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BONNy COLVILLE-HyDE #UXPA @ALMOSTEXACT
UX COMICS: COMMUNICATING
EXPERIENCES & SHARING IDEAS
COMMUNICATING HUMAN
EXPERIENCES IN
DOCUMENTATION IS HARD.
BORING
“A lengthy description of a glass of water is no substitute for the experience of drinking a glass of water”!Ivan BRUNETTI!
MOTIVATION & PROJECT ENERGy
THE SECRET TO SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS
Caring about audiences comes naturally to us; it doesn’t for everyone though.!!We need to help our stakeholders and team members learn why caring, and empathising with people is essential when it comes to creating meaningful, positive, memorable and successful experiences.!
WHAT ABOUT BRAND EXPERIENCES?
BUT WHy COMICS?
COMICS ARE PART OF OUR
VISUAL CULTURE
COMIC HISTORy
4000 BC!
1070’S!
1740’S!
1950!
1961!
1976!
1985!
2005!
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
VERBAL
NON-VERBAL
TyPES OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION Facial expressions: smiling, frowning, scowling!!Eye contact: gaze, eye movements, pupil size!!Body language: posture, open/closed actions!!Gestures: hand movements, speed, flow!!Speech: tone of voice, speed !!
NON-VERBALS & COMICS
“Words and pictures can combine to create effects that neither could create separately”!Scott McCLOUD!
THE POWER OF SUGGESTION
Great! I’ve booked
my train home!
That burger was amazing!
5 Stars!
Dad would love that burger
place – I’ll send him the details
“…COMICS ARE FOR KIDS,
CLIENTS WOULDN’T GET IT…”
Charles Schulz
ANyONE CAN MAKE A
MEANINGFUL COMIC
…yOU DO NOT NEED EXTENSIVE
ARTISTIC SKILLS
SKILL:
DRAWING FACES
LOOKING AT THINGS
LOOKING AT THINGS
SKILL:
DRAWING EXPRESSIONS
CREATING FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
… EYEBROWS AND MOUTHS ARE VERY IMPORTANT!
SKILL:
DRAWING FIGURES
ADDING WEIGHT TO THE SKELETONS
1: Skeleton 2: Sausages 3: Details 4: Inking
ADDING WEIGHT TO THE SKELETONS
5: Erase pencil 6: Vector-ise 7: colour
MAKING CHARACTERS IDENTIFIABLE
GET TO KNOW yOUR CHARACTERS
GET TO KNOW yOUR CHARACTERS
THE LANGUAGE OF COMICS
“Comics have a vocabulary that doesn't even require language. In fact, many of its symbols could be considered a language of their own that requires no teaching or explanation”!Kevin CHENG ‘See what I mean’!
SINGLE PANELS
STRIPS
PAGES
GUTTERS
GUTTERS
FRAMING
SPEAKING
IT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE TO BE WORDS!
? !!!
SKILL:
STORyTELLING
STORyTELLING: THE BASIC ARC
THE FIVE C’S OF COMICS Calligraphy!!Composition!!Clarity!!Consistency!!Communication!
By Ivan Brunetti
SCENE SETTING Key rules to note:
• Use simple props to set the scene!• A few, key items are better than loads of detail (it just creates noise)!• Consider each item’s role in the story!!
Matilda’s Dad helps her play games on their iPad.
UX COMICS IN THE WILD
PRACTICAL USES FOR
COMICS:
CASE STUDIES
SPEC WORK FOR PITCHES
THE PROBLEM: Need to create ‘something’ for a pitch – there is no time or budget to do proper research.!!Speculative work can come back to haunt you.!!
Camera Shop The
EXAMPLE CLIENT:
GETTING STARTED: The client’s brief describes how they currently have a well developed customer base of professional photographers, but they want to increase the number of amateur photographers shopping with them. !!We could ‘guess’ what amateur photographers want, or, we could look for evidence to spark our ideas.!
FINDING AN IDEA
Via the Money Saving Expert forum
WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? ‘Bob’ wants to buy a new compact camera.!He has shopped around, but has been overwhelmed by the variety and choice of cameras.!He doesn’t want a lot of fancy features, but he does care about the image quality.!He has up to £100 to spend.!He is looking for help to make a decision.!
MAKING THE STORy Bob wants to buy a new camera because his current one has broken. He wants to replace his camera before he goes on holiday.!He has looked on several websites, but has been overwhelmed by the choice. He needs help to refine appropriate cameras into a more manageable shortlist, or even to find the best one for him.!The site or app needs to allow him to control his searching and browsing so he can manage the volume of results. It needs to give him choice but not overwhelm him.!He needs to be able to look at cameras based on their size (he wants it to be compact), their image quality (it needs to take nice pictures) and its price (it must be under £100).!
PLANNING THE COMIC 1. Introduce Bob 2. Bob’s camera has
broken 3. Bob looks for cameras online
4. Bob gets overwhelmed
5. Bob finds The Camera Shop
6. Bob finds ‘The Compact Camera’
finder
7. Bob filters compact cameras by
price and size
8. Bob finds a camera he is interested in
9. Bob browses photos taken with the
camera from Flickr
10. Bob feels satisfied and
purchases the camera
COMIC BENEFITS: • We have evidence behind our assumptions and
ideas about the audience!!• We can talk confidently about a scenario, without
having to commit to details!!• We still have something visual to show to clients
in a pitch!!
EXPLORING IDEAS
THE PROBLEM: As a team we need to see how an idea could work as a complete product.!If we focus on designing the interface too soon, we may miss opportunities to refine the process, or improve the structure.!
User Registers for ‘My Training
Buddy’
Dashboard
Sets Goals
Find Friends
Track Performance
Track Friend’s Performance
Issue Performance Challenges
Comic created for conceptual iOS fitness app ‘Training Buddy’
Comic created for conceptual iOS fitness app ‘Training Buddy’
COMIC BENEFITS: • We can test the comic with target users and get
feedback before we create wireframes or a prototype (faster, cheaper)!
!• Helps all team members understand how we’re
proposing a process works – little imagination is needed!
!• We have a visual document that can be easily shared
and reviewed with clients!!
EXPANDING PERSONAS
THE PROBLEM: Personas have a mixed reputation. !They can be hard to empathise with.!Communicating a persona’s core tasks and their setting helps build understanding. !
MEET ‘DENISE’:
COMIC BENEFITS: • Easier to engage stakeholders and team members
with a comic than a ‘flat’ persona!!• Comic story can trigger more questions and feedback
– meaning the team is sharing more information!!
COMMUNICATING RESEARCH
FINDINGS
THE PROBLEM: Long reports require a lot of effort to read!Getting things done can mean leaving out the little details!‘Seeing is believing’ !
COMIC BENEFITS: • Faster to read than a report!• Subtleties can be communicated with facial expressions and
body language!• Brings people to life (important if stakeholders & team members
didn’t attend any research sessions)!
TESTING IDEAS WITH USERS
THE PROBLEM: You’re not a unicorn!and/or!You don’t have time to prototype!You want to test an existing product, before it gets re-developed!
COMIC BENEFITS: • Fast!!• Participants enjoy working with comics!• Rapid iterations!
SHARING INFORMATION
THE PROBLEM: You don’t want to write yet another blog post!
Across the UK and around the world there have been over 80 colloquial names recorded that people use to describe this common land-based crustacean.
How woodlice can help your websiteThe humble woodlouse is known by many names
Depending on where you go, you can hear people talking about woodlice using vastly different names, for instance:'slater' (scotland),'Grammersow' (cornwall)and even'Boat Builder' (CANADA).
Did you know?
roly poly
Slater
Butcher boy
But why should this matter to you?
If you don't understand the real names and terms people use to describe your
• brand• product• service• & location
it could mean you're missing out on valuable traffic and conversions online.
Unless you investigate your audience groups thoroughly, you could be wasting effort and budgets trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
For instance, you may want to describe your service as providing 'support', but your target audience thinks of it as 'care'. Or perhaps you want to increase membership on your forum but your users don't relate to the label 'chat'.
These seemingly small labelling problems can add up and cause significant barriers that prevent your audience from fully engaging with you.
Thats why understanding the language your audience uses is essential, even if you don't have woodlice on your website.
SEVEN RULES OF
(UX) COMIC MAKING
PLAN yOUR STORy:
IF yOU FAIL TO PLAN,
yOU PLAN TO FAIL
RULE 1:
KEEP IT SIMPLE:
FOCUS ON WHAT REALLy
MATTERS
RULE 2:
DEVELOP yOUR CHARACTERS:
MAKE SURE THEy ARE A FAIR
REPRESENTATION OF
AUDIENCES
RULE 3:
CREATE EMPATHy:
LOOK FOR WAyS TO GET
READERS TO EMPATHISE
WITH CHARACTERS
RULE 4:
DON’T BE AFRAID TO FAIL…
THAT’S WHAT ERASERS ARE
MADE FOR
RULE 5:
CUT OUT
UNNECESSARy
WORDS
RULE 6:
GET FEEDBACK:
CHECK yOU’RE TELLING THE
STORy yOU THOUGHT yOU WERE
RULE 7:
HAVE FUN
BONUS RULE!:
WAIT FOR INK TO
DRy BEFORE USING
AN ERASER!
BONUS BONUS RULE!:
ESSENTIAL READING Understanding Comics, Scott McCLOUD!Making Comics, Scott McCLOUD!See What I Mean, Kevin CHENG!Cartooning: Philosophy & Practice, Ivan BRUNETTI!!
TOOLS Comic Life, Plasq!!
COMIC LIFE
THANK yOU!
@ALMOSTEXACT
#UXPA
Hire me!