UX Architecture for the Small Guy


Leading Today: Gary Barber @tuna
Church of
User eXperience
Design
Welcome to the
Today’s Sermon
UX Architecture
for the Small Guy
© istockphoto.com


User Experience Design
DEF: a subset of the field of experience
design that pertains to the creation of the
architecture and interaction models that
impact a user's perception of a device or
system. The scope of the field is directed
at affecting "all aspects of the user’s
interaction with the product: how it is
perceived, learned, and used
 
...like any other machine - they're either a benefit or a hazard. If
they're a benefit, it's not my problem.
Don Norman


User Experience
DEF: the perception left after a series of
interactions.
 
“Design is the art of gradually applying constraints until only one
solution remains”
Eric Reiss
Unknown


Two Hotels
UX is about perception and product confidence
 
www.flickr.com/photos/10634319@N00/3206552644


Two Web Sites
UX is about removing the frustration
 


Usable UX
 
“Usability is something we do in UAT, right?”
Client


Design Reality
 
Stakeholders
Customers
SPEC
DESIGN
DEV
UAT


Small Project Reality
 
Stakeholders
Customers
SPEC
DESIGN
DEV


Wish List - Agile UX
 
DESIGN
USER
TEST
USER
TEST
USER
TEST
DESIGN
DEV
DEV
Stakeholders
Customers
RESEARCH
BUSINESS
INFORMATION
CUSTOMER
Interation
Zero
BUILD
BRAINSTORM


Roles with UX Project
DESIGNER
DEVELOPER
PROJECT MANAGER
 
UX ARCHITECT
DESIGNER
DEVELOPER
PROJECT MANAGER


Small Projects
 
Stakeholders
Customers
SPEC
DESIGN
DEV


The Web is Not Print
 


Web is Print?
 
Web
Print


Is it Bad Habits
 
© istockphoto.com
• No Budget
• No Skills
• No Time
• We’ll do it next time
• It doesn’t work
• No one else is doing it


Money Talks
“But, I just want a website for $X dollars”
 
Client


UX & User Centered Design
 
UCD doesn’t appear to work well with Small Projects
© istockphoto.com


Reality Check for UCD
 
UCD doesn’t appear to fit with Small Projects


UCD focuses on the Users
 
“If the user can’t use it, it doesn’t work” Susan Dray
© istockphoto.com

Client

Remove the Users?
 
“Maybe we’re better off without the Users”
Client


Business + User Focus
 
Centralised Business and User based Approach


UX Architecture is not a
Methodology
 
“I don’t care about User Experience I just want to sell products”
Client


UX Tool Kit
 
Over 50 tools, techniques and methods to ensure the best UX


Should it Stay or Should it Go
 
Remember every project is different
“it Depends”


Business Research
• Stakeholder Interviews
• Business Requirements
• Competitor Review
• Expert Review
• Peer Review
• Web Analytics Review
 

Stakeholder Interviews
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : You are going to be talking to your client anyway, why not ask a
few open ended questions, to gather even more information
 
n/a

Business Requirements
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Even better if the client has these done for you. Sometimes a
Brainstorming session helps cement the real vs political requirements.
 
n/a

Competitor Review
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Don’t overload this process, keep it short and snappy, if it adds
nothing new to the list, move on. Like a lit review for the Web.
 
n/a

Expert Review
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Not a replacement for User Testing. Use only if budget is really
tight. Can only really give you the general problem areas. No one is an expert.
 
n/a

Peer Review
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Do them on forums, down the pub, be open with your peers to
get real feedback. Avoid the back slapping crowd. Review, review and review
 
n/a

Web Analytics Review
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Greatly dependent on the depth of the statistics available, Often
poor on small projects. Pay Special attention to the Search Analyics. Experienced
analysis can bring out worthwhile user pathways
 
n/a


Information Research
• Content Audit
• Card Sort
 

Content Audit/Inventory
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Remember content is king, this has to be done. You can’t design
without at least a sketchy idea of what the content is. Expect lost content to be found
later.
 
n/a

Card Sorting
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Good tool for information or functional categorisation. Don’t
over use. Don’t over analyse, users can get it wrong. Can use Affinity Diagram as well
for general logical grouping.
 



Customer/User Research
• User Priming
• User Interviews
• Field Studies
• User Surveys
• Focus Groups
• Personas
• User Stories
• Task Analysis
• Mental Models
 
www.flickr.com/photos/50138555@N00/580711370 www.flickr.com/photos/22023529@N00/341543757

User Priming
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Some users will “cheat”, expect this, but you will notice it, people
find this easier to do than a diary. Helps start an interview. Drawing the experience
 
www.flickr.com/photos/49106033@N00/459905744 www.flickr.com/photos/37484601@N00/3513672579 www.flickr.com/photos/35955268@N00/474693912

User Interviews
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : A very small pool is okay 4-5 people. Interviews don’t have to be
long, just open ended. Forget transcripts, you will not have the time to do them.
Record if you must, just you will not review it.
 

User Surveys
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Unless you are very experienced or have training in survey
writing, don’t DIY. Real costs can be very high for Small Projects.
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20561948@N00/117335513

Focus Groups
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : At best they are artificial constructs, open to group dynamics like
a jury. Not suited to UX research at all. Avoid!
 

Field Studies
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Shadowing and contextual enquiry useful. Allow for believe
what you see not what the user tells you. Ethnographic Studies also applicable.
 

Personas
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Making fake people, good generalist behavioural patterns in
personas. Maybe a Persona Pattern Library is in order. Sketched personas better than
detailed ones. Adhoc Personas should be considered.
 
n/a

User Stories
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Easy to compile from previous research. Fast and effective, look
for simple patterns of task and behaviour. Don’t over analyse, accept what is.
 
n/a

Task Analysis
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Summary tool for listing task patterns, functionality, information
processes and refining them. KIS. Will feed into story boarding, flow diagrams and
prototyping. Can use GOMS on this too.
 
n/a

Mental Models
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Good for confirming information and functional categorisation.
Behaviour and task based nature takes too much time. Need a faster analysis method.
 
n/a


Brainstorming
• Critical to all project
types
• Bridge from Research
to Design
• Generate New Ideas
from Research
• Pattern Matching
• Time to see the
Patterns
 


Design
• User Testing
• Navigational Design
• Story Boarding
• FLow Charting
• Mood Boards
• Wireframes
• Graphical Mockup
• Prototyping
 

User Testing
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Do it anywhere, coffee shop, lunchroom, remotely. Avoid the lab.
Small pools are allowed. Should be used to confirm and discover all the time in UX.
At least consider A/B testing.
 

Navigational Design
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Small content mean less categorisation, less options. Still look for
new pathways to navigate. Use simple Tree testing.
 
n/a

Story Boarding
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Can be traditional, photoboard, stick figures, movieboard, flash
based screen prototypes. Lots tool available. Remember to keep it sketchy, produce at
a fast and furious rate. Also consider Task and Story Boards as Swinlanes.
 
n/a

Flow Charting
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Work well with Use Cases. Task, functionality and screen flow
can all be mapped. Helps bridge designers and developers. Combine wireframes and
flowcharts to get wireflows.
 
n/a

Mood Boards
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Quick and easy to produce. Show emotional landscape.
Supporting the visceral response of the cognitive process. Need to elicited an emotional
response.
 
n/a

Wireframes
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Need to be quick, not detailed masterpieces. Document the basics
and move on. Do we really need them if rapid prototyping is used. Use Pattern
Libraries.
 
n/a

Graphical Mockup
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Mockups in Photoshop can take too long, move to Browser
mockups. Consider collaged mockups from competitors or like functional sites to get
visual direction, like an extention of Participatory Design.
 
© radharc.com.au
n/a

Prototyping
Required:
Time:
Cost:
Reliability:
Influence:
Small Projects:
Small Guy Parable : Use paper, pens, bottle tops, whiteboards to interactive generators
from Axure to Screenflow. Document with photos or screenshots, KIS. Use Pattern
Libraries. Give the site a human personality.
 
n/a


UX Elements of Rapture
Stakeholder Interviews
Business Requirements
Content Audit
User Interviews
Navigational Design
Brainstorming
User Testing
Task Analysis
Mood Boards
Graphical Mockups
Prototypes
 


Waterfall vs Whirlpool
Regardless of Waterfall or Agile projects, UX can be used in both
 


UX is Hard
Client wants a cheap option - don’t go with the Gut!
 


Design is about Failure
 
“Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.”
C.W. Ceram
© istockphoto.com
Add
Ideas
Add
Ideas Final
Product
Time
No. of
Ideas
Concept Generation


Lost Ideas
 
“The public is more familiar with bad design than good design.”
Paul Rand
© istockphoto.com
Final
Product
Time
No. of
Ideas
Concept Generation
Lost Ideas
Lost Ideas


Time to Get Ideas!
 
“The only thing more expensive than writing software is writing bad
software”
Alan Cooper


Selling UX
 
Reality check - UX can be seen as expensive window dressing


No Jargon!
Just like IT cut the techo-babble, so we have too.
 


Speak Business
Talk like an Accountant, Marketeer, Human Resources, CEO
 


CEO’s Love Design
Clients like to be involved, it’s more interest than Accounts
 


The Commandments
Is too much documentation drowning UX in costs?
 
© istockphoto.com
DESIGN
USER
TEST
USER
TEST
USER
TEST
DESIGN
DEV
DEV
R
E
S
E
A
R
C
H
BU
SIN
ES
S
INF
OR
MA
TIO
N
CU
ST
OM
ER
Interation
Zero
BUILD
BR
AI
NS
TO
RM
• UX is about Business and
Users
• Stop the old ways
• UX can be Agile
• User research is important
• Don’t go with the gut
• Selling UX is more important
than the design


Questions
 
GARY BARBER
@tuna
manwithnoblog.com
radharc.com.au
Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial 2.5 Australia License
Typeface - Footlights Flickr attribution on relevant slide


Local UX Resources
• UX BookClub - uxbookclub.org
• Usability Professionals’ Association - www.upassoc.org
• Information Architect Institute - iainstitute.org
• Mailing Lists:
✴ IxDA - ixda.org
 

UX Architecture for the Small Guy

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