design for strangers

138
Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting Design for Strangers: Effective User Experience Design When Your Users are on Another Continent Rashmi Sinha Jonathan Boutelle Uzanto Consulting

Upload: test99

Post on 15-May-2015

1.003 views

Category:

Economy & Finance


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Design for Strangers: Effective User Experience Design  When Your Users are

on Another Continent

Rashmi Sinha

Jonathan Boutelle

Uzanto Consulting

Page 2: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Structure of workshop

Introduction Evaluating Systems (Morning session)

Overview of evaluation Heuristic Evaluation Usability Testing GOMS

Understanding users (Afternoon session) Personas and Scenarios Mental Models and Information Architecture Business of Usability (time permitting)

Page 3: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Evaluating systems: Available data streamsDifferent data streams yield different types of metrics Heuristic Evaluation Usability Testing

Remote Usability Testing

Server Logs or Transaction Logs Satisfaction Data Page Level Ratings GOMS

Page 4: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Heuristic Evaluation

Using heuristics (or rules of thumb) for evaluating systems. Expert analyze degree to which system complies with

rules

Heuristics such as Keep user informed of system status Speak the user’s language

Page 5: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Usability Tests

Test with users Very useful for design purposes

But software must be built before it can be tested

Difficult to use to convince management Often conducted in artificial scenarios

Page 6: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Remote Usability Testing

Advantages Large Sample Size

Disadvantages Cost Most of the usual disadvantages of usability testing

Page 7: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Server and Transaction Logs

Can give an accurate view of site activity Can give detailed view of site activity – possible to

drill down Hard to relate to user experience and user goals Hard to understand – massive reams of data Often used by corporations to roughly track user

experience

Page 8: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Satisfaction Ratings

Give an overall view of the site Such ratings often have business buy-in Very difficult to move such numbers

Might not relate to specific aspects of the site

Make effort not to let the satisfaction levels fall

Page 9: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

GOMS

Can help track the complexity of an interface How much work it will take to complete a task

Might not tell you what real users will do Very helpful in comparing interfaces Can be used with interfaces that have not been

implemented yet

Page 10: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

What Data Streams to Use

What does it measure User Behavior (navigation paths, errors) or User Attitudes

(user loyalty, satisfaction)? Gap between reported and actual behavior. Recommendation: Have at least one data stream of each.

How comprehensive is the coverage? how much of the site is covered the frequency of measurement

Sensitivity of measurement: How sensitive is data stream to changes in the user

experience

Page 11: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

What Data Streams to Use continued• Sampling Bias: Every data stream comes with its own set of

sampling biases.• The economics of measurement will determine what types

of data are practical to collect.• Initial cost• Ongoing cost• Cost of increasing sample size

Page 12: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Structure of workshop

Introduction Evaluating Systems (Morning session)

Overview of evaluation Heuristic Evaluation Usability Testing GOMS

Understanding users (Afternoon session) Personas and Scenarios Mental Models and Information Architecture Business of Usability (time permitting)

Page 13: Design For Strangers

Heuristic Evaluation

Developed by Jakob Nielsen Helps find usability problems in a UI design Small set (3-5) of evaluators examine UI

independently check for compliance with usability principles (“heuristics”)

different evaluators will find different problems evaluators only communicate afterwards

findings are then aggregated

Can perform on working UI or on prototypes or designs

Page 14: Design For Strangers

What are heuristics?

Simple easy rules of thumbs for enhancing usability

For example: Have simple and natural dialog Speak the users’ language

Page 15: Design For Strangers

Heuristic Evaluation Process

Evaluators go through UI several times inspect various dialogue elements compare with list of usability principles consider other principles/results that come to mind

Usability principles Nielsen’s “heuristics” supplementary list of category-specific heuristics

competitive analysis & user testing of existing products

Use violations to redesign/fix problems

From Jakob Neilsen

Page 16: Design For Strangers

Heuristic 1: Visibility of system status

searching database for matches

The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

Page 17: Design For Strangers

Visibility of system status (cont)

Response Time parameters 0.1 sec: no special indicators needed, why? 1.0 sec: user tends to lose track of data 10 sec: max. duration if user to stay focused on action for longer delays, use percent-done progress bars

Page 18: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Heuristic 2: Match between system & real world• The system should speak the users' language,

with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms.

• Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

Page 19: Design For Strangers

There should be a match between system & real world follow real world conventions

Use User’s language, not developer’s language

Page 20: Design For Strangers

Provide ways for users to backtrack when they make mistakes.

Have clearly labeled exits allowing users to backtrack without an extended interaction.

Support undo and redo.

Heuristic 3: User Control and Freedom

Page 21: Design For Strangers

User Freedom Heuristics (cont.)

H2-3: User control & freedom “exits” for

mistaken choices, undo, redo

don’t force down fixed paths

Wizards must respond to Q before going to next Should be easy to good for beginners

have 2 versions (WinZip)

Page 22: Design For Strangers

Use a consistent look and feel.

Do not confuse users by changing platform conventions.

Heuristic 4: Consistency and Standards

Page 23: Design For Strangers

Consistency (cont.)

Is this confusing?

Page 24: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Heuristic 5: Error Prevention

Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place.

Example: If user is asked to spell something, e.g. file names, it might be easier to give them a menu from which they can choose the files.

Example: ModesWhen the same action leads to different consequences in different states. For example in older word processors, there was an insert and edit modes. The same key press in the different modes would lead to different outcomes.

Page 25: Design For Strangers

Heuristic 6: Recognition rather than recall Make objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information

from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible

or easily retrievable whenever appropriate. Computers good at remembering things, human

beings are not. Computer should display dialog elements to the

user, and have them make a choice. During web navigation, remind users where they are

currently.

Page 26: Design For Strangers

Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users.

Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

Heuristic 7: Flexibility & efficiency of use

Page 27: Design For Strangers

Flexibility (cont.)

accelerators for experts (e.g., gestures, kb shortcuts) allow users to tailor frequent actions (e.g., macros)

Edit

Cut

Copy

Paste

OR

Ctrl-V

Ctrl-C

Ctrl-X

Page 28: Design For Strangers

Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed.

Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

Heuristic 8: Aesthetic and minimalist design

Page 29: Design For Strangers

Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

Heuristic 9: Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Page 30: Design For Strangers

Heuristic 10: Help and documentation

•It is better if the system can be used without documentation, but it may be necessary to provide help and documentation.

•Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Page 31: Design For Strangers

Phases of Heuristic Evaluation

Pre-evaluation training give evaluators needed domain knowledge and

information on the scenario

Evaluation individuals evaluate and then aggregate results

Severity rating determine how severe each problem is (priority)

can do this first individually and then as a group

Debriefing discuss the outcome with design team

Page 32: Design For Strangers

How to Perform Evaluation

At least two passes for each evaluator first to get feel for flow and scope of system second to focus on specific elements

If system is walk-up-and-use or evaluators are domain experts, no assistance needed otherwise might supply evaluators with scenarios

Each evaluator produces list of problems explain why with reference to heuristic or other information be specific and list each problem separately

Page 33: Design For Strangers

Examples

Can’t copy info from one window to another violates “Minimize the users’ memory load” (H1-3) fix: allow copying

Typography uses mix of upper/lower case formats and fonts violates “Consistency and standards” (H2-4) slows users down probably wouldn’t be found by user testing fix: pick a single format for entire interface

Page 34: Design For Strangers

Severity Rating

Used to allocate resources to fix problems Estimates of need for more usability efforts Combination of

frequency impact persistence (one time or repeating)

Should be calculated after all evals. are in Should be done independently by all judges Severity Ratings

0 - don’t agree that this is a usability problem 1 - cosmetic problem 2 - minor usability problem 3 - major usability problem; important to fix 4 - usability catastrophe; imperative to fix

Page 35: Design For Strangers

Debriefing

Conduct with evaluators, observers, and development team members

Discuss general characteristics of UI Suggest potential improvements to address major

usability problems Dev. team rates how hard things are to fix Make it a brainstorming session

little criticism until end of session

Page 36: Design For Strangers

Results of Using HE

Single evaluator achieves poor results only finds 35% of usability problems 5 evaluators find ~ 75% of usability problems why not more evaluators???? 10? 20?

adding evaluators costs more many evaluators won’t find many more problems

Page 37: Design For Strangers

Summary

Heuristic evaluation is a discount method Have evaluators go through the UI twice Ask them to see if it complies with heuristics

note where it doesn’t and say why

Combine the findings from 3 to 5 evaluators Have evaluators independently rate severity Discuss problems with design team Alternate with user testing

Page 38: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Heuristic Evaluation Exercise

Split into two groups Conduct Heuristic Evaluation as a group (Create list

of heuristic violation) Each person within group provides a severity rating

for each heuristic violation (eliminate redundancies) Average severity for each group Present back to larger group

Page 39: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Structure of workshop

Introduction Evaluating Systems (Morning session)

Overview of evaluation Heuristic Evaluation Usability Testing GOMS

Understanding users (Afternoon session) Personas and Scenarios Mental Models and Information Architecture Business of Usability (time permitting)

Page 40: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Overview of user testing

Why do user testing? Choosing participants Designing the test Collecting data Analyzing the data

Page 41: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Why do User Testing?

Can’t tell how good or bad UI is until people use it!

Other methods are based on evaluators who? may know too much may not know enough (about tasks, etc.)

Summary: Hard to predict what real users will do

Page 42: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Choosing Participants Representative of eventual users in terms of

job-specific vocabulary / knowledge tasks

If you can’t get real users, get approximation system intended for doctors

get medical students

system intended for electrical engineers get engineering students

Use incentives to get participants

Page 43: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Ethical Considerations

Sometimes tests can be distressing users have left in tears users can be embarrassed by mistakes

You have a responsibility to alleviate this make voluntary with informed consent avoid pressure to participate let them know they can stop at any time [Gomoll] stress that you are testing the system, not them make collected data as anonymous as possible

Page 44: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

User Test Proposal

A report that contains objective description of system being testing task environment & materials participants methodology tasks test measures

Page 45: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Selecting Tasks

Should reflect what real tasks will be like Tasks from analysis & design can be used

may need to shorten if they take too long require background that test user won’t have

Avoid bending tasks in direction of what your design best supports

Don’t choose tasks that are too fragmented

Page 46: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Deciding on Data to Collect

Two types of data process data

observations of what users are doing & thinking bottom-line data

summary of what happened (time, errors, success…) i.e., the dependent variables

Focus on process data first gives good overview of where problems are

Bottom-line doesn’t tell you where to fix just says: “too slow”, “too many errors”, etc.

Hard to get reliable bottom-line results need many users for statistical significance (don’t bother unless

needed)

Page 47: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

The “Thinking Aloud” Method

Need to know what users are thinking, not just what they are doing

Ask users to talk while performing tasks tell us what they are thinking tell us what they are trying to do tell us questions that arise as they work tell us things they read

Make a recording or take good notes make sure you can tell what they were doing

Page 48: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Thinking Aloud (cont.)

Prompt the user to keep talking “tell me what you are thinking”

Only help on things you have pre-decided keep track of anything you do give help on

Recording use a digital watch/clock take notes, plus if possible

record audio and video (or even event logs)

Page 49: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Using the Test Results

Summarize the data make a list of all critical incidents (CI)

positive: something they liked or worked well negative: difficulties with the UI

include references back to original data try to judge why each difficulty occurred

What does data tell you? UI work the way you thought it would?

consistent with heuristic evaluation users take approaches you expected?

Page 50: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Using the Results (cont.)

Update task analysis and rethink design rate severity & ease of fixing CI’s fix both severe problems & make the easy fixes

Will thinking aloud give the right answers? not always if you ask a question, people will always give an answer,

even it is has nothing to do with the facts try to avoid specific questions

Page 51: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Measuring Bottom-Line Usability

Situations in which numbers are useful time requirements for task completion successful task completion compare two designs on speed or # of errors

Do not combine with thinking-aloud talking can affect speed and accuracy (neg. & pos.)

Time is easy to record Error or successful completion is harder

define in advance what these mean

Page 52: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Analyzing the Numbers

Example: trying to get task time <=30 min. test gives: 20, 15, 40, 90, 10, 5 mean (average) = 30 median (middle) = 17.5 looks good! wrong answer, not certain of anything

Factors contributing to our uncertainty small number of test users (n = 6) results are very variable (standard deviation = 32)

std. dev. measures dispersal from the mean

Page 53: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Measuring User Preference

How much users like or dislike the system can ask them to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 or have them choose among statements

“best UI I’ve ever…”, “better than average”…

hard to be sure what data will mean novelty of UI, feelings, not realistic setting, etc.

If many give you low ratings, you are in trouble Can get some useful data by asking

what they liked, disliked, where they had trouble, best part, worst part, etc. (redundant questions)

Page 54: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

User Testing: Cultural Issues

Are users the same all over Obviously not Getting users that are as similar as possible to your real

users is important Can you test on users from another country?

Probably not for things that are culturally specific Entertainment marketing-ware Generic business software

Yes for applications targeted at specialists with strong international work cultures

Doctors Software engineers

Page 55: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Testing Details

Order of tasks choose one simple order (simple -> complex)

Training depends on how real system will be used

What if someone doesn’t finish assign very large time & large # of errors

Pilot study helps you fix problems with the study do twice, first with colleagues, then with real users

Page 56: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Instructions to Participants

Describe the purpose of the evaluation “I’m testing the product; I’m not testing you”

Tell them they can quit at any time Demonstrate the equipment Explain how to think aloud Explain that you will not provide help Describe the task

give written instructions

Page 57: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Details (cont.)

Keeping variability down recruit test users with similar background brief users to bring them to common level perform the test the same way every time

don’t help some more than others (plan in advance)

make instructions clear

Debriefing test users often don’t remember, so show video segments ask for comments on specific features

show them screen (online or on paper)

Page 58: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Summary

User testing is important, but takes time & effort Early testing can be done on a mock-ups (low-fi) Use real tasks & representative participants Be ethical & treat your participants well Want to know what people are doing & why

i.e., collect process data

Using bottom line data requires more users to get statistically reliable results

Page 59: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

User Testing Exercise

Divide into groups Each group devise a test plan

2 tasks, where to get users from, who to test

Test someone from the other group Note findings

Page 60: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Structure of workshop

Introduction Evaluating Systems (Morning session)

Overview of evaluation Heuristic Evaluation Usability Testing GOMS

Understanding users (Afternoon session) Personas and Scenarios Mental Models and Information Architecture Business of Usability (time permitting)

Page 61: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

GOMS

Can help track the complexity of an interface How much work it will take to complete a task

Might not tell you what real users will do Very helpful in comparing interfaces Can be used with interfaces that have not been

implemented yet

Page 62: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

GOMS Overview

Goals, Objects, Methods, Selection Rules A way of measuring how much work it takes to do

something using a given information system System doesn’t have to exist yet

Many GOMS variants: most are quite complex and difficult to implement

A simplified version of Keystroke-Level GOMS will be presented today

Page 63: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

GOMS Keystroke Actions

The actions K (Click, Keying): .2 Seconds M (mentally preparing): 1.35 Seconds P (pointing): 1.1 Seconds H (homing) (move hand between keyboard and pointing device) .4

Second R (system responding): varies by system / action

Very approximate estimates of time to do task Useless for predicting how much time a task will take

Thinking doesn’t always take 1.35 second Pointing time varies with size of target and distance from current

location (Fitt’s law) Yet valid on a comparative basis if two designs / systems are analyzed

using the same technique

Page 64: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

EZ-GOMS Calculation

Explicitly specify a task Typically many potential paths through a given design, optional fields etc:

get explicit Consider using ranges (minimum, maximum, typical) to get a better sense

of best / worst case scenarios Calculate all the actions that will be taken to perform that task Add M (mental preparation) in using this rules

In front of all clicking In front of all pointing

Remove “M”s using these rules (you’ll do this automatically after a little practice)

Remove anticipated “M”s (M P M K-> M P K) Remove “M”s within cognitive units (“fred”-> MKMKMKMK->MKKKK) Remove overlapping “M”s (adjacent to Rs) Remove “M”s before consecutive terminators }} Remove “M”s that are terminators of commands

Page 65: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

EZ-GOMS Example

H M P K H (select name text box) M K K K K K K (enter name) H M P K H (select password text box) M K K K K K K (enter password) H M P K (click “sign in” button) R (waiting for the server to respond)

Sign in to Yahoo!

Yahoo! ID:

Yahoo! Password:

Remember my ID & Password

Sign in

Need help signing in?

Page 66: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Understanding User NeedsAfternoon Session

Page 67: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Structure of workshop

Introduction Evaluating Systems (Morning session)

Overview of evaluation Heuristic Evaluation Usability Testing GOMS

Understanding users (Afternoon session) Personas and Scenarios Mental Models and Information Architecture Business of Usability (time permitting)

Page 68: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Problem with traditional user research methods Long sessions of observing users or interviewing

them or participatory design. Appropriate in face to face interaction situations. Methods work well in designing for easy to access

audiences. Difficult to use for remote users. Difficult to use when designing for global audiences. Also difficult to use such methods to make business case

since numbers are small and data is qualitative.

So what is the answer?

Page 69: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Semi-structured user research methods Using mostly phone and online surveys Complementary with, rather than an alternative to

open-ended methods Can work for information-rich domains

Help understand information representations in user’s minds. e.g. design of navigation for cell phone.

Work well in remote situations

Page 70: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Two types of user research methods

Part 1: User information needs What user needs are important? Can users be differentiated into groups on

the basis of such needs? Can this grouping be used to form personas?

Part 2: User Categorizations Scope & boundaries of information domain Structure of information domain Differences between groups of people

(different user groups, different cultures, stakeholders)

Page 71: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Many potential users

One Persona

From Alan Cooper

Part 1: Understanding user needs, creating scenarios & personas remotely Why persona based design

One of the problems in design is that it is very hard to visualize an abstract “USER” and what he / she might want

• Develop one or two persona of the typical “user” from interviews with many users

• Persona is made up person, your so called “typical user”.

• Should be based on your experiences with actual users in the interview stage.

Page 72: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

From Alan Cooper

Persona based Design Process

Persona: The archetypical user

Goals Goals of the persona in using the software

Tasks Specific steps needed to accomplish goal.

Scenario The usage scenario, the whole incident of software usage

Page 73: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Characteristics of Personas (from Cooper)

“Hypothetical Archetypes” Archetype:

An original model after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype

A precise description of a user and what they want to accomplish Imaginary, but precise Specific, but stereotyped

Page 74: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Targeted Design with Personas

Describe a person in terms of their Goals in life (especially relating to this project) Capabilities, inclinations, and background

People have a “visceral” ability to generalize about real and fictional people They won’t be 100% accurate, but it feels natural to think about people

this way

Why use personas If you try to satisfy everyone, you end up satisfying no one. A

compromise design pleases no-one From all your interviews etc.,

decide what is your typical user / users, create a specific persona then try to please that that persona 100% of the time.

Page 75: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Advantages of Personas

Targeted Design Works Better Example: Roller suitcases

Was designed specifically for airline employees, pilots, airhostesses etc.

Has become popular with all classes of people In order to do good design you need to have a specific person in mind,

and think in terms of that person every time a design decision needs to be made

Puts an end to feature debates Makes hypothetical arguments less hypothetical

Q: “What if the user wants to print this out?” Typical discussion “The user will / wiil not want to print often.” “Given her tasks, and Emilee won’t want to print often.”

Page 76: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Case Study using Personas

Primary Persona Joe, the executive

Make him happy 100% of the time

Secondary Persona Dan, the traveler

Try to take care of his needs as well

Page 77: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Developing Personas cont.

Joe: The busy traveling executive from a multinational company. He is on the road about 10 days a month.

He is very fond of food but is afraid to explore in strange cities, and prefers restaurants which serve good, but not exotic food.

He is also fond of a beer with his meal.

He does not like to travel far for food, prefers to walk or hop into a cab for a short ride

Page 78: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Developing Personas cont.

Dan: Driving his car across the country after graduating. Gets to a different city every night and finds a hotel and a restaurant.

He wants to explore the town, find the local hangouts, understand the town’s culture.

He likes to try different kinds of food.

He prefers restaurant in the middle of the town.

Page 79: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Goals and Tasks of Users

Goals are larger functions that the user is hoping to satisfy Get acquainted with the city, discover its special cuisine Not have to travel too much for food Relax after a hard day’s work / driving

Page 80: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Tasks of users Tasks are the specific steps that the user has to go through in

order to accomplish his goals. Asks include the usage of the software. Find information about various restaurants Decide on the one based on factors such as price, cuisine,

serves alcohol or not/ distance from location Get to the restaurant Eat Pay for meal

Page 81: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Development of Scenarios

Primary Persona: Joe, the executiveMake him happy 100% of the time

•Scenario: Joe’s company has tied up with some Delhi IT company, and he is visiting Delhi for the first time.

•He is staying somewhere near South Ex.•He needs to find a restaurant to eat at.•He is not feeling adventerous, so not Dosa! Just some safe Burger and Fries.•So Joe turns to his trusted Palm

Page 82: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Development of Scenarios

Joe needs to input his location into his palm.

Input what kind of food he wants or the program can use defaults

The information returned: list of possible restaurants along with their relevant details, kinds of food etc.

More details about each on request: details such as the availability of beer, if they take credit cards, links to reviews etc.

Page 83: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Development of Scenarios

The information returned to Joe needs to be broad (offer a number of options) and deep (offer more details upon request)

Location Information is another concern of Joe’s.Ideally he wants exact distance & directions to restaurant.Not possible, not live website

Page 84: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Development of Scenarios

What else does Joe need? To mark restaurants that he liked.

Lets think more…

Compromise: Tag restaurants in terms of neighborhoods. Joe can give current neighborhood.

Can be shown map with neighborhoods marked out & approximate distances.

Page 85: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Our secondary Persona

Does this design make Dan happy?

Designing for one specific user often makes other users happy as well.

Page 86: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Daily Use Fast to learn Shortcuts and customization after more use

Necessary Use Infrequent but required Nothing fancy needed

Edge Cases Ignore or save for version 2

Aspects of Scenarios

Page 87: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Personas and Market Segmentation

Uses of Market Segmentation Used to identify clusters of people product can

appeal to. Using demographics or using

attitudinal/psychological/psychographic variables. Questions focus on like / dislike of product concept

what do you think of vanilla coke or green Heinz ketchup?

Forecasts marketplace acceptance of products. Helps convince executives to build product. Not helpful for defining and designing product.

Page 88: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Reconciling personas and market segments Build personas on top of segments

Ground the personas in reality. Define a persona for each main segment

Focus on goals and behaviors of users. Advantages:

Easy to get buy-in for personas from management, engineering etc.

Page 89: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Persona building method

Method Conduct secondary research

Examine existing market segments Conduct interviews with various stakeholders, including multiple

users Conduct online survey if users are remote. Find patterns. Pick nugget and interesting tidbit and build persona around it.

Page 90: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Conduct secondary research

Examine existing market segments What type of user population is product/site targeting

How should you identify current segments? Easier for demographic segments More difficult for attitudinal segments

What type of population characteristics are useful for design purposes?

Example: Segments for Palm based restaurant finder

Page 91: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Stakeholder and user interviews

Can be in person or on phone Semi-structured interviews:

Decide on few questions before-hand leaving room for change.

Ask about scenarios of usage: e.g., last time they used product. Go through steps of usage, exact context, motivations

etc. Tape interview if possible or keep a phone log. Interview people from each user segment. Ask for a few ratings on a five-point scale.

Aggregate rating information for sake of comparison.

Page 92: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Online survey of user needs (optional) Important for remote users or if there are many types of

users Example

Conduct online survey on factors used in finding restaurants for travelers.

Identified factors important in choosing restaurants. e.g., Food quality, décor, wine selection, cuisine, service.

Ask for importance ratings (on 5-point scale) of factors.

Tie response to behavior: Asked respondents to recall a specific incident of choosing a restaurant, rather than answer questions in an abstract fashion.

Option: Ask about several scenarios of usage from same person. e.g., One restaurant visit with business colleagues, another with friends.

Page 93: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Personas Exercise

Divide into groups Craft a primary and secondary persona for your product Think of all that you know about your users

Page 94: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Structure of workshop

Introduction Evaluating Systems (Morning session)

Overview of evaluation Heuristic Evaluation Usability Testing GOMS

Understanding users (Afternoon session) Personas and Scenarios Mental Models and Information Architecture Business of Usability (time permitting)

Page 95: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Understanding User categorizations Overview

Why people categorize? The structure of semantic memory Is understanding user categorization important for design?

Methods Free-listing. Types of Card Sorting. Testing information architecture.

Page 96: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Is understanding categorization useful for design? Direct use: when user categorization informs design, such as

that of menus or of navigation design. Often referred to as information architecture (IA).

Indirect use: good to have broad understanding how users think about product even when user categorization does not directly inform IA.

Important to remember: Categorization is not static. People are good at learning new

categories. If you provide the context and the right examples, they can learn new categories or alter boundaries of old categories.

Page 97: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Should interfaces always reflect user categories faithfully? No.

Categorization is far too important to depend only on what user thinks.

Should also be influenced by business proposition, strategy, brand etc.

Different user groups might differ in their perception of domain. No one scheme can serve them all perfectly.

User research can provide several alternative categorization schemes, allowing designers the freedom to make choices.

Page 98: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Do categorizations work across culture

Research shows the structure of categories can be similar across cultures,

though content of categories might not be. Enough similarity for successful design.

The net generation shares a lot of culture

Cross-cultural design has been happening anyway. Japanese cars Italian fashion Swiss chocolates Indian ???

Page 99: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Free-listing methods for understanding scope and

boundary of domain

Page 100: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Free-listing to explore domain scope and boundaries Goals

Explore boundaries and scope of domain across a group of people.

Gain familiarity with user vocabulary for the domain. Use as a precursor to card-sorting, to define and limit the

domain, and frame card items in the user’s language. Method

Can be conducted as part of interview, or as written exercise Ask respondent, “Name all the x's you know.” Give sufficient

time to do so. How many respondents?

Depends on how much agreement there is about the domain. more agreement > fewer respondents.

Page 101: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Free-listing menu for Mc Donald’s

User No 1

French fries

Cheese burger

Shake

Hamburger

French fries

Chicken sandwich

Chicken Mcnuggets

Fish sandwich

Shake

Hamburger

User No 2French friesChicken Cheese burgerShake

User No 4Chicken McnuggetsCheese burgerBacon cheese burgerFrench fries

User No 5HamburgerQuarter pounderBig macChicken fajitaFrench friesApple pie

User No 3HamburgerCheese burgerFrench friesMc ribChicken sandwich

Page 102: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Analyzing free-listing data

Create a list of all items, sorted by their average rank (of being listed by a respondent). Examine how that rank order changes with the addition of each new respondent. If the ranks are relatively stable, then you can stop adding new respondents.

Items Listed by % participants

Cheese burger

Chicken Mcnuggets

Chicken sandwich

Fish sandwich

French fries

Shake

60%

70%

40%

40%

100%

30%

Page 103: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Concept structure

–Plot items according to frequency of mention

% of times items were mentioned

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Items

Core

Middle

Periphery

•Divide items into 3 concentric circles (use your own break points):

Page 104: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Other uses for free-listing

Comparing cultural or other group differences How do two groups perceive the same domain?

Comparing two domains How does perception of McDonald’s menu compare with

Wendy’s?

Segment respondents into types based on familiarity: Find respondents with greater domain familiarity or those

who perceive domain in idiosyncratic fashion?

Page 105: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Card-sorting and other methods for designing information

architecture

Page 106: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Case Study: Design of online travel guide Example: Designing an online travel guide

to help users plan trips. Purpose of card sort:

to structure the website for helping users find travel information, and create personalized travel guides.

Items include lodging, entertainment, local information, When

to Go, Travel by Car/Air/Bus, Music Events, Hiking, Day Trips, Skiing, Diving, Golf, Emergency Info.

Page 107: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Open card-sorting

Goal: to understand the overall categorization scheme

Method: Open card sort Users given items. Asked to create categories

Options: Provide total number of categories to be

created (avoid problems with splitters and lumpers)

Successive card sorts to create taxonomies It is ok to put one card in multiple groups Ask for labels for each grouping

Page 108: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Cluster Analysis for card-sorting data

Cluster Analysis Suggests a structural

solution. Easy to translate into design.

Challenge: How to reconcile multiple schemes?

HotelsBed and Breakfast

RestaurantsHostels

Emergency InfoCurrencyCamping

HikingDay Trips

SkiingDiving

SurfingMountain Climbing

Biking

Page 109: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Closed card-sorting to design an IA

Goal: to understand goodness of existing information architecture and labels

Method: Closed card sort Users given items and category labels. Asked to place each item in a

category. Do not allow creation of a miscellaneous category.

Useful for: Understanding user categorizations when category labels are a given Refining existing categorization scheme.

Options: Allowing items to belong to multiple categories. Providing category descriptions rather than category labels.

Page 110: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Doing closed card-sorting online

User works with given categories Each item (card) occupies a row Each category is represented by a column An “Other” category catches items that do not fit in

Page 111: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Comparing card-sorts for different user types Very useful for understanding differences in mental maps

of various groups Can help understand differences between user groups,

different cultures etc. Try to create consensus maps to reconcile differences

between different groups.

Page 112: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Practical exercise

Using the RUMM (Rapid User Mental Modeling) method.

Page 113: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Structure of workshop

Introduction Evaluating Systems (Morning session)

Overview of evaluation Heuristic Evaluation Usability Testing GOMS

Understanding users (Afternoon session) Personas and Scenarios Mental Models and Information Architecture Business of Usability (time permitting)

Page 114: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Swimming with Sharks: The Business of Usability

Page 115: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

What we’ll cover

Stakeholder analysis for fun and profit Making a business case for a User Experience

project Test out the ideas with a sample project

Page 116: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Stakeholder Analysis

Page 117: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Who are stakeholders and why should we analyze them? Stakeholder: Anyone who is affected by, or

can affect, your project Goals of understanding stakeholders

Make your design better, by getting important information about the business context

Identify potential obstacles ahead of time so you can deal with them

Change design to address the issues raised by stakeholders

Marshal evidence to counter their objections

Neutralize resistance by making stakeholders feel heard

Page 118: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Putting Stakeholders into context

It does not matter how good the design is if it is not approved by management and actually put into operation

A given project isn’t necessarily in everybody’s best interest This isn’t about playing politics: this is about the institutional

decision making process. People represent different organizations within an enterprise If a project is seen as a big negative by various organizations, it

should either address the concerns raised or justify itself strongly in order to be approved

Stakeholders as another class of users who design should satisfy A real person you can talk to Goals are typically very concrete and business-metrics oriented.

Page 119: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Understanding Who’s Who in an Organization Org charts don’t tell the whole story Detective work needed to sort out

Motive Influence

How to do? Indirect

Watch for “Influence Tells”

Direct “What are the organizational challenges?”

Page 120: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

The Interview

Ask semi-structured questions about the product in general What group of users is least well-served? What one change would impact profits the most? Where do you see <<product>> in 5 years?

Find out what their conception of your project is What might happen if this project went well? What are some risks associated with this project?

Page 121: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Remote Interviews

Online Survey Ask same questions as in face-to-face interview Limit to 5 minutes of work

Phone Interviews Follow-up on survey answers: clarify answers, try to get a

sense of a concerns

Compared to face-to-face interview Less emotional connection Even more necessary (remoteness means you know even

less about stakeholders and their concerns)

Page 122: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Recording your understanding

 

 

Stakeholders Position Influence Interest in Project

Goals Objections to Project

Andre Agassi CEO 10 High Estimates quarterly estimates for next 4 quarters

Seems like iSeems like it w on’t pay off in the time frame he’s most concerned about

Chris Evert Product Manager

6 Medium Increase % of company revenue generated by this product Get noticed by Andre

Will it reduce number of sales?

Table 1: Stakeholder Perspectives

Page 123: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Prioritizing Stakeholders

Low Interest

• High Influence / High Interest: Engage• Low Influence / High Interest: Use as Information Source• High Influence / Low Interest: Broadly Satisfy• Low Influence / Low Interest: Avoid

High Interest

Low Influence

High InfluenceAndre

Chris

Sandeep

Anu

Page 124: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

An organizational dilemma

Usability often an Independent Business Unit IBUs provide “accountability”, make measurement easier

Engineering is responsible for paying for usability services Engineering measured on the basis of

Schedule Feature checklists # bugs

Marketing/Sales measured on the basis of Sales

Engineering invests in usability Money, Time

but Marketing / Sales reap the benefits! Solution: tie engineering compensation to usability metrics

Good luck

Page 125: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Building a Business Case for Usability

Page 126: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

ROI of Usability: Previous work

Cost – Justifying Usability (Bias & Mayhew) Cost (employees,subjects,equipment) Benefit (task speed, user errors, late design changes,

increased sales) Internal vs. external Internal benefits increase with # users and frequency of use External benefits increase with development budget, large base of sales

Usability Return on Investment (Nielson Norman Group) “Usability Projects have an ROI of 150 %” Measured by

sales conversions Traffic / Visitor Count User performance / productivity

Page 127: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Myths of Usability ROI*

Generalizing ROI estimates Assuming improvements are due to usability Benefits to customer booked as benefits to software company

Support, training are profit centers in enterprise software! How does usability increase revenue?

Win/loss reports for enterprise software sales User research to determine buying reasons for shrink-wrap software registration / shopping cart behavior for ecommerce

Ignores competitive landscape Being the “overall best choice” in your niche wins you the sale Usability may play a greater or lesser role in determining this

Ignores potential negative business impact of changes that enhance usability

Marketing vs. User Experience in ecommerce Ignoring opportunity costs

“Should the project be approved? Yes, because NPV is positive.”

*Rosenberg, BayCHI 2003

Page 128: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Building a Business Case *

Understand your business, The financial levers for the company The competitive environment that company operates in Understand Project Approval Process

Who has say, what are the stages of project approval What metrics the enterprise cares about

Understand threats and opportunities from UX perspective User and Stakeholder Research Find areas where user and business interests are in tandem

Try to frame UX projects such that Risk low, payoff high (it is all about risk) Chances of success are high

Estimate ROI Estimate Costs: Development,Negative Revenue Impact, Opportunity Cost Estimate Benefit (be conservative)

After the project Follow up: track successes and failures. Be accountable.

*reference: Herman,J. CHI 2004

Page 129: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Key Points

Not every project will be justifiable ROI for some projects will be huge

Ultimate proof is in “moving the needle” Different companies care about different “financial levers”

(business metrics) Make your case on the basis of those numbers

For example, # Registrations, % successful registrations, support calls per customer, average sale size

Management doesn’t care about methodology Don’t justify methodology

Page 130: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Key Points (cont.)

UX practitioners should understand business levers and incorporate them into design at a core level Post-hoc justification is not enough Project selection and design should be informed by

business metrics

Some UX practitioners should learn about business analysis

Take a process oriented approach Evolve a process that takes into account the various

interests and goals within an organization

Page 131: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Example Situations: ROI in an ecommerce Context Context: Online book seller is planning to improve

the checkout process Metrics:

Number of shopping cart bailouts Performance on usability test

It is easy to justify ROI of shopping cart improvement since fewer bailouts means more sales. Design should focus on reducing bailouts

Page 132: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Example Situations: ROI in a Customer Service Context Context: Bank is planning to two projects to reduce call

volume (a) let users look at their account balance, and (b) let users update their contact information.

Metrics Call volume metrics (overall # of calls, per task # of calls) # Online Transactions (that plausibly replaced calls) Performance on usability test

It is easier to justify ROI of updating contact information than of looking at their account balance

Updating of contact information plausibly replaces a phone call Looking at account balance does NOT plausibly replace a phone

call. Did they even care, or are they just browsing? Even if they did care, benefit is more diffuse (customer convenience ->

loyalty)

Page 133: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Crossing the Chasm

Where in the technology adoption life cycle does usability matter?

Early Adaptors

Innovators

Early Majority

Late Majority

Laggards

Page 134: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Revised technology life-cycle

chasm

main street

tornado

Early Adaptors

InnovatorsEarly Majority

Late Majority

Laggards

bowling alley

Page 135: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

ROI of UX in an Outsourcing context

Software Services -> Software Products Product development requires understanding users on a

deeper level Good times ahead?

For Services It depends on the situation of your customer Your ROI of designing systems that satisfy your customer

is huge (duh) But your customer is hardly ever the user So it depends on the business situation of your client What kind of clients would care about usability?

Page 136: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

What kind of clients care about usability?

Clients who’s customers have low switching costs Money Time Expertise

Clients where the buyer=the user Business success comes from making the buyer happy: if the buyer is the user,

usability plays a bigger role Clients operating in a fiercely competitive landscape

The better your competition is, the better you have to be to win a sale Usability is one dimension by which products can be better

Clients making very high quality products Trying to cross the chasm?

Four types of contexts Content Ecommerce Desktop Enterprise

Page 137: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

What’s Next

Where do we go from here? Can engineers do usability work on their own products? Are usability specialists needed? What kind of processes / corporate structures will facilitate

usability work in software companies?

Page 138: Design For Strangers

Design for Strangers Workshop Uzanto Consulting

Thank you

[email protected]@uzanto.com

slides and other material will be posted at www.uzanto.com/papers/indiamar04