In the session I talk about UX stumbling blocks and lessons learned when I developed a software for rear-projection screens and LED perimeter advertising systems for the local Basketball club. Even though I was developer, UX designer and user all in person, there were situations where I had problems using it under the time pressure of a home game, fueled by the fear of messing up in front of an audience of 6000 people.
1. Fun, Confusion, Fear
– and Basketball
Roland Weigelt
Comma Soft AG, Bonn, Germany
Roland.Weigelt@comma-soft.com
@rweigelt
mail@roland-weigelt.de
@RolandWeigelt (DE)
2. Roland Weigelt
•Comma Soft AG in Bonn, Germany
•1997 – Software Developer
Product INFONEA® (Business Intelligence)
Frontend Development, interest in UIs in general
•2012 – UX Specialist / Senior Product Designer
Concepts, Mockups, etc. – very little coding
Still writing software as a hobby
3. Hobby Turned Side Job
•Telekom Baskets Bonn
BEKO BBL (1st German Division)
•Job: Taking care of multimedia in the arena
Content creation, software development
Photo credit: Jörn Wolter, www.wolterfoto.de
4. …applications I‘ve written for the
rear projection screens
LED advertising system
…(some) of the UI issues I‘ve run into
…and the general lessons learned
Photo credit: Sebastian Derix, www.sebastianderix.de
This Talk is About...
12. Photo credit: Roland Weigelt
Captions
for the Live Camera
(aka „Lower Thirds“)
„LiveTexter“ Most captions are prepared
before the arena opens
Some have to be typed
„on the fly“, within seconds
40. Preview
•Rear projection screens
1024 x 768 Pixels
Scale down OK!
Helps a lot
•11 LED modules
11 x 768 = 8448 Pixels
80 Pixels high
No good „at a glance“
solution for all modules
43. Be Absolutely Clear
•If clicking „something“ triggers a critical action,
make this „something“ trivial to understand
under heavy stress
without even thinking.
44. •#3
Don‘t Make Me Think!*
* If you haven't yet, go read the book by Steve Krug!
45. Scrolling Messages
•The players of the home team
•The players of the guest team
•The members of the dance team
•The next home games
46. Home vs. Guest
•The official name of a match: „Home vs. Guest“,
e.g. Telekom Baskets Bonn vs. ALBA BERLIN
•NBA naming:
ALBA BERLIN at Telekom Baskets Bonn
47. Team Presentation
•8 minutes before tip-off:
Lights out, loud music
„Welcome to today‘s match!“
„Today‘s referees are...“
„Here are the players of ALBA BERLIN“
„Here‘s the Baskets Dance Team!“
„And now, here are your Telekom Baskets Bonn!“
58. Let‘s Look Again
•What do I want from a smooth transition?
From content A to content B
Within a certain timespan
Too short not that different from a hard cut
Too long timing not matching announcer‘s voice
•Do I really need to control the speed?
Experiments: 0.7 sec OK in most cases
60. Takeaways
•Help users build up confidence
Don‘t be too subtle about state.
If possible, provide a preview.
Avoid internal translations: „Don‘t make me think“.
•Decide if fine-grained control is necessary
Don‘t sacrifice the usability of basic actions
But don‘t take it away if users really need control.