thinkingandmaking.com/entries/49
43. From Users to Goals to Structure http://thinkingandmaking.com/entries/49
44. From Users to Goals to Structure http://thinkingandmaking.com/entries/49
45. 3.Design Mockups/Prototyping
46. What prototyping will uncover •  Usability issues. All the things you typically find in usability testing - confusing concepts, poor terminology, layout problems, lack of feedback, etc. •  Missing (or misspecificed) functional requirements. Users often have needs that the development team isn't aware of, or the team may have a mistaken assumption about what functionality will satisfy a user requirement. •  Preference for one design alternative. Sometimes there are multiple ways to provide a function and they're equally easy to implement. But users may have a clear preference for one way over another. http://www.paperprototyping.com/what_examples.html
47. Mockups/Prototyping 1. Company info 2. Insurance info for company 3. My (current user) info 4. Other users on this account 5. My sales rep contact info 6 Current account plan 7. Link to change search preferences 8. Date account was created 9. People rarely view or change insurance info 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info 11. Changing password is the most likely action 12. People might come here to change search preferences (which are on a separate page) http://37signals.com/papers/introtopatterns/
48. 1. Company info 2. Insurance info for company 4. Other users on this account 5. My sales rep contact info 6. Current account plan 9. People rarely view or change insurance info 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info 3. My (current user) info 11. Changing password is the most likely action 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info A B C D E F 8. Date account was created G 7. Link to change search preferences 12. People might come here to change search preferences (which are on a separate page) H
49. 2. Insurance info for company 9. People rarely view or change insurance info 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info B 4. Other users on this account 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info D 6. Current account plan 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info F 1. Company info 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info A 3. My (current user) info 11. Changing password is the most likely action 10. Any user can edit anything except other users' info C 5. My sales rep contact info E 8. Date account was created G 7. Link to change search preferences 12. People might come here to change search preferences (which are on a separate page) H
50. Most important: Necessary: Nice to have: A C E G B D F H
53. l The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.z Hans Hofmann http://dev.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000015.php
54. Interactive Prototype
55. 4. Usability Evaluations
56. User Centred Design Process
57. Patterns …designing from the bottom up…
58. Patterns
59. Avis
60. Study Patterns
61. www.welie.com
62. Yahoo pattern library
63. Study Patterns
64. UCD artefacts start a conversation with your team
65. 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
66. Make the data real Walls – beyond whiteboards by Mark Rettig (www.marcrettig.com/writings/rettig.walls.72dpi.pdf )
67. Make things together
68. Collaboration
69. You are not the user
70. Push Escape to Cancel
71. Even web 2.0 apps use blue underlined links
72. Flickr new Even web 2.0 apps use blue underlined links
73. Intro Thank You! Questions? justine@userfaction.com © 2006 Userfaction Ltd