Are You Experienced?Seeing the Digital World Through Users' Eyes

Jeffrey Veen <jeff@adaptivepath.com>

Partner, Adaptive Path

www.adaptivepath.com/presentations/nprpbs/

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Hi,

I'm remodeling my kitchen and buying new appliances. While researching my decisions, I visited your site to see how your refrigerators compared to other manufactures. One of the most important factors in my decision is the amount of energy the product uses -- but I couldn't find this information listed on your site anywhere. Am I not looking in the right place?

-jeff

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for visiting the Maytag Home Page. We welcome the opportunity to assist you.

Please forward your model number and we can send the energy rating for the model.

Eric

Maytag Customer Service

Eric,

I think you may be misunderstanding my query. I'm interested in buying a new refrigerator. One of my key decision-making points is the energy rating of the product. I'd like to be able to see the rating of all of your models on their respective product description pages.

-jeff

Dear Jeff,

Unfortunately, the energy ratings are not listed on the web page. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Jennifer

Maytag Customer Service

Jennifer,

Right. I realize that. That's why I mentioned it. It's a pretty crucial decision-making point for a lot of people (including me).

You should consider having your Web team add it to the standard product page.

-jeff

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for your comments regarding the Maytag.com Home Page.

In the future, please include the model number of your Maytag appliance so that we may assist you more efficiently.

Scott

Maytag Customer Service

To develop an experience based on the patterns inherent in data that empowers users to accomplish their goals.

Our goal...

It’s how we get a pile of stuff...

...into a structured experience.

This includes labeling...

Squares Triangles CirclesSquares CirclesTriangles

...and navigation systems...

...that are intuitive to users.

Squares Triangles Circles

Ah Ha!

But! Not all users have the same goals.

Shapes! Colors!

So, good design lets many users...

...access lots of content...

...in many ways.

But this isn’t always as easy as it sounds...

Ancient Chinese Taxonomy“The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge”

• Belonging to the Emperor

• Embalmed

• Tame

• Suckling Pigs

• Sirens

• Fabulous

• Stray Dogs

• Included in the present

classification

• Frenzied

• Innumerable

• Drawn with a very fine

camelhair brush

• et cetera

• Having just broken the water

pitcher

• That from a long way off look

like flies

-- Jorge Luis Borges, “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins”

Design faces global issues...

Colors?

Colours?

¿De Colores?

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Design faces accessibility issues...

Colors

???

Design suffers from jargon...

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Shapes WebBeansShapes WebBeanstmtm

Design suffers from politics...

CEOUser

Excellent!???

Design must be extensible...

!?!

Successful design comes from two approaches...

Top-down

•Figure out what users need

•Derive mental models

•Focus on user research

Bottom-up

•Figure out what you have

•Develop content model

•Domain of traditional IA

Top down: Understanding your users

• User research may be a science, but formality isn’t required.

• Ethnographic research methods sound impressively scary, but

we all do it every day.

• Research is a way of life, not a special project you schedule

and do.

User Profiles, Personas, Scenarios

• Studies and stories of fictional

members of audience segments

• Humanizes rigid task-based

interaction

• Sells user centered design

throughout the organization

• Depersonalizes product development

debates

Ethnographic Interviews, Task Analysis

• Engaging potential users in

discussion of how they accomplish

tasks in the real world.

• Interview transcripts are

deconstructed into specific tasks

that map to potential features

• Provides assurance of feature

selection and nomenclature

• Provides an opportunity for

innovation

Usability Testing

• Validation of feature

decisions and

implementation choices.

• “Measures” not only ability

to complete tasks, but user

expectations as well

• No longer the domain of the

“lab coat and stopwatch”

crowd

Finding Users

• For a simple test, find 3-4 people similar to your site’s audience– Friends, family, coworkers from other departments

• Determine target audience• demographic/webographic/psychographic

• Seek them out• Existing user base, customer support inquiries,

advertise on existing site• User groups, email discussion lists• Traditional means: classified ads, etc.• Use a recruiter: Charge per user based on how

specialized your population needs to be

Lessons Learned

• Plug-ins and Flash are two-edged swords– Interactive features are desirable when seamless– Most of our instructions are meaningless jargon

• Users do not read a lot on screen, regardless of the quality of

the writing– People scan pages looking for the next valuable link.– They gravitate to different areas of the page for different tasks

• Keep it simple– Many, many expectations are brought from the external Web– Pop-up windows are instantly closed unless initiated– Underlined words are always links

User Expectations: Shopping Cart

http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/41/web_object-ecom.htm

Bottom Up: Designing with patterns

Abstract solutions to common problems in context

Patterns are applicable not only to architecture, but all

kinds of design: computer science, corporate organization,

traffic signage and (of course) Web design

Content Item Detail

List Input Tabular Data

Thank you!

Write me:

jeff@adaptivepath.com

Read about this stuff:

adaptivepath.com/readinglist/

Download this presentation:

adaptivepath.com/presentations/nprpbs/