5 Things You Can Do Starting Today to Improve Your Product's User Experience (UX)

5 Things You Can Do Starting Todayto Improve Your Product’sUser ExperienceCatharine Robertson@cathro

WHEN & WHAT IS UX, ANYWAY?

Before During After

Timeline of your product’s user experience

Elements of UX

Can I?

Will I?

1. COMMIT TO USER RESEARCH & TESTING

You are not your users

There is no UX design without exposure to

end users

2 hours every 6 weeks• “Fast Path to a Great UX –

Increased Exposure Hours” Jared Spool

• Direct correlation: more hours quantifiable product improvements

• Every team member observes, not just UX team– Execs– Marketing– BD/Sales– Developers– PMs

• Teams excluding non-designers suffered fewer improvements

2 hours every 6 weeks

• Teams who spent less than the minimum had fewer measurable improvements

• Teams who spent more than minimum had more improvement– memory of observers– ongoing frustration of

watching same user with same problems

• Field visits OR usability tests

• Also observe/test users of competitor products

• Quantify on your end: Tie user observation/usability testing to employee reviews!

“Let’s just build it, and if we get it wrong, we’ll fix it”

Lean UX: an MVP doesn’t have to be written in code. It can even be a paper prototype.All you need is something testable.

Example of 2/6 success

• gov.uk• Government Digital

Services (UK) redesigned online & IRL govt services using 2/6 – Leisa Reichelt

• Measurably better for users

• US Digital Service attempting to follow in footsteps

Download a PDF poster of this image

2. PRIORITIZE DATA OVER DESIGN TRENDS

Trend: Infinite scroll

Pinterest

Etsy

Etsy on blindly following a trend

“My point is not that infinite scroll is stupid. It may be great on your website. But we should have done a better job of understanding the people using our website.”

Dan McKinley, Principal Engineer at Etsy

Trend: Inline form field labels

Trend: Inline form field labels

Trend: Inline form field labels

Labels outside fields test better

3. MAP THE USER JOURNEY

User journeys• Design/product mgmt artifact• Story of user’s interaction with

product before, during, after use• Model intended customer interaction• Multi-channel• Empathy• Told from user’s perspective• Emphasizes intersection between

user expectations & business requirements

• Company moves from one-off transactions with customers to long-term relationships built on trust, credibility, respect

Any format that works for your team

User journeys:• Focus on

compatibility between company/product & customer

• Gain consensus on how customer should be treated across channels

• Allow business stakeholders to understand how users think, feel, see, hear, do things

• Explore “what ifs” that arise during conceptual design

How to create a user journey

1. One action per sticky note2. Use language your customers would

understand3. Spread actions over time sequence4. Record user feelings if appropriate (e.g.,

frustrated)5. User journeys for as-is or future states6. One user journey per type of

customer/group (e.g., investors)

4. DO A CARD SORT

Wisconsin card sorting test

Card sorting for UX

Card sorting for UX

Why• Discover user mental models

– Categorization of content, features, tasks

– User’s language to describe content, features, tasks

• Identify trends • Quantify user expectations• Create user-centered

navigation & structure• Fast, cheap, reliable

How• In person using index cards

or sticky notes• Online using tools like

– OptimalSort– UserZoom– Websort

Card sort in progress

Online card sort in progress

Analyzing card sort data

• Manually via spreadsheets• Using tools built into card sorting apps (e.g.,

OptimalSort)• Look for patterns in categories & labels

Card sort analysis in a spreadsheet

Card sort analysis in OptimalSort

Navigation categories begin to emerge

APU

Measures/Specifications

Participation

Data

5. CONDUCT USABILITY TESTING

Why do usability testing?• You are not your users.• ROI, ROI, ROI. (Nielsen:

Double your conversion rates.)

• Iterating after user interaction/feedback is a tenet of Lean & Agile.

• Watching what people do gives more actionable data than asking people what they think.

“Usability is like cooking dinner.” – Jakob Nielsen– Everybody needs it.– Anybody can do the basics.– Anyone can learn the basics pretty quickly.– There’s a level of excellence beyond the basics.– Skill levels form a continuum: beginner to expert.

Anyone can do basic usability testing

1. Define what users need to be able to do

2. Plan the test and write the test tasks

3. Test 5 users for about 1 hour each

4. Analyze the findings & recommend improvements

5. Implement improvements

User Moderator Note taker

Prototype

This is a usability test

Usability testing checklist• Determine your goals• Setting? Format? In person or

remote? Moderated or unmoderated?

• Decide on number of users• Recruit representative users• Write tasks to match your

goals• Do a dry run of the test• Decide on metrics (time on

tasks, success rate, error rate, satisfaction ratings)

• Write a test plan– Product being tested– Testing goals– Logistics– Participant profiles– Tasks– Metrics, scripts– Description of system

• Get ALL your team members to observe testing!

End notes

UX people to follow• Jared Spool, usability• Nielsen Norman Group, usability• Leisa Reichelt, UK govt redesign &

service design• Kerry Bodine, user journeys • Luke Wroblewski (“Luke W”), form

design• Karen McGrane, responsive, structured

content• Josh Clark, responsive• Peter Morville, designing search,

information architecture• Kristina Halvorsen, content strategy

UX things to read• https://www.nngroup.com/

articles/form-design-placeholders/

• http://uxmastery.com/how-to-create-a-customer-journey-map/

• http://boxesandarrows.com/card-sorting-a-definitive-guide/

• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/

• Any Rosenfeld Media book

Go start improving your product’s UX right now!

Catharine Robertson@cathro

Image credits• Images without attribution are either in the public domain, otherwise do not

require attribution, or are the author’s own• All other images have the following credits:

– Silfra fissure, Iceland: By Thomei08 20px|ich bin ein Kiwi / Thomei08 at German Wikipedia - Own work (Original text: selbst erstellt), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21897395

– B&W user journey: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevebaty/15709149737– Sadface: http://www.pdpics.com/photo/2640-man-angry-face-smiley/– Wisconsin card sorting, GNU license:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wisconsin_Card_Sorting_Test.jpg– Card sorting sticky notes: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mario_carvajal/2732244962– Card sort analysis spreadsheet:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/3343529465– Hakarl: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmparrone/14479490562– Scrum board: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plutor/5260265039/