Creating a Positive Experience For Your Website Visitors
1. Creating a Positive
Experience for your
Website Visitors
Lisa Spitz
Principle, Lisa Spitz Design
URL: lisaspitz-design.com
2. About Me
• B.A. Graphic Design & Psychology, Regis College, Weston MA
• M.Des. Interaction Design, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
PA
• Consultant for Institute of Human Center Design site: URL:
“http://humancentereddesign.org/”
• Consultant for Accessing Safety Initiative site: URL:
“http://accessingsafety.org/ “
• Director of Design, CAST, Wakefield MA
• Principle, Lisa Spitz Design
3. Workshop Goal
• Meet Jane, an amputee and survivor, in need of help
• Define Jane’s Journey
• Introduce the concept of User Experience Design
• Plan and design Jane’s ideal website experience
5. Jane is…
• Jane is an amputee.
• She lives in New York city with her
6-year-old daughter and spouse.
• Her spouse was recently jailed,
but will soon be released.
• This is NOT her first incident of violence.
• She is increasingly concerned for their safety.
• She don’t know where to begin, but sits down to
her computer – because now is her chance to
bring herself and her daughter to safety.
6. Activity
• Imagine YOU are Jane.
• What will you do next? An online search?
• What keywords do you use?
• What are you looking for?
10. What is User Experience?
• "User experience" encompasses all aspects of the end-
user's interaction with the company, its services, and its
products.”
Nielsen Norman Group
URL: “http://www.nngroup.com/about/userexperience.html”
11. The User Experience Honeycomb
User Experience Design by Peter Morville: URL:
“http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php”
14. Design Thinking
• What is the experience we’d like to create for Jane?
– Step 1: Learn more about Jane
– Step 2: Define Jane’s ideal experience
– Step 3: Prioritize your site content (for Jane!)
– Step 4: Learn how other sites are doing it
16. Activity (2) – 10 Minutes
• Imagine, again, that you are Jane.
• What else you think Jane is thinking, feeling, doing while
researching online.
• Tell a story about Jane: Who, What, Where, When, Why,
and How?
18. Activity (3) – 10 minutes
• Now think about your own organization and goals.
• What you want Jane to feel as a result of coming to
your website. (Choose an adjective)
• What qualities or experiences embody that adjective
and why?
20. Activity (4) – 10 Minutes
• Now think about your own website.
• What elements of your website will support that
adjective?
• How would you prioritize those elements?
21. Activity (5) – 10 minutes
• Design your own website using the materials provided
(paper, pens, etc).
• What goes where?
• How does it differ from your current site?
The goal of this workshop is to think about your organization's website from the perspective of your constituentsTo do this, we will…4 bullet pointsBefore we begin – how many people work at an organization with a website?If you don’t have one how do people find out about your organization?If you do – what percentage of your constituents have their first experience with your organization through your website?If you do – what percentage of constituents ONLY experience your organization through your website?While I may have included specific examples here, I’d like you to be thinking about your own audiences, organization, and website.
As a warm up exercise, let’s talk about one person.
Let’s start here. Imagine the following scenario, and that YOU are Jane. …
Let’s imagine you are Jane. You are sitting down to your computer, which for some people is the place they might start….
The website(s) that come up for Jane represent just one point in time in Jane’s journey. If we were to map out her journey, it might look something like this…
As you can see from the Journey map, Jane’s experience with your website is just one point in the process – but without it, her Journey to your services would be broken.For Jane, this may not be her first experience with violence. She may or may not know other individuals who have also experienced violence. But at some point she has identified that she has a problem – and will be on the lookout for a solution. How is she going to do that? By web, by phone…? Your physical location, staff, signage, posters, brochures, may factor into her experience at some point as well
Whether or not you realize it, you are all responsible for defining and designing Jane’s experience.
This means – every interaction that an individual has with your organization contributes towards her overall experience.There are many thoughts on and definitions of User Experience Design. At it’s highest level, as the Nielsen Norman Group states, User Experience encompasses all aspects of the end user’s interactions with the company (organization), its services, and its products.So what kind of experience do individuals have with your organization? How well planned/thought out is it? Where could it be improved?People are constantly observing and making inferences (often subconsciously) – about the entrance to your organization, the person who picks up the phone, the chairs in your waiting room, the forms they are required to fill out, or your website when they are looking for information or answers.
When thinking about each of these elements of the user experience, it is helpful to have a framework for assessing how well you are doing.In 2004, Peter Morville defined 7 Facets or Qualities that contribute to the user experience.Useful. Does this serve a need.Usable. Is it easy to useDesirable. is it a positive experience.Findable. Can you find what you need.Accessible. Is it accessibleCredible. is it Credible And does it Add Value? As a non-profits, does the user experience must contribute towards the advance the mission.
Going back to Jane’s Journey – there’s a lot here that we could discuss.Today we are going to focus on this one point in time – when an individual accesses your website for the first time.
So let’s talk about Jane’s Ideal Website Experience. And in doing so – the ideal experience for your constituents.
We are going to think like designers.Instead of approaching your website from the perspective of you as an organization – let’s think about what Jane needs from your website.
First it’s important to ask ourselves what else we know about Jane.
Make this relevant to you! If you are here with other individuals from your organization – or if you know someone in the room who works for a similar organization, please feel free to rearrange yourselves so that you can brainstorm together for the rest of our time.
Think about Jane in relation to your own goalsWhat do you want Jane to feel as a result of coming to your website?Choose an adjective and then ask yourselves what embodies that quality? and why? Write a list of synonyms.------Find out what the adjectives are
Now let’s think about your websites
What content could you possibly put up on your website to help Jane feel – XYZ?Reflecting back on what Jane is thinking, feeling doing – What from your content does Jane need 1st, 2nd, and 3rd?
Eye tracking research shows that people’s attention when they look at your website follows this order…Knowing that – think about what you would want to prioritize for Jane when she first visits your website. Using simple boxes – pen/pencil/paper – or glue / parts – create your website homepage. It doesn’t have to look pretty…
Look at some websites that are out there and deconstruct them What's working well, what's not working well?