IXDA 2009 What I learned.

WHAT IS IXDA?

IXDA is the Interaction Design Association, a network dedicated to the professional practice of Interaction Design.

It has been around for 6 years. It began as an email list serve, and now has

10,000 members worldwide. This is the second year that IXDA held a

conference – a gathering of interaction designers (another name for UE) from around the world.

WHY IS IXDA IMPORTANT?

You may have noticed there aren’t that many of us around. Interaction design is a relatively new field (been around about 10 years), which means

We are still trying to figure out best practices and “fundamentals”We don’t have much opportunity to go to local courses to learn new thingsWe don’t have a lot of resources (books, etc.) at our fingertips to use as reference.

“WHAT IS INTERACTION DESIGN” Interaction design is not computing technology. Technology

is not our medium, behavior is. If people are not motivated to buy or use your product, they

just won’t. So we need to learn about what it is that motivates people, what they see, what their perception of our products is. If we know all this…. we have the power to change people’s behavior.

He gave us a couple of good examples, like faces. All people are trained from birth to recognize faces. Give your product a face and it will speak to them.

Another powerful thing is personalized visualizations. If I can actually see how great my debt is, or how much money i spend (or waste) on products, this will definitely have an effect on me. A third component of human behavior is rewards. If there is the prospect of a great reward, this can be as addictive as a drug and people will do stuff to get the reward.

“SURVIVING A DESIGN REVIEW” A big problem about clients is that they: a) don’t understand

IA & design, b) focus on individual needs and c) they state concerns in terms of solutions. And the solutions they come up with are a danger to the concepts, since it will kill the integrity

6 Types of Clients : The Decider – (Bully) - fears that he’ll look bad if

something goes wrong. You have to try and keep him out of the review and

only report the decisions. Mr. Nice – Changes his mind often, people pleaser The Enforcer – Wants to stick to the plan

Need to suppress your inner rebel and appeal to them with reason.

“SURVIVING A DESIGN REVIEW” Mr. Know it All – Motivated by fear, often sites external

sources Suck up to him by praising his knowledge Bring in your own data but be careful not to embarrass

him Mr. Clueless - Intuitive, does things on gut instinct. May

not understand the critical issues. Talk his language (more emotionally) be the bridge for

him by explaining technical problems Silent Killer – Smart person, doesn’t think highly of UXD

(may be IT) Respect his knowledge, be prepared and rational.

For difficult clients arrange a pre-meeting (1:1). Listen for their fears and discomforts. State the problem and commit to resolving their concern.

“TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO INSIGHTS” JOHN KOLKO FROG DESIGN

“TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO INSIGHTS” JOHN KOLKO FROG DESIGN

“MOBILE UX PATTERNS”JENNIFER TIDWELL GOOGLE

Mobile is important: in Q1 08 294M mobile vs. 71M PC sales. Tens of millions of Google searches on mobile devices. 80% of those are from outside the US

Mobile guidelines: fast -need to be responsive, minimize typing, fierce task focus –as little as you need to get done

"What I worry about is the ghettoization of mobile design practices. We're all going to be mobile designers soon enough. If you're a web designer, chances aren't bad you're already doing it”.

Patterns Persistent toolbar: put the most important tools in a short menu

anchored to one side of the screen: top or bottom? Touch tools: only show tools in response to keypress or touch, in a small,

dynamic overlay. Item markers: use bold colors, icon and other visual differentiators in

menus and lists. Most mobile conditions are not ideal: light, small screen, etc.

Infinite List: at the bottom of the list, put an item that appends and adds to the list. Can’t load too much into a single screen.

“MOBILE UX PATTERNS”JENNIFER TIDWELL GOOGLE

All in one button: a single target in a form can hold a label and an edit indicator -does two things in one.

Two-part button: a single button or list that contains a large and small hit target each with different actions.

Aggressive auto-completion: "because typing on a touchscreen pretty much always sucks"

Text field clear button: clearing a text field with one button is very useful in mobile context.

Share button: when people find content of interest, enable them to share it.

Micro-loading indicators: while a page or block is loading, show a tiny progress indicator where the user tapped or clicked.

Minimal headers (to avoid the "layer cake effect" of all header and no content)

Rich interconnections: put direct links to other apps within your app or page and prefill them with data from the users context. It’s difficult to switch apps on mobile devices.

“PARTI AND THE DESIGN SANDWICH” LUKE WROBLEWSKI YAHOO!

“PARTI AND THE DESIGN SANDWICH” LUKE WROBLEWSKI YAHOO!

“PARTI AND THE DESIGN SANDWICH” LUKE WROBLEWSKI YAHOO!

“PARTI AND THE DESIGN SANDWICH” LUKE WROBLEWSKI YAHOO!

“PARTI AND THE DESIGN SANDWICH” LUKE WROBLEWSKI YAHOO!

“PARTI AND THE DESIGN SANDWICH” LUKE WROBLEWSKI YAHOO!

“OBJECT ORIENTED APPROACH TO DESIGN”

Complex, multi-state websites are difficult to document.

“OBJECT ORIENTED APPROACH TO DESIGN”

OAD is a wireframing and specifications technique for documenting complex business logic and interactions. OAD allows the designer to decompose a screen in a manner that reduces complexity. Even if the screen has millions of variations, OAD can document the design in just a few pages.

“OBJECT ORIENTED APPROACH TO DESIGN”

“DESIGNING THE VIRAL APP”

Frictionless - should be effortless, “frictionless” for the user remove any doubts the user has about making a decision

on your website. Impactful - make sure you users get the most relevant

content easily. Using lists such as most emailed, most blogged and most shared - makes that happen

Targeted - who are the most useful users? When it comes to social media, there are actually only a few people who make a difference (the “core heavy lifters”)

“DESIGNING THE VIRAL APP”

“DESIGNING THE VIRAL APP”

Outreach – get people to the site SEO Pagerank – goes up if legitimate people link to your site Facebook Blogger Digg Slideshare Twitter

“DESIGNING NATURAL USER INTERFACES”

“DESIGNING NATURAL USER INTERFACES”

“DESIGNING NATURAL USER INTERFACES”

“DESIGNING NATURAL USER INTERFACES” Eliminate proxy controls to increase immersion Reduce distance to content Content is the interface Direct manipulation of objects Guessable, predictable