Transcript User Experience

User Experience
Krista Van Laan
Agenda
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What is User Experience?
How does a User Experience team support
the rest of the organization?
What processes are followed to ensure the
best user experience?
How does UXD fit into the Agile environment?
Case studies
What is User Experience?
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“User experience” simply refers to the way a product
behaves and is used in the real world. A positive user
experience is one in which the goals of both the user
and the organization that created the product are met.
Usability is one attribute of a successful user
experience, but usability alone does not make an
experience positive for the user.
Jesse James Garrett (Author of The Elements of User Experience)
The Elements of User Experience
What can User Experience do for
me?
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A strong User Experience team can:
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Improve the product in measurable ways
Lighten the load for product development
Save time for development by providing clear
guidelines, flows, and designs
Create prototypes and mockups
Reduce support calls
What can User Experience do for
me?
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The UX team should liaison between product
management and development, but also
support and get input from all cross-functional
teams:
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Product management
Development
Sales
Marketing
Branding
Support
Mission Statement
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Understand the users’ needs and evaluate
our designs and products against the users’
goal and expectations.
Ensure that the products we design meet or
exceed our user’s expectations in order to
increase product adoption and reduce
support intervention.
Create high quality products that are
implemented per the design specifications
using best practices.
Dream UX Team
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Interaction designers
Visual designers
User researchers/user testing moderators
Prototypers
Front-end Web developers
Writers
…all working together, with the opportunity for
extensive brainstorming and problem-solving and
the willingness to stick to product schedules
UX Deliverables
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Analysis and Research:
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Personas
Qualitative user research and reports
User stories
Competitive analysis
Scorecards
Design:
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Functional specs
Flow diagrams
UI specs and guidelines
UX Deliverables (continued)
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Prototypes:
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Visual Design:
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Clickable prototypes
Mockups
Polished visual design and layout
Icons & Graphic components
Technical Communications
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Web content
Help
User guides & reference manuals
Videos, Flash demos, training material
Localization
UXD Process
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Analyze
Design
Implement
Verify
UXD Process
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Work with product management at the
beginning. Understand business objectives,
the behavior and thinking of the users, and
the competition.
Produce architecture, wireframes, design
treatments until the product takes form.
Rapid iteration: constantly refine the
prototype in response to targeted inquiry
into what aspects of the experience need
work. (through analysis and user testing.)
User Testing
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Informal
Contextual inquiry
Scorecards
Usability lab
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Video recording
Eye tracking
Working in an Agile Environment
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User research and testing can be utilized to
prioritize features in the product backlog and
to iteratively refine designs to achieve better
usability.
Integrating UXD and Agile processes can be
accomplished with little or no impact on
release schedules.
Working in an Agile Environment
1. Early stage UX planning
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High-level design
UX requirements
Detailed design and spec
2. Embed a designer and a writer on the team
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No surprises
Writer produces chunks of content that keep up
with development, takes some time at end to pull it
all together
Working in an Agile Environment
3. UX designers and writers follow same
development schedule:
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Designers are one iteration ahead of the SW
developers
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Hand off detailed designs for developers to follow
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Ideally, interface developers are on the UX
team
Writers often document features one iteration
after SW developers
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4. Backlog contains UX design features
Designing VIP (VeriSign Identity
Protection)
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User-centered design methodology
in an Agile environment, producing
designs for Web, mobile devices
Early research phase with the
cooperation of product
management
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User scenarios
Visio flow diagrams to document
different tasks.
User Testing
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Early usability tests are done with very simple
materials, often just pencil drawings that help
to determine whether a user understands
what an application is supposed to do.
User Scenario Examples
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VIP User Scenario #1a – New User: Learning through Relying site, Acquiring, Activating,
Registering
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VIP User Scenario #1b – New User: Learning offline, Acquiring, Activating, Registering
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VIP User Scenario #1c – New User: Learning, Acquiring, Activating, and assumes account is
protected without registering
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VIP User Scenario #2a – Existing User: Lost/Damaged Token
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VIP User Scenario #2b – Existing User: Forgot Token
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VIP User Scenario #2c – Existing User: Lost/Stolen Token doesn’t find link on site
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VIP User Scenario #3a – Existing User: Registering an Active Token on Additional Relying
Sites
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VIP User Scenario #3b – Existing User: Registering an Active Token on Additional Relying
Sites but Token ID is worn
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VIP User Scenario #3c – Existing User: Does not remember they have token, buys now
token, later finds token and wants to return
User Testing
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Target users defined
Prototype created
Early users had a difficult time
understanding what the passcode
was and how to generate it. Adding
this illustration helped a lot. At first it
was at the bottom of the screen
where users did not see it.
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Iterative redesign
VIP consumer site
Designing VIP
VeriSign Certificate Center
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VCC came about as a result of user testing
The User Experience team created a prototype of
what VCC might look like and presented it to product
management.
UXD team brainstormed to figure out the every
possible path for all use cases.
Three rounds of usability testing helped the team
develop the product. Each night the team modified
and improved the prototype in response to what was
discovered during testing.
VeriSign Certificate Center
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Working prototype validated by the users
became basis of UI spec that describes the
look and behavior of the UI.
Worked with development to oversee
implementation
Made substantial and surprising
improvements to the status page
VCC Deliverables
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User stories
Flow diagrams
Functional spec
UI spec
Prototypes
User research