Stop Making Pretty Websites That Suck

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Stop making pretty websites that suck:designing for the user

Profero Agency Credentials 2013. Copyright © 2013-2014 Profero PLC

Profero Agency Credentials 2013. Copyright © 2012-2013 Profero LLC

we create ideas people belong to™

11Hello

,We are Profero Sydney.

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Barry Saunders

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I'm a user experience architect. I work at Profero.

I’ve designed and managed websites and apps for Earth Hour, WWF Australia, Google, Sanitarium, Taste, Vogue and Westpac.

I’ve worked with Indymedia, EngageMedia, YouDecide2007 and various community media projects.

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What I do

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I help clients understand what they want, and help them shape their brief.

I help designers understand what the client wants.

I make sure the designers and developers are solving the right problem.

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Stop making pretty websites that suck:designing for the user

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we aren’t talking about art direction or brand

Source:http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/

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we’re talking about designing for users

Source:http://theprofoundprogrammer.com

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the number one problem with most websites

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no coherent vision of what the site should do

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the easiest way to prevent bad websites

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define a clear brief that addresses the user’s experience

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Workshop

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A few quick techniques that will help you when designing websites and apps.

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Step 1: preparation

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Step away from the computer

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The most powerful design tool

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Pen and paper!

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Free your mind

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At this point, we are trying to get all our ideas onto paper to evaluate them. It is ok to throw ideas away; in fact, it’s the most important part.

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Step 2: pair up

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Step 3: chat and decide on an idea

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Something like ‘a site for people to donate money to our organisation’.

Think of a primary function, and at most two secondary functions.

You should be able to articulate the vision for your site in a single sentence.

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Step 4: imagine who might use this site

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Make a few notes about who this person is.

• How old are they?

• What do they do?

• What kinds of problems do they have?

• How might we be able to help this user?

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Step 5: give your persona a name

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This is the person we will be designing for. This is your ‘user persona’.

This helps us think about our users as people, and imagine how they might use our site.

We need to frame our design in terms of what the user wants, not what the project stakeholders want.

Profero Agency Credentials 2013. Copyright © 2012-2013 Profero PLC

Laura has been studying at uni for 4 years. Her goal is to finish her university arts degree and study film producing.

She attends lectures on campus and online, uses the Internet to do assignments and is quite digitally adept.

She loves being on up with the latest trends, love B-grade movies - particularly dodgy budget films like ‘Sharknado’ . She loves to watch films to review on her blog. She regularly uses Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube. She hopes to be popular on the internet, and gain a large following on her blog.

Laura - digital influencer

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Step 6: write a user story

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A user story is a sentence that describes an interaction in the form of:

as ____________, I want to _________, so that _________.

So as user of Amazon might say:

As a user, I want to receive email notifications so that I can buy products I’m interested in.

An Amnesty user might say:

As an Amnesty supporter, I want to download a letter template so that I can write more effective letters.

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Step 7: write more user stories

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Write as many as you think you need.

Remember that you are writing from the perspective of your user persona.

You are not your user.

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Step 8: review

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Prioritise the stories.

A common prioritisation structure is:

•Must Have

•Should Have

•Nice to Have

•Trivial

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Step 9: Draw!

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Using pencil and paper, sketch up a page of what you think the site could look like.

Don’t worry about neatness.

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Step 10: Share and compare

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Present your sketch to your partner. Explain what it does, how it works.

Pick out the features of each sketch that you like. Explain why you like them.

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Step 11: Draw! (again)

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Sketch the same page again, this time incorporating the bits you liked from your partner’s sketch.

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Step 12: Share and compare (again)

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You can do this a few times to really work through the different ways you could design the site.

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Step 13: Document

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Take photos of your sketches to make sure you have a record of what you’ve decided.

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Optional: Wireframe

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If you have a UX person/producer, get them to do this.

If you don’t, you can use Powerpoint or Balsamiq.

Keep it high-level, we are looking for indicative detail, not pixel-perfect design.

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Step 14: Admin and Technical Requirements

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Document the user stories that you need as administrators and project owners. List out any brand, tech or communications requirements or restraints that might impact the project.

Do this last.

If your requirements conflict with the user stories, you should resolve that conflict in favour of the user.

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Step 15: Collate these documents

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You now have enough information to brief your design and tech team to start work on the project.

• Key site vision

• Personas

• Prioritised user stories

• Wireframes / sketches

• Requirements

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Takeaways

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Develop an idea of who your users are.

Frame your brief with user stories to ensure you remain focused on your users.

Avoid developing laundry lists of requirements.

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Questions?

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