company and customer insight for information architects adaptive path jesse james garrett peter...

Company and Customer Insight forInformation Architects

Adaptive Path

www.adaptivepath.com/presentations/insight/

Jesse James Garrett <[email protected]>

Peter Merholz <[email protected]>

15 March 2002 Jesse James Garrett and Peter Merholz · [email protected] · Company and Customer Insight for IAs 2

The Adaptive Path Perspective

• There is no “One True Way”

• The success of a project requires not only a firm

understanding of users’ needs, but an appreciation for the

business’ requirements and processes


Mental Model ValidateDiagram &Prototype

InitialDiscovery

AudienceDefinition

Content Audit

Task Analysis

Prioritiztaion

Goal Mapping and Mental Model

Current State Analysis

Align MM & Content

Define the Audience

Prioritize

IA &Interaction

Diagrams and Prototypes

Overview of a UCD Process


About the Project

• iRemodel.com – leading home improvement portal

• Features:– Tutorial Content for users new to home improvement– Idea File– Product database with comparison engiine– Contractor/architect locator– Budget estimator

• New features:– Kitchen design “center”– Contractor’s management application

Internal Discovery


What Is Discovery?

Useful and often overlooked tool for understanding business needs and context (rather than user needs and context)

• An early opportunity to head off problems before they happen

• Answer important questions about the project: – Why do it? (Business/Marketing purpose)

– What does it do? (Scope/Definition)

– Who cares about it? (Stakeholders/Decision Makers)


If you don’t do discovery you’ll regret it.

It’s like starting the movie without finishing the script, the casting,

hiring a caterer…


10 Ways Projects Can Bite Back

1. Project gets bogged down in approvals

2. Your assumptions about the goals of the project are way off base

3. You discover half-way through that the scope is much greater than you imagined

4. Feature creep

5. Disenfranchised people become obstacles

6. Nobody listens to you…even though you’re supposedly “in charge”

7. Nobody understands what you’re saying (maybe because you don’t have the same understanding of the project)

8. Someone important and powerful (e.g., the CEO) hates the final solution a week before launch

9. Your final solution, though cool, doesn’t solve the original problem

10. Your proposed solution can’t be implemented


Purpose of Discovery (Soft)

• Understand the context in which you are working– Political landscape– Stakeholders– Decision structures (who/how/when)– Business mandates– Technologies

• Build relationships– Introduce yourself– Explain what you do– Get to know everyone involved (listen)– Communicate your goals internally as well as externally


Purpose of Discovery (Concrete)

• Define project criteria– Stakeholders– Definitions– Scope – Business mandate

• Formulate strategies– Resources– Methods– Process– Schedule– Budget


How this Affects You

• Overcoming denial– Explicit acknowledgement = explicit approach

• Your project can fail from the outset if you ignore or avoid

these questions:– What is your relationship with your organization?– How effectively do you communicate your value to the key

stakeholders on your project?

• Develop valuable skills:– Learn the company language (jargon not buzzwords)– Understand the decision-making environment you're working in– Play the game (it is a game -- “ironic detachment”)


Potential Roadblocks to Doing Discovery

• Schedule pressure

• Stakeholders don’t see the value

• Lack of access to key players (distance, vacation, schedule

conflicts, etc.)


Method: Kickoff Meeting

• Purpose:– Introduce yourself, team, and the stakeholders– Explain the project– Let stakeholders know how they will be involved– Establish working relationships; get the team “on board”

• Form: Presentation and discussion

• Timing: Beginning of discovery

• Content: Goals, team, process, schedule, and deliverables

• Leave-behinds: Project plan (draft only), presentation slides


Method: Project Sponsor Interviews

• Who: The most senior person (people) who had to approve the

project (who’s signing the check?) and possibly their peers

• Purpose:– Understand political context– Define decision process– Understand business imperative and goals– Learn what other departments should be included and how

• Form: One-on-one conversations

• Timing: After kickoff

• Leave-behinds: Project plan (draft only)


Method: Stakeholder Group Sessions

• Who: Key stakeholders

• Purpose:– Discover expectations for the project– Discuss pain points, features– Make people feel involved– Establish cross-departmental communication among stakeholders

• Form: Similar to focus groups


• Leave-behinds: None


Method: Stakeholder One-on-Ones

• Who: All kinds of stakeholders

• Purpose:– Learn details about the project– Let people know that they can talk to you (i.e., listen!)– Venting – Talk through definitions, goals, methods, processes– Solidify requirements and discover potential roadblocks– Identify existing documentation

• Form: Informal conversations


• Leave-behinds: None


Method: Review of Existing Documentation

• Gather and review previous materials – any documentation

that seems relevant. It might be: – Server logs– Previous product specs– Usability or other research– Explanation of key technologies

• Even if there’s nothing to review, showing interest will go a

long way toward establishing relationships


Discovery Deliverables Vary

• Summarize your findings for distribution to the stakeholders

and/or project sponsor– Lets people review what they’ve said and correct as necessary– Review of docs will show that you’re leveraging prior investments– Contents include business goals, any mandatory features,

assumptions, definitions

• Formal documentation: MRD, PRD, Project Brief, etc.


Current State Research: Figure Out What You Have

TASK ANALYSIS

Initial Discovery

User ResearchUser DataAnalysis

Mental ModelDiagram

Mental Model

Content Audit

Mental Model

Content Model

Define the Audience

Align MM & Content

User Task Interviews

Task Data Analysis

Mental ModelDiagram

Prioritize Features

Content Model

Current StateResearch

CompetitiveReview

Content ModelDiagram

IA &Interaction



Four Things To Look At

• Content

• Architecture

• Interaction

• Technology


Content - What To Do

• Walk through the existing site

• Pay attention to details of implementation

• Don’t think like a user – but don’t forget the user either

• Ideally developed by another member of your team


General Rules

• Use existing documentation

• Use the knowledge in people’s heads

• Do all four activities concurrently

Final Goal: “Blueprints” of the existing site


Exploring Content

• Content audit looks at broad categories – Sampling of pages– Sufficient for most projects

• A more detailed content inventory looks is more thorough– Make a big list of every piece and its URL– Give each piece a unique ID– Use this for CMS and other migration projects


Identify Broad Types of Content

• Typical Examples:– Executive biographies– Press releases– Product descriptions– Product documentation– Contact information– Tutorials– Case studies


Content Audit - Basic Questions

For each piece of content on the site, ask:

• What is it about?

• Who is it for?

• What type is it?

• Where does it come from?


Content Audit - Strategic Questions

• Check for content “ROT”

• Is it redundant?

• Is it outdated?

• Is it trivial?

• Is it in line with current thinking?

• Does it have historical value?

-->In other words... can we get rid of it?

Traffic analysis can help answer these questions.


Content Audit - Final Result

• Spreadsheet with hundreds or thousands of lines, one line per

page


Architecture

Q: Can you automate the architecture review?

A: Not really.


Typical Site-Mapping Tool Output


What You Actually Need To Know


The Desired Result


Interaction Review

• Walk through existing interactive functionality– Registration process– Shopping cart– Newsletter signup– Etc.

• Play out scenarios with a test account

• Document interaction

• Think like a QA tester – try to generate errors


Documenting Interactions:

The Visual Vocabulary

http://jjg.net/ia/visvocab/


Technology Review

• Identify technologies during walk-through:– Server-side technologies such as Cold Fusion, JSP, PHP, etc.– Client-side technologies such as DHTML, JavaScript, etc.

• Talk to the technical people

• Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions

• Ask “What’s that connected to?”


Current State Analysis Deliverables

Content Audit Spreadsheet or database showing

content by type and topic

Architecture Outlines or diagrams of site structureReview

Interaction ReviewDiagrams, notes, lists

Technology Review Technical brief

User Research

or...

There’s No “You” in “User”


You Are Not Your Audience

• You do not– see things like they do– know what they know– want what they want– work how they work

• This is critical information when designing a product

So how do you figure out all of these things?…


…User Research!

• The study of what makes peoples’ lives difficult and how to

make them easier

– NeedsWhat people need to make their life easier

– DesiresWhat they want (does not equate to what they need)

– AbilitiesWhat they can understand and do

– MethodsHow they do things now


Three Types of User Research for Design

• Conceptual – what users need

• Preference – what users want

• Ability – what users can do


Conceptual Research (“need”)

• Timing: Early in the design process

• Purpose: Investigates needs and methods

• Techniques:

– Task Analysis/Contextual Inquiry

– Surveys

– Ethnography

Outcome: “Raises the ceiling” on design by encouraging

innovative thought at the very outset of design


Preference Research (“like”)

• Timing: Mid-process

• Purpose: Investigates desires, expectations, priorities

• Techniques:

– Surveys

– Focus Groups

– Interviews

– Card sorting

Outcome: “Raises the floor” by ensuring that design

solutions appeals to the desired audience


Ability Research (“do”)

• Timing: End of the process (and the beginning of the next iteration).

• Purpose: Investigates abilities and reactions

• Pre-Launch Techniques:

– Prototypes (paper and mockup)

– Usability Testing

• Post-Launch Techniques:

– Log analysis

– Customer feedback analysis

Outcome: “Raises the floor” by ensuring that design solutions

are usable for the desired audience


User Research Tips

• Test often– No matter what stage your product is in, there's always some

research you can do

• Test what’s testable– Time the research for the needs of the product and the abilities of

the development team– Example: Don't research label wording before you know whether

the audience wants the function it's naming

• Avoid research paralysis

– It's OK to make decisions without first asking people, just don’t make all your decisions that way

– Don’t get distracted by research and forget the product

• Be open-minded


User Research in the Design Process - Ideal

• Highly iterative

• Many small steps, rather than a few giant ones

• Research at every step


User Research in the Design Process – Practical

• Linear process

• One big step for each type of user research (conceptual,

preference, ability)

• Handed off at the end, as opposed to beginning the cycle

again

Goal Mapping and Mental Models


What is a Mental Model?

How the user thinks about and approaches

their tasks and goals

Within a defined system of interaction

(…distinct from a Web experience)


What is a Mental Model?

Grocery Shopping

Prepare shopping list

Look in fridgeTalk to spouse

Walk the store aisles

Does the car need gas?

How much time do I have?

Plan meals

Look for discountsClip coupons


What Does a Mental Model Look Like?

Our Mental Model Diagram looks like this, with tasks arranged

into ever-broader groupings:

Refine Requirements

Find Out What OtherPeople Say

Set TechnologyRequirements Get Proposals

Find Out High-LevelInformation

Find Vendors

Get Input from Peoplewithin Company

Research CorporateNeeds

UnderstandExistingProcess

Determine theROI

Set Requirements

Set FeatureRequirements

Set ReportRequirements

Set DataStorage

Requirements

Set SecurityRequirements

Set IntegrationRequirements

Solicit End-User Input for

Features

Get Buy-Infrom KeyPlayers

Get Buy-Infrom IT

DepartmentFind Vendors

Write Requestsfor Proposals

ReadProposals

Get Input fromOther

Customers

Read VendorMarketingMaterials

DistrustMarketingMaterial

Read ReviewsAttend

Conferences

Explore Web-Based

Solutions

ExploreWirelessSolutions

RefineRequirements

Based onResearch

Research the ProductsResearch the Needs


What Is Goal Mapping?

• Conceptual research that produces a Mental Model Diagram

• A deep analysis of user tasks and goals

• “Break it down, then build it up”


Why Perform Goal Mapping?

• Helps you figure out what features are important to your

users, and what they would call those features

• Ensures that the design meets those user requirements as

well as the business requirements

• Provides a way to trace back all aspects of the interface to the

user’s task flow

• So that you can create a Mental Model Diagram, which is

really cool


Gathering User Task Data

TASK ANALYSIS

Initial Discovery


Mental ModelDiagram

Mental Model

Content Audit

Mental Model

Content Model

Define the Audience

Align MM & Content


Task Data Analysis

Mental ModelDiagram


Gather Task Data: Define the Audience

• Examine target market data and personas

• Gather and review data from previous research– competitive analysis, usability studies, log data

• Form groups of target audiences with descriptions and

priorities

• Revisit groups after task analysis– possibly redefine as users have defined themselves


Gather Task Data: Prepare for the Interview

• Recruit participants– Screener– Recruiter or friends and family– More on this tomorrow...

• Select a workflow to explore

• Prepare the discussion guide– Focus on exploring all the tasks in the workflow– The key verb is “do” not “feel”– Don’t assume the Web or other technological solutions


Gather Task Data: Conduct Interviews

• Use “ethnographic inquiry” techniques – Encourage open answers, rather than to lead the interviewee in

any preconceived direction– Use predefined questions as prompts in a conversation, not a

verbatim script– Allow the interviewee to direct the flow of conversation

• Interview about 5 people per audience type

• Prepare verbatim transcripts

End Result: Detailed notes from a series of interviews


Next We Analyze the Transcripts

TASK ANALYSIS

Initial Discovery


Mental ModelDiagram

Mental Model

Content Audit

Mental Model

Content Model

Define the Audience

Align MM & Content


Task Data AnalysisTask DataAnalysis

Mental ModelDiagram


Transcript Analysis: What Is It?

• An extremely detailed analysis of what your users said they do

to accomplish their goals

• A depersonalized way to understand your target audience– All users within a particular audience set are lumped together

• Less concerned with sequential order of tasks than with

sensible grouping of tasks


Transcript Analysis: How Do You Do It?

• Scan interview transcripts for ‘tasks’

• Copy each task to the atomic task table

• Notice patterns across users. Group similar atomic tasks

together under one task name

• Adjust these groups as the patterns grow and shift

• Estimate 4 hours per interview


Transcript Analysis: Develop Conceptual Groups

• Arrange the tasks into conceptual groups based on:– Steps the users described– Similarity of tasks

• Do this for each audience, if there are multiple audiences

• Compare results between audiences and combine if

appropriate

• Alphabetize conceptual groups for easy reference


Transcript Analysis: End Result

• A set of conceptual groups and their constituent tasks for each

audience

• An appreciation for which tasks are common and more

important


…Leading To a Diagram of the User’s Understanding

TASK ANALYSIS

Initial Discovery


Mental ModelDiagram

Mental Model

Content Audit

Mental Model

Content Model

Define the Audience

Align MM & Content



Mental ModelDiagram


A Portion of a Mental Model Diagram

Refine Drawings andPresent them

Design Work Plan

Research SpecificProject Needs

Work with Architect/Designer

Read PlansRead Bookson Project

Get Up ToDate on Any

Codes

Talk to OtherBuilders

Work with CADDrawings

Use Simple 3DDesign Tools

Manage CADPackage

Print Plans

ReuseDrawings fromPast Projects

Plan Design

Keep inContact with

Designer

Transmit Files

Present Designs toClient

Take Notes

PresentDrawings to

Client

Show ExamplePhotographs

RefineDrawings

Present NewDrawings

Cost Out The Design

Develop Range ofMaterials andProducts Cost

Get PriceEstimates

ResearchMaterials

Develop Range ofLabor Cost

ContactSubcontractors

FindSubcontractors

GetSubcontractorCost Estimates

Find Products

CompareProducts

Talk toSuppliers

Read Catalogs

Talk to otherBuilders

Prepare CostEstimate

Put Numbersand Ranges in

Excel

Compare NewEstimate with

Original

Present CostEstimate to Client

DiscussRanges

Show NumberRanges

Show Productsand Materials

Options


Mental Model Diagram: What Is It?

• A simple visualization of how users think about the workflow

you explored in the interviews

• With transcript analysis, you broke activities down into their

most basic elements

• With the mental model diagram, you build them back up into

meaningful groups

• Meaningful groups are presented left-to-right, across a

landscape


Diagram Mental Model: How Do You Build It?

• Copy all the tasks and conceptual groups into a drawing tool

(we use Visio)

• Gather these groups into increasingly general super-groups

• Arrange the super-groups into a meaningful order, if possible

• Name your super-groups with verbs, not nouns

• Make it a team effort – one person makes a first draft, but

team members and clients should participate in refining it

Personas and Scenarios


What Is a Persona?

• A fictitious person for whom you are designing

• Represents the archetypal qualities of your audience

• Plural: “personas” not “personae”– It’s ... well ... less pretentious


Why Personas?

• Provides focus for the design– Talk about “Lori” not “the user”

• Humanizes the design

• Remarkably effective for bringing user-centered design into an

organization


Researching Personas

• Along with mental model, an output of the task analysis

research

• Market research and segmentation

• User interviews and observation


Developing Personas

Building up various personal attributes into personas based on

existing market research and segmentation, plus any user

interviews and observation you’ve done

• Demographic– Age, Gender, Occupation

• Psychographic– Goals, tasks, motivation

• “Webographic”– Net usage and experience, gear, usage habits, favorite sites


Personalizing Personas

• Name them

• Have photos of them– Stock images, images.google.com


Personas Are Not:

• Demographic ranges– “18-34 year old college educated females making $50K”

• Job Descriptions– “IT managers in Fortune 1000 with purchasing power for routers”

• Your CEO– “Mr. Burns wants to be able to use his WebTV on the site”


Personas Are:

• Stereotypes– This isn’t an exercise in politically correct thinking– Edge cases can lead you off track, e.g. male nurses, private pilots

• Design targets, not sales targets

• Tools for thinking about features and functions, not character

studies


Persona Chart

Steven Joy and Eric

Age27

OccupationLicensed General Contractor

Net usage5 hours per week, cable modem,

my.yahoo.com, cnn.com, theonion.com

GearDell Pentium III, 750Mhz, 17” monitor,

Quickbooks Pro, MS Outlook

Trigger for actionLooking for expanded base of customer

referrals,

Ultimate GoalOnline referral and project tracking.

Familiarity/AnxietyHard drive crash in 1994 made taxes a

nightmare that year. Worried about security.


How Many Personas?

• 3 or 4 usually suffice

• Focus on one “primary” persona– Not necessarily the primary business target– The persona whom, if satisfied, means others will more likely be

satisfied


Personas in the Organization

• Turn personas into big posters, place throughout organization

• Encourage people to think about specific personas, not

“users”


Scenarios

• Stories of personas engaged in tasks or achieving goals

• Narrative structure enforces “making sense”

• The flow of writing feels more “real” than the discrete

collections of tasks and attributes


Writing Scenarios

• Keep the task focused – 4 to 5 paragraphs

• Incorporate the persona’s environment

• Make them messy

• Try not to design while writing

• Write three or four scenarios per persona


Benefits of Scenarios

• Allows for a holistic description of the user’s experience– Context, context, context– From inside the user’s head to the environment surrounding them

• Excellent communication tool – all humans understand stories– Works well across multi-disciplinary teams

• Fleshes out persona’s “existence”


Potential Pitfalls

• The Scenario Where Everything Works Like Magic

• Digressing too much

• Too much response from a designed system


Using Scenarios

• Help others understand users’ needs and desires

• Continually referenced throughout the design process– Keep your designs ‘honest’

• Provide a personal context to task analysis


The Process: Two Tracks

TASK ANALYSIS

Initial Discovery


Mental ModelDiagram

Mental Model

Content Audit

Mental Model

Content Model

Define the Audience

Align MM & Content


Task Data Analysis

Mental ModelDiagram

Prioritize Features

Content Model


CompetitiveReview


IA &Interaction



Comparing What We Have To What Users Want

TASK ANALYSIS

Initial Discovery


Mental ModelDiagram

Mental Model

Content Audit

Mental Model

Content Model

Define the Audience



Mental ModelDiagram

Align MM & Content


Comparison of Mental Model to Available Material

• This is where it begins to come together

• Slot content, functionality, and business goals where it

supports audiences’ mental model

• Make sure to address every significant content area

• If the project is “from scratch” and there are not many explicit

features, etc., use the mental model to drive product

requirements


Comparison – Very Much a Team Effort

• Clients and stakeholders are essential in this process

• Need domain expertise to ensure completeness


Comparison – Gap Analysis

• Ideal – Every task in the audiences’ mental model is served by

content and functionality

• Practical – That is never the case



Design Work Plan



Assess Site



Codes




Take Pictures

Measure Site

Take Notes

Manage CADPackage

Print Plans


Plan Design

Keep inContact with

Designer

Transmit Files


Take Notes

PresentDrawings to

Client


RefineDrawings

Present NewDrawings

Cost Out The Design


Get PriceEstimates

ResearchMaterials



FindSubcontractors


Talk toSuppliers

Read Catalogs




Excel


Original

Present CostEstimate to Client

DiscussRanges

Show NumberRanges

Show Productsand Materials

Options

Kitchen LayoutTool

Buying andSelectionGuides

Design IdeasArticles

Shopping Cart

ProductTrends

StoreHouse Plans

Library

Building CodesHouse Plans

Library

Cost Estimator

Tiling Guide(Ortho Book)

Loan Center

ConsumerGuides

How To Hire AContractor

VendorManagement

Guides

Kitchen LayoutTool

Lighting LayoutTool

Pre-designedKitchen

Templates

ProjectWorksheets

Gap Type 1 – User Needs Not Supported by Content

• Could be an important oversight in the content of the site

• Could be be an activity not appropriate for web content


Gap Type 2 – Content Available But No User Need

• Could be extraneous content not worth maintaining (R.O.T.)

• Could be an important way to empower the user


Design Work Plan



Assess Site



Codes




Take Pictures

Measure Site

Take Notes

Manage CADPackage

Print Plans


Plan Design

Keep inContact with

Designer

Transmit Files


Take Notes

PresentDrawings to

Client


RefineDrawings

Present NewDrawings

Cost Out The Design


Get PriceEstimates

ResearchMaterials



FindSubcontractors


Talk toSuppliers

Read Catalogs




Excel


Original

Kitchen LayoutTool

Buying andSelectionGuides

Design IdeasArticles

Shopping Cart

ProductTrends

StoreHouse Plans

Library

Building CodesHouse Plans

Library

Cost Estimator

Tiling Guide(Ortho Book)

Loan Center

ConsumerGuides

How To Hire AContractor

VendorManagement

Guides

Kitchen LayoutTool

Lighting LayoutTool

Pre-designedKitchen

Templates

ProjectWorksheets


Let’s Look at What We Have

• A diagram depicting the audience’s mental model across the

top, and the company’s supporting material beneath it

• Fuzzy’ user data has developed into a solid, rigorous model

• A foundation from which to build the information architecture

Prioritizing:

What do we do first…second…never?


Prioritize the Features

TASK ANALYSIS

Initial Discovery


Mental ModelDiagram

Mental Model

Content Audit

Mental Model

Content Model

Define the Audience

Align MM & Content


Task Data Analysis

Mental ModelDiagram

Prioritize Features

Content Model


CompetitiveReview


IA &Interaction


Align the MM &Content Model


Step 1: The “Big List”

1. Content Analysis and Content Map

2. Ten people in a room for an hour or two

• Talk through scenarios

• Blue sky

• Focus on what it should be (brainstorming rules)

• General Rule: People don’t have any problem telling you what they

want, as long as they don’t have to make it or pay for it.

• Real Challenge: Choosing which features to build


Step 2: Identify Dependencies and Baseline

• What things must happen first? What are the mandatory

groupings?

• What is baseline? What are the “Must-Haves” that you can’t

launch without?


Step 3: Have Stakeholders Figure Out

• Feasibility: easy or hard, expensive or not, short or long to implement

Rate each item in the list 1 = low feasibility 5 = high feasibility

• Importance: to business, to user

Rate each item in the list 1 = low importance 5 = high importance


Step 4: Graph the Findings

Importance

Feasibility

High importance+Low feasibility =

Watch for new technology

High importance+High feasibility =

Do Now

Low importance+ High feasibility =

Consider

Low importance+ Low feasibility =

Don’t Bother

LOW

HI

HI LOW


Thanks!

• http://adaptivepath.com/presentations/insight/

• [email protected]

company and customer insight for information architects adaptive path jesse james garrett peter...

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