Slides from the workshop @danny_bluestone and @duckymatt from Cyber-Duck Ltd gave at UX London 2013. The workshop focused on how by putting the user at the centre of design decisions you can deliver a better experience. With a mixture of theory and hands-on activities the workshop covered user research, activity mapping, card sorting and participative sketching techniques.
3. The central premise of user centred design is
that the best designed products and services
result from understanding the needs of the
people who will use them.
4. SOME BENEFITS OF UCD
1. Qualitative - Find out what customers actually want.
2. Context – Discover the exact context to design for.
3. Creativity – Combine UCD with branding.
4. Focus - Avoid ‘analysis paralysis’.
5. Remove egos– Verify decisions with real customers.
7. TIMOTHY PRESTRO, CEO of DMT
DESIGN FOR PEOPLE, NOT AWARDS
h"p://designthatma"ers.org/por@olio/projects/
8. DESIGN FOR OUTCOMES
www.ted.com/talks/Cmothy_prestero_design_for_people_not_awards.html
and
h"p://www.designthatma"ers.org/pictures/dtm_blog/Baby_in_Firefly.JPG
9. If the engineers could, they'd give you 40 buttons, but
when you're driving it's not that easy to use them all, so
it's better to have the ones you really need.
The key thing is to make it simpler without getting rid of
stuff that I might need to make the car go quicker.
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/simonw92/8534697674/
LEWIS HAMILTON ON UCD
10. As we reform the delivery of public services,
they are designed around the needs of the user, rather
than has been far too often the case in the past, being
designed to suit the convenience of the government.
Francis Maude, MP
11. Approaches Disciplines
User centred design
Self design
Activity centred design
Genius design
Interaction design
Information architecture
Usability testing
Research
14. USERS ARE NOT DESIGNERS
IT IS USER CENTRED DESIGN,
NOT USER CONTROLLED DESIGN
15. THERE IS NO SUCH THING
AS A ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL
APPROACH
FOCUS ON OUTCOMES NOT DELIVERABLES
16. USABILITY IS NOT A FEATURE
IT DEPENDS ON THE USER, THE ENVIRONMENT,
THE TASK, AND OTHER CONTEXTUAL FACTORS
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/oewf/2924217723/
17. HOW WE APPROACH UCD
1. Research
2. Design / prototype
3. Test
4. Improve
19. FRONT-LOADING
STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS
• Why is it being made?
• Who are the key stakeholders and what are their goals?
• How does it fit in with the wider company objectives?
• Gain insight into market and target audiences
• Identify competitors early on
h"p://goodkickoffmeeCngs.com/2010/04/stakeholder-‐frontloading/
21. The turning point in many interviews is when the
interviewee gets up and closes the office door and
lowers their voice.
Paul Boag, Headscape
h"p://boagworld.com/business-‐strategy/how-‐to-‐improve-‐your-‐site-‐using-‐stakeholder-‐interviews/
23. • Speak to existing users if possible
• Competitors
• Ethnographic studies / research
• Expert insight
TIPS FOR GETTING INSIGHT
INTO USER PROFILES
24. THE BEST USER PERSONAS
ARE BASED ON REAL USERS
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/patloika/7946438528
25. • Ethnio for existing users
• Social media
• Go to the physical locations where you’ll find
your users
• Use professional recruiters
HOW DO I FIND MY USERS?
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/oatsy40/6783078815/
26. Accessibility is the degree to which anyone can access and
use a website using any web browsing technology.
RNIBh"p://www.rnib.org.uk/professionals/webaccessibility/background/Pages/background.aspx
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/furbyx4/2968376257/
27. WHAT ACTIVITIES DO YOUR
USERS NEED TO PERFORM?
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/fernando/36759033
32. CARD SORTING
• The ‘base’ for your information architecture.
• Gets insights and patterns into users ‘mental model’.
• It helps to increase findability in a system.
33. The current recommendation is to test 15 users for card
sorting in most projects, and 30 users in big projects...
Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group
34. TECHNIQUES FOR
CARD SORTING
• Use lots of post-it notes or cards
• Get users to sort the cards in open or closed groups
• Your main job is to observe and keep the momentum
• Learn from the patterns of different groups via analysis
• Helps to create a record of the structure/taxonomy
35. HICKS’S
LAW
“THE
MORE
CHOICES
YOU
HAVE
TO
CHOOSE
FROM,
THE
LONGER
IT
TAKES
FOR
YOU
TO
MAKE
A
DECISION.”
h"p://www.cirencalui.com/
37. “THE
TIME
REQUIRED
TO
RAPIDLY
MOVE
TO
A
TARGET
AREA
IS
A
FUNCTION
OF
THE
DISTANCE
TO
AND
THE
SIZE
OF
THE
TARGET”
FITT’S
LAW
h"p://modetro.com/mb-‐games-‐simon-‐says-‐vintage-‐retro-‐game-‐70s
38. TECHNIQUES FOR
INTERACTION DESIGN (IxD)
• Use personas and interviews to inform the design.
• Competitor research see what is already out there.
• Ethnography can help you to understand real users.
• Validate what you do with real users as early as possible.
39. IxD –FLOW OF CONTROL EXAMPLE
h"p://wc1.smartdraw.com/examples/content/examples/01_flowcharts/4_other_flowcharts/control_flow_epc_diagram_flowchart_l.jpg
42. I do not know the cognitive reasons behind this, but I
have never seen this not be true. The more human your
picture, the more human will be the response.
Dan Roam, Back Of The Napkin
h"p://www.thebackokhenapkin.com/
48. Lets us see how our study participants scan the
search results page, and is the next best thing to
actually being able to read their minds.
Anne Aula and Kerry Rodden, User Experience Researchers, Google
GOOGLE ON EYE TRACKING
h"p://www.japantoday.com/images/size/x/2013/03/urn%3Apublicid%3Aap.org%3A83a7bae63f044nc938d2f4bea94d862.jpg
52. WHAT WE’VE COVERED
• What is user centred design – Benefits / pitfalls
• Usability is not a feature
• Researching users and activities
• Paper prototyping
• Getting user feedback
