info.design © 2005 putting the user first: a success story and tips for structuring information...

Putting the User First: A Success Story and Tips for Structuring Information

Thom Hallerthom@thomhaller.com

Rejoicing pic

Part 2

Time Chunk #4

Story: Plain Language(Second Installment)

1990s now1980s2003… The Plain Language Site Architecture Frustrated Users

1990s now1980s

I propose a student project

Hey… what if my Johns Hopkins Students were to

analyze your site?

Hopkins students explored this question: “Can we build a product that enables people to do what they need to do?”

They explored texts by Karen Schriver and Donald Norman

Readers now recognize that unintelligible documents are not natural disasters that have to be accepted like summer squallsor sleet storms. (Schriver)

Students compared Ways to think about building products…

Deliverable-focused Process Evaluate

Envision Analyze Design Develop Test

BOFSATT

Bunch Of Folks Sitting Around the

Table Talking

Let’s getthis thingbuilt….

Let’s focusondeliverables

Vs: User-Focused Process

Evaluate

Envision Analyze Design Develop Test

Let’s spendtime learning whatpeople want toDO with content….

And let’s help them out.

Johns Hopkins Students Explored How Humans Use Information

How can we help people

They Provided Recommendations Based on “Heuristics” (Rules of Thumb)

Nice analysis…Can we please have some more?

I Submitted Their Findings …

1990s now1980s

I propose a student project

Hey… what if my USDA Graduate School Students were to “architect” your

new site?

USDA Information Architecture Class Explores User-Centered Process

By attending to process, we can structure information so people can find what they

want, use it, and appreciate the experience.

Info.Design

workbook

Students Followed Framework for Crafting Usable Structure

G gather

E evaluate

C chunk

K know

O optimize

Let’s Explore

This Framework

Time Chunk #5

Experience: GECKO Framework

First Phase: GATHERING

G gather

E evaluate

C chunk

K know

O organize

USDA Students Explored Where We Gather Information

We gather information

from Our head

Other’s heads Artifacts

Gathering from OTHER’S heads

Users often can’t articulate what they do -- especially if they are familiar with the work

Be aware of how people often talk in noun structure -- and you want to gather information as verbs.

“Fraud” Gathering Story

Gathering from Artifacts

People create, use, and modify things in the course of doing their work.

These things are considered artifacts. All artifacts have structure.

Artifact Gathering Stories

The Guts of Gathering:Listening

The conversation between the customer and interviewer about the customer’s work (rather than the system/document design) creates a shared understanding and commitment between groups.

– Beyer and Holzblatt

Back to our story

USDA Students Reviewed Recommendations Report (Gathering

from artifacts)

USDA Students Interviewed Stakeholders and

Representative Users

Students Asked Focusing Questions

3. How do they/we

measure success?

2. What TASKS do they want to do?

1. Who’s the audience?

They gather information by focusing on results

What is the mission of your organization?

How does the product support the organization’s mission?

What are goals for the product? Business goals? User goals?

What would success look like?

Students Gathered Information from the Bottom Up

Focused on users and user action Enabled user questions to “rise”

to the surface Focused on reshaping content for

Students Explored Relationship of Audience and Tasks

Tool for Relating

Audienceand Tasks

TOOL YOU CAN USE

Tasks have observable beginnings

observable ends

Students also gathered information from the “Top Down”

Listed Content as is (content lists) Compared resource sites (comparative

analyses) Listed types of documents for future

templates Assessed language used by various

audience members Discussed business requirements with

stakeholders

Students Organized Findings in a Planning Document

Organize your findings: Identify where you are going Identify users, goals, and tasks Envision how the site will

meet user goals Find out if you’ve met your

measures of success

Planning Document

Communicates the Big Vision

Identifies possibilities

Manages expectations

Serves as the basisfor evaluating progressas you work on theproject

Planning Document

Second Phase: Evaluate

G gather

E evaluate

C chunk

K know

O organize

To Evaluate, We Built TrianglesAnd Envisioned our Audiences

USDA Students Explored User-Focused Questions

“Can we build a product that enables people to do what they need to do?”

We developed “Personas”so when we thought about our users, we could FOCUS on actual people.

We Evaluated Content and Structure…

We kept questions within our “triangle framework” Who is the audience? What do THEY want to do with content? What are measures of success -- theirs and

We looked toward what is possible Where are you now? Where do you want to go? How can we get there?

Third Phase: Chunk

G gather

E evaluate

C chunk

K know

O organize

Big Picture: Arrangement

When we build communication products, we must be aware of arrangement How parts of text can be defined How they relate to each other

How they are ordered so the audience experiences them in a certain sequence.

Arrangement requires deciding

Arrangement requires deciding what is being arranged We must decide what parts

should be grouped and labeled We must decide how the

boundaries between these parts should be perceived.

Overview: Chunking

Finding, winnowing, sorting, organizing and imprinting the information takes priority over creating it… The way information is presented and organized becomes as important as the content.

Richard Saul Wurman--coined the term “information architect”

USDA Students Explored Clustering Strategies

Conducted card sorting Identified content

groupings Selected initial labels

USDA Students Explored Content Via the

“Noun/Verb Game”

Fourth Phase: Know (Test)

G gather

E evaluate

C chunk

K know -- TEST w/users

O organize

“Knowing” Users…

Users themselves do not know how to articulate what they do -- especially if they are very familiar with the tasks they perform.

User’s testimony is often incomplete. They emphasize activities that they find exciting or they find difficult.

User’s testimony is often inaccurate. They report on what they believe to be true, not what is.

Source: Hackos & Redish

Research shows:

Students developed initial mockups which we

tested in class

A class intern combined ideas into more complex prototype (which we tested in class)

Prototype findings served as the basis for

design mockups

(which we tested)

Class Provided Recommendations

Use your data from information gathering and testing to present groupings of content

Incorporate different routes so people can access content

Maintain consistency throughout

Many Continued as Volunteers

Volunteers began meeting at Info.Design Studio to “OPTIMIZE” site-- ensuring structure and content supports users

Fifth Phase: Optimize

G gather

E evaluate

C chunk

K know -- TEST w/users

O optimize

Optimize

We are challenged to populate: Landing screens

• Home pages

• Audience home pages

• Topic home pages

Content screens• Text, relationships, and downloads

Volunteers Developed Performance-focused Site Built Around Measures of Success

We All Have Opportunities for Optimizing…

Save room in your schedule before launch to revisit and reflect on your measures of success.

Have you planned with these measures in mind?

Are you supporting audiences with what they want to do?

Site Development

23 different writers Content team Programming team Review team

Tested New Site(Summative Testing)

Sample Page:

Why PL/BenefitsLearned lessonsup until launch

Opportunities Remain

Final Minutes:We reflect on why process matters -- and what you can do

Why Process Matters

Management Reasons

Poorly architected sites/products are harder to maintain (changes seem arbitrary and haphazard)

Communication products without solid, expandable, architecture require new decisions, approvals, and political battles

Summary: Why Structured Process Matters

End Result: Improving the information used by workers raises their measured performance substantially—never less than a 20% improvement, sometimes as high as 600%.

Thomas Gilbert, Engineering Human Performance

Process = Success Systems approaches work because they:

Focus an organization—at the outset—on how the system can support people in doing what they want to do.

Create a roadmap that is used for subsequent planning and implementation.

Link different elements in the site development process. All evaluation is based on the goals you set in the beginning.

Try out this framework for crafting usable structure

G gather

E evaluate

C chunk

K know

O optimize

Try out this framework for crafting usable structure

G gather

E evaluate

C chunk

K know

O optimize

You have the

opportunity to create

happy users

Thanks.

By attending to process, we can structure information so people can find what they

want, use it, and appreciate the experience.

Thanks. Thomthom@thomhaller.com

info.design © 2005 putting the user first: a success story and tips for structuring information...

artifactsusda students

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