April 2014
Parsons, The New School for Design Jane Pirone
The USER
April 2014 Parsons, The New School for Design
User Friendly
User Centered Design
UX (User Experience)
User Testing
Usability
UI (User Interface)
why should we care so
much about the USER?
2
oh and what about participatory design, HCI, co-design, and agile dev etc?
April 2014 Parsons, The New School for Design
The Rise of The USER
1983 - The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Edward Tufte
1988 - The Psychology of Everyday Things (now the “Design of Everyday Things”) - Donald Norman
1990 - The Art of Human - Computer Interface Design & Computers As Theater - Brenda Laurel
1990 - Computers As Theater - Brenda Laurel
1991 - Programming as if People Mattered - Nathaniel Borenstein
1993 - Usability Engineering - Jakob Nielsen
1995 - About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design (now About Face 3) - Alan Cooper
1996 - Bringing Design to Software - Terry Winograd
2005 - Ambient Findability - Peter Morville
2006 - Designing Interactions - Bill Moggridge
April 2014
Parsons, The New School for Design Jane Pirone
typical forces, factors & constraints influencing
design decision-making
administrative & bureaucratic needs
technology | technical
budget | costs
site | location
laws, codes & regulations
time | schedule
revenues | profit
clients
political factors
aesthetics | style
users | stakeholders
brand
conventions
social
environmental
sustainability | maintainability
manufacturability
April 2014
Parsons, The New School for Design Jane Pirone
putting the user at the center; prioritize user experience over
everything else by always testing against and clarifying:
•
the goals, objectives, motivations and intentions of the project
•the users (primary, secondary) through personas
•
understand the needs and experience through use-case scenarios
•the context (when, how, why, where the users are using it)
•
how you will receive feedback and participation
•
how you will measure the success of the user experience
it’s all in the process (and the team)... which is a consulting firm’s
secret sauce
April 2014
Parsons, The New School for Design 6
Discovery & Research
Facilitated Design Workshops Product, Service and Brand Strategy Trends & Market Research
Ethnographic Studies
Concept Ideation & Visualization
Iterative Design
UI/UX Design Visual Design Prototyping User Testing
Specifications & Requirements
Release - Alpha, Beta, v1, v2, etc
Software Development Quality Assurance
Documentation & Guidelines Evaluation Maintenance
Standard
Commercial
Design Process
Integrated
Experience
Design
Interdisciplinary & Collaborative Teams
01
April 2014
Parsons, The New School for Design Jane Pirone
April 2014
Parsons, The New School for Design Jane Pirone
April 2014
Parsons, The New School for Design Jane Pirone
2011
Parsons, The New School for Design
SOME thoughts on USER TESTING
10
user testing has to be an integral part throughout a user-centered design process. one needs to strategically choose the most appropriate methods and tactics given the circumstances and situation of the project -- there is no one way -- time/cost vs benefit -- do it early and often
you have to have a deep understanding of the project - its purpose, goals, users, stakeholders, etc to conduct useful user testing - meaning you’ve got to understand at each stage what you’re testing, what the context is, and what the fundamental goals and purpose of the project is and who its for.
at many points in the early development it provides an opportunity to challenge assumptions, reveal missed
opportunities or implicit knowledge, clarify direction, resolve discord (especially in large team collaborations), provide insight for informed decision making.
keep your mind open; check your ego at the door (don’t be defensive or attached)
one should design as a system that yields constant & continuos feedback from the user - both qualitative and quantitative. understand the measurement criteria against the articulated goals and criteria of the enterprise
generally the best results come from observing behavior -- *want to see what they do, not hear them say what they do*
2011
Parsons, The New School for Design
SOME user testing METHODS
11
DIRECT OBSERVATION
watch people use your prototype (presence of observers can bias)
observe their behavior and reactions (confusion, frustration, etc - what they do is more revealing than what they say )
try to simulate context of use
make sure there is an outcome or goal of use
Can add verbal interaction -- effective for revealing details of behavior - why did you do that?
Q&A/Interviews
structured query of experience
can provide answers to specific and standardized questions
importance of crafting questions and understanding limits, biases and lack of objectivity - individual Q&A
- group Q&A
SURVEYS & QUESTIONAIRES
2011
Parsons, The New School for Design
SOME user testing METHODS
12
Design Experiments
Hypothesis testing
- compare two or more conditions - collect data
- very hypothesis Predict behavior
- define set of variables
- investigate resulting relationships
Well designed tests can yield empirical and objective data that quantifies behavior around a testable hypothesis
eyetracking face recording
2011
Parsons, The New School for Design
Research Questions, User Profiles, Scenarios
13
Research Questions
critical to define specifics of the project require’s attention, time and understanding helps prevents flailing
as you become more knowledgeable from the process, you can refine Multiple Research Methods for engaging in user research
Ethnographic - Observation Discovery Phase
2011
Parsons, The New School for Design
Tactics & Methods for designing user
experiences
14
There are hundreds... IDEO...
Card Sorting
youtu.be/-89cj71-Vfg
Tools for Rapid Prototyping, Wireframing, Flows, etc
• Visual fidelity (sketched styled)
• Functional fidelity (static interactive)
• Content fidelity (lorem ipsum real content)
OmniGraffle
April 2014
Parsons, The New School for Design Jane Pirone
April 2014
Parsons, The New School for Design Jane Pirone
