Journey to the Center of Design

User Interface Engineering

Jared M. SpoolFounding Principal

©2008, User Interface Engineering. All rights reserved

Celebrity Death-Match:

37 SignalsVS

Don Norman

37 Signals vs. Norman

37 Signals:

“We’re not designing for others...we’re designing for ourselves”

Don Norman:

“I’ve tried their products and although they have admirable qualities, they have never quite met my needs: Close is not good enough. After reading the article, I understand why: the developers are arrogant and completely unsympathetic to the people who use their products.”

Where did User-

Centered Design

come from?

Big Red Button

Developed by Engineers

for Engineers

‣Highly skilled

‣Highly trained

‣Focused on the tool

IBM DisplaywriterCirca 1980

Designed for Office Workers

This woman istoo happy

‣Not skilled in the tool

‣Might not be trained with the tool

‣Focused on the data

The Birth ofUser-Centered Design

A reaction to tools designed only for engineersNeeded to help non-engineers learn and use tools

Based on human factors and cognitive psychology

Promised that designing with users at the center would have better market acceptance

Banksy.co.uk

User-Centered Design Never Worked

How Do The Best Teams

Create Great Designs?

Process

Methodology

Dogma

tsa.gov

redmaryland.blogspot.com

SAFE?

SAFE?BAD?

SAFE?BAD?

Instrument of Terrorism?

SAFE?BAD?

Dogma:An unquestioned faith independent of any supporting evidence

Process

Methodology

Dogma

Techniques

Tricks

What Did Our Research Find?

The best teams didn’t have a methodology or dogma they followed

The struggling teams often tried following a methodology, without success

The best teams all focused on increasing the techniques and tricks for each team member

They were constantly exploring new tricks and techniques for their toolbox

Struggling teams had limited tricks and techniques

It’s time we replace the

User-Centered Design dogma

The Story of Stone Soup

nellieedge.com

The Goal of User Research:

To Inform Design

Big Box Retailer

Visitors: 1,000,000 per day

Revenue: $1,200,000,000 per year

Conversion rate: 1.6%Top 20% customers responsible for 80% of revenue

Top 20% customers are 0.32% of total visitors

Customers: 16,000 per day3,200 are responsible for 80% of the revenue

Top 20% equals $2,630,000 each day

What gets measured, gets done

What gets rewarded, gets done well

MeasuringBrand

Engagement

Loyalty

Confidence

Integrity

Pride

Passion

6.2

5.5

4.5

4.33.0

1.4 1.4

-1.00.5

1.1

Measuring Engagement While Buying Electronics

Amazon Circuit City Dell HP Walmart

Beware of Voodoo Techniques

etsy.com: magpiemomma, theplastichut

Eyetracking Interpretation

“In this shopping cart, users didn’t look much at the cross-selling offers, which is a common finding.”

nngroup.com

eye-square.com

SAFE?

What Inference Should We Make?

Interestedor lost?

Bored or targeted? BAD?SAFE?

The Three Core UX AttributesFor Great Experience Design

Vision

Feedback

Culture

The Three Questions

Vision: “Can everyone on the team describe the experience of using your design five years now?”

Feedback: “In the last six weeks, have you spent more than two hours watching someone use yours or a competitors design?”

Culture: “In the last six weeks, have you rewarded a team member for creating a major design failure?”

Journey to the Center of Design

It’s time to retire the dogma of User-Centered Design

We should focus on Informed DesignBuild a reward system based on informed measures

Focus on the Three Core UX AttributesVision, Feedback, and Culture

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