Transcript User Centered Interface Design

User Centered Interface Design
Making things easy for your users...and yourself
The following things have probably happened to you…
Because you’re stupid?
No.
Lack of user input results in poor design decisions.
How does this happen?!?
YOUR USERS
You (the programmer) are not your users.
How can this be avoided?
The best way to design your interface:
Follow the 5 E’s of Usability
*Effective
*Efficient
*Engaging
*Error Tolerant
*Easy to Learn
Things your users will love:
How do I know if my design is user-friendly?
Do some quick and simple usability testing.
Usability testing is setting a series of tasks for
people to complete and noting any problems
they encounter.
What’s the ROI?
Budget Overruns
Goals of a Usability Test
*Determine design inconsistencies and
usability problem areas within user interface.
*Establish baseline user performance
*Validate concerns
*Save $$
Before/After Example: Groupon
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Immediately asks for the user's
email address
Plain and basic
Conveys next-to-no information
about what a user could "save 50
percent to 90 percent" on.
Before
Before/After Example: Groupon
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Contemporary sidebar navigation
that breaks down popular
categories for savings and deals
Beautiful, large photography
Search feature
After
Before/After Example: USAToday
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Cluttered mass of text-based links.
The visual content was practically
an afterthought -- after all, of the two
largest images on the homepage,
one is a display advertisement
located at the bottom of the page.
The logo feels dated and the color
scheme uninviting, utilizes primarily
blue text on white background
Before
Before/After Example: USAToday
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Utilizes best practices
relating to layout and site
navigation
Visually appealing, with
clean, crisp images of
newsworthy stories.
Offers users the ability to
scroll horizontally through
the top stories just as you
would a print magazine. In
fact, the entire experience is
very reminiscent of a tablet
app, and the site now
outshines its competitors.
After
Usability testing is like test driving a car...for your design.
Would you buy a car without test driving it first?
You can test ANYTHING
• Hand drawn sketch • Ct. Management
System
• Forms
• Software
• Wireframes
• New Programs
• Screenshots
• HTML prototype
• Live site
• API
How do I conduct a usability
test?
My friend Matt explains how.
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3-6 people, in your typical user
demographic
Ask them to do a task, without
telling them where to navigate
to
The user is never wrong! If
they don’t go to the right
place, ask them why they
made that particular decision
and use the feedback to
correct your design.
The biggest design mistakes
will be pointed out by most of
the participants, such as “I
can’t read the text” or “I don’t
know where to go next”.
Profit
Swim in piles of money because you saved your boss time and money and your users love your design.