Presentation at Microsoft Architect Council in June 2007 - by Simon Guest, Microsoft

1. Simon Guest
Director, Architecture Strategy
Microsoft Corporation

2. “What is Architecture?”

3. “Architecture is the balance
between art and engineering”

4. But does this apply to
Software Architecture?

5. SOA
ESB
Web Services
Transactions
ORM
Replication
etc.
Engineering Concerns

6. What is the art in Software Architecture?

7. User Experience
Often Comes Last

8. User Experience
Often Comes Last
Source: www.userinterfacehallofshame.com

9. User Experience
Often Comes Last
Source: www.userinterfacehallofshame.com

10. User Experience
Often Comes Last
Source: www.userinterfacehallofshame.com

11. Why is this the case?
Well understood environment
Why is this the case?
Dedicated development staff
Stable business capabilities

12. Why is this the case?
Difficult to justify investment
Why is this the case?
Not designing for the real users
Optimizing for look and feel

13. Why is this the case?
Why is this the case?

14. New Perspective

15. A framework for how architects
can think about user experience
New Perspective

17. “Was this application really designed for me?”
“Why doesn’t this application help me get my work done?”
“If it wasn’t for this application, I’d do stuff differently”

18. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype

19. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
“I use a similar application at home, and that works”
“Should I have read the manual?”
“The performance of this application sucks!”

20. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e

21. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
“I don’t think it installed properly…”
“Err.. How long did you guys spend developing this?”
“Excuse me! I have a suggestion…”

22. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

23. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

24. Implicit > Personas

25. Audience Survey
Implicit > Personas

26. Audience Survey
What percentage of today’s
attendees are female?
Implicit > Personas

27. Audience Survey
Overall US population is 52%
female according to 2000
Census
Implicit > Personas

28. Audience Survey
What percentage of today’s
attendees do NOT have a college
degree?
Implicit > Personas

29. Audience Survey
Roughly 82% of US population,
72% of US adults do not,
according to 2000 Census
Implicit > Personas

30. Audience Survey
What percentage of today’s
attendees drive a car with a
manual transmission?
Implicit > Personas

31. Audience Survey
How many more WOULD if your
spouses would let you buy one?
Implicit > Personas

32. Audience Survey
Roughly 12-14% of all vehicles in
the US are sold with a manual
transmission
Implicit > Personas

33. Know Thy User
For He Is Not Thee
Implicit > Personas
Source: Why Software Sucks [2006], David Plat

34. Definition of a “user”
Implicit > Personas

35. “This would be quicker to develop as a
Web Application. Users will understand
how to use this.”
Implicit > Personas

36. “Yeah, most users will have access to a
printer from their desk…”
Implicit > Personas

37. “Of course these buttons should be red
and white. Users will be able to relate
this to the up/down lights on an elevator.”
Implicit > Personas

38. “The Homer”
Implicit > Personas

39. Think instead using Personas
Implicit > Personas

40. Sally – “Road Warrior”
Implicit > Personas

41. Sally – “Road Warrior”
38, Married
2 Children
5 years of computer experience
Mostly Windows/Office, experienced with
PowerPoint
Has between 10 and 20 clients – mix of
small and medium businesses
Relies on laptop and mobile phone device
Implicit > Personas

42. Sally – “Road Warrior”
Needs from your application:
“Keep me connected to customer data
regardless of my location”
Implicit > Personas

43. Derek – “Call Center
Operator”
Implicit > Personas

44. Derek – “Call Center
Operator”
25, Single
9 years of computer experience
3 years of which in a call center
PDA/gadget junkie – “lifehacker”
Relies on call center application
Gets bonus if exceeds monthly target
call quota
Implicit > Personas

45. Derek – “Call Center
Operator”
Needs from your application:
“I want the application to decrease my time per call”
Implicit > Personas

46. Jim – “Executive”
Implicit > Personas

47. Jim – “Executive”
57, Married
4 Children, all left home
Very limited computer experience
Brenda (his admin) used to print all his
Email until very recently
Likes to show off his Blackberry on the
golf course
Implicit > Personas

48. Jim – “Executive”
Needs from your application:
“I want the high level, abstract view of my customers”
Implicit > Personas

49. Conversations
“For Sally, a Web Interface may make
sense. But Peter has a lot of keyboard
shortcuts we need to implement.”
Implicit > Personas

50. Conversations
“Jim will have access to a printer via his
admin, but Sally works on the road, so
may need another option for printing”
Implicit > Personas

51. Conversations
“For Jim, red/white buttons may work,
but we should check that this is the case
for Derek in our offshore call center”
Implicit > Personas

52. Takeaways
Use 3 – 7 personas as the first
step of designing any user
experience
Use personas to help resolve
arguments in the development team
Look at the personas that Microsoft
uses (Persona Lifecycle)
Implicit > Personas
Source: Persona Lifecycle [Pruitt, Adlin] Morgan Kaufmann

53. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

54. Implicit > Purpose

55. Implicit > Purpose
Create new
document
Type text
Format the text
Email to editor

56. Implicit > Purpose
Create new
Task
document
Task
Type text
Goal
Task
Format the text
Task
Email to editor

57. Implicit > Purpose

58. Implicit > Purpose
Create new
Task
document
Type text Task
Format the text Filter
Task
Email to editor Task

59. Implicit > Purpose
Create new
Task
document
Type text Task
Guess
the
Goal
Format the text Task
Email to editor Task

60. Implicit > Purpose

61. Implicit > Purpose
Create new
Task
document
Apply
Context
Type text Task
Apply
Context
Format the text Task
Apply
Context
Email to editor Task

62. Implicit > Purpose

63. Implicit > Purpose

64. Implicit > Purpose

65. Implicit > Purpose
Source: www.devcomponents.com

66. Implicit > Purpose
Takeaways
Don’t confuse tasks and goals when
working on use cases
Focus on the goal of your application,
and apply context at each step
Look into the Office UI licensing for
using the ribbon in applications

67. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

68. Implicit > Prototype

69. Implicit > Prototype
You want to build a house…
You hire a building architect…
You discuss requirements…

70. Implicit > Prototype
A prototype is created

71. Implicit > Prototype
12 months later…

72. Implicit > Prototype
You want to build a house…
You hire a software architect…
You discuss requirements…

73. Implicit > Prototype
Yeah, sorry, I don’t have a prototype to
show you. I can show you some diagrams,
but you probably won’t understand them.

74. Implicit > Prototype
But trust me – it’s going to be great.

75. Implicit > Prototype
12 months later…

76. Implicit > Prototype
In Software Architecture we don’t
do enough prototyping

77. Implicit > Prototype
Paper
Wizard of Oz
Many different ways of prototyping
PowerPoint
Card sorting
Visio
Flash
More Information: Effective Prototyping [Arnowitz, Arent, Berger] Morgan Kaufmann

78. Implicit > Prototype
Often static, one-way presentations
(shown only to management)
Few re-usable design assets
Looks different to what gets delivered

79. Implicit > Prototype
High Fidelity Prototype
“Polished” look and feel
Great for management
Too high fidelity for users
Low Fidelity Prototype
“Sketch” look and feel
Great for user feedback
Don’t show management
Source: Paper Prototyping / Neilsen Norman

80. Implicit > Prototype
High Fidelity Style
Control Base
Low Fidelity
Style
Source: Paper Prototyping / Neilsen Norman

81. Implicit > Prototype
Source: Napkin L&F for SWING / SourceForge

82. Implicit > Prototype
Source: Napkin L&F for SWING / SourceForge

83. Implicit > Prototype
Takeaways
Software Architects don’t do enough
prototyping
Try to obtain re-usable design assets
(not necessarily code assets)
Switch between low and high fidelity
to target the correct users

84. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

85. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

86. Interface > Platform

87. Interface > Platform
Too many choices…

88. Interface > Platform
I don’t want to go down the wrong path…

89. Interface > Platform
Abstract guidance is hard to find…

90. Interface > Platform
Pick something based on Technology
Pick something based on Competition
Pick something based on Experience

91. Interface > Platform
Technically savvy, but not optimal
Trapped in a process
It’s just the way that things work here

92. Interface > Platform

93. Interface > Platform

94. Interface > Platform
No Matching Case Studies…

95. Interface > Platform
Is this really optimal as an Intranet application?

96. Interface > Platform

97. Interface > Platform

98. Interface > Platform

99. Interface > Platform
server database
web browser
Pages
HTML renders

100. Interface > Platform
server database
web browser
Pages
HTML renders
msn search .NET add-in
indexes creates
Files
Results
(WordML)

101. Interface > Platform

102. Interface > Platform
However, when it comes to guidance on
selecting the right user experience…

103. Interface > Platform
Microsoft is Guilty!

104. Interface > Platform
Study of permutations
to deliver a user interface

105. Interface > Platform
Windows Presentation Smart Client with Windows Presentation Microsoft Office
Foundation Client ClickOnce Deployment Foundation XBAP SharePoint Web Part
Windows Vista Gadget PowerShell CmdLet InfoPath Media Center Add In
Windows Live Messenger Command Line Microsoft Office Add In Media Player Add in
Add In Application
Windows Live Messenger ASP.NET Microsoft Office COM Add XBOX/XNA Application
Activity Window In
Windows Forms ASP.NET Mobile Microsoft Office Business Windows Mobile Pocket
Application Application Outlook Application
Windows Desktop Search ASP.NET AJAX Microsoft Office Smart Ink Enabled Tablet
Add In Docs Application
Windows Forms via Internet Explorer Add In Microsoft Office VBA Windows Mobile 5.0
Terminal Services Application
System Tray Applet Silverlight Microsoft Office VSTO Add Windows Mobile 5.0
In Smartphone Application
(We actually think it’s nearer to 50, but we ran out of time)

106. Interface > Platform
What vectors can we use?

107. Interface > Platform
Persona Application Environment
Location Connectivity Installation
Mobility Graphics Integration
Training Look and Feel Hardware
Personalization Interaction Developer IQ

108. Interface > Platform

109. Interface > Platform
Takeaways
“Gut Feel” may work technically, but
often is not optimal
Pressure vendors to create more
guidance for selecting a UI
If you have different visualization
ideas, let me know 

110. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

111. Interface > Productivity

112. Interface > Productivity
Productivity
Time

113. Interface > Productivity
3. Mastery
Productivity
2. Learning
1. Discovery
Time

114. Interface > Productivity
Reduced by
Familiarity
Productivity
Time

115. Interface > Productivity

116. Interface > Productivity

117. Interface > Productivity

118. Interface > Productivity
Siebel CRM
Siebel Client

119. Interface > Productivity
Web Services
Siebel CRM
ASP.NET
Web Browser

120. Interface > Productivity
Web Services
Siebel CRM
ASP.NET
Web Browser
Outlook

121. Interface > Productivity

122. Interface > Productivity
Web Services
Siebel CRM
ASP.NET
Web Browser
Outlook

123. Interface > Productivity
Web Services
Siebel CRM
ASP.NET
Web Browser
Outlook

124. Interface > Productivity

125. Interface > Productivity
M
L
D
Productivity
Time
Persona - Sally

126. Interface > Productivity
M
L
D
Productivity
Time
Persona - Derek

127. Interface > Productivity
M
L
D
Productivity
Time
Persona - Jim

128. Interface > Productivity
M
L
D
Productivity
Time
Persona - Jim

129. Interface > Productivity
Takeaways
Often the most productive user
experiences are not the best looking
Map the productivity curve to
personas when designing interfaces
Look at existing experiences to see if
there is an extensibility option

130. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

131. Interface > Performance

132. Interface > Performance
Performance conversations tend
to be engineering conversations

133. Interface > Performance
Performance vs.
Expectations

134. Interface > Performance
Specific
Expectations

135. Interface > Performance
Why is this taking so long?!

136. Interface > Performance
No Expectations

137. Interface > Performance
I wonder how long this will
take?

138. Interface > Performance
Asynchronous Javascript And

139. Interface > Performance
Web Browser Web Server
Page Load

140. Interface > Performance
Web Browser Web Server
Page Load
Post Back

141. Interface > Performance
Web Browser Web Server
Page Load

142. Interface > Performance
Web Browser Web Server
Page Load
Data
Script Services
Data

143. Interface > Performance

144. Interface > Performance

145. Interface > Performance
Takeaways
How many “milliseconds”
conversations focus on engineering
Consider skewing performance
conversations around expectations
Use AJAX to optimize for scenarios
of good user expectations

146. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

147. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

148. Infrastructure > Proven

149. Infrastructure > Proven
The biggest hurdle for building
trust in your application is time

150. Infrastructure > Proven
Once that trust is lost, it’s very
difficult to recover

151. Infrastructure > Proven
Installation Karma
http://simonguest.com/blogs/sm
guest/archive/2006/11/21/Ten-
Ways-for-Good-Installation-
Karma.aspx

152. Infrastructure > Proven
Installation Karma
Handling Exceptions

153. Infrastructure > Proven
Installation Karma
Handling Exceptions
Enable Undo’s

154. Infrastructure > Proven
Typical User Testing
Willing users
Test Test Test Test
Feedback
Modify [1]

155. Infrastructure > Proven

156. Infrastructure > Proven
RITE
Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation
Willing user
Etc.
Modify [4]
Modify [2]
Test
Test
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Test
Test
Modify [3]
Modify [1]

157. Infrastructure > Proven
RITE
Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation
Source: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/c/c/5cc406a0-0f87-4b94-bf80-dbc707db4fe1/mgsut_MWTRF02.doc.doc

158. Infrastructure > Proven
Takeaways
Trust takes time. Don’t risk this by
releasing a buggy v1.0 for time’s
sake
Installation, exception handling and
undo are all parts of the experience
Implement the RITE methodology to
get accurate feedback from testing

159. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

160. Infrastructure > People

161. Infrastructure > People
It’s all about the SDLC…

162. Infrastructure > People
Project Starts!
Use cases created IT + User / BA
IT
Prototyping
Development
IT
of Services
IT
UI is created
User / BA
User Testing
Project Complete

163. Infrastructure > People
I know what we’ll do…

164. Infrastructure > People
Project Starts!
Use cases created IT + User / BA
IT
Prototyping
Development
IT
of Services
IT
UI is created
UI Designer
User Testing
UI Polished User / BA
Project Complete

165. Infrastructure > People
A more successful methodology for promoting UX

166. Infrastructure > People
Project Starts!
Use cases created IT + User / BA
IT + Designer + User / BA
Prototyping
Development
Development IT
Designer + User / BA
of Services
of UX
UI and Services
IT + Designer
Integrated
User Testing User / BA
Project Complete

167. Infrastructure > People
Are all designers the same?

168. Infrastructure > People
Project Starts!
Use cases created IT + User / BA
IT + Designer + User / BA
Prototyping
Development
Development IT
Designer + User / BA
of Services
of UX
UI and Services
IT + Designer
Integrated
User Testing User / BA
Project Complete

169. Infrastructure > People
Interaction Designer
Graphic Designer
Interaction Designer

170. Infrastructure > People

171. Infrastructure > People
Project Starts!
Use cases created IT + User / BA
IT + Designer + User / BA
Prototyping
Development
Development IT
Designer + User / BA
of Services
of UX
UI and Services
IT + Designer
Integrated
User Testing User / BA
Project Complete

172. Infrastructure > People
Project Starts!
Use cases created IT + User / BA
IT + Designer + User / BA
Prototyping
Development
Development IT
Designer + User / BA
of Services
of UX
UI and Services
IT + Designer
Integrated
User Testing User / BA
Project Complete

173. Infrastructure > People
Designer Developer
XAML
Challenges:
• How much code level understanding will designers require?
• Who owns check-in of XAML artifacts?
• Will we require an “interface stub” for communication?

174. Infrastructure > People
Takeaways
Great SDLC more than often leads
to Great User Experience
Understand what types of designers
your SDLC model will support
Support interaction between
developers and designers

175. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

176. Infrastructure > Proactive
Hey team, v2.0 was a hit!
7 7 98
8

177. Infrastructure > Proactive
…it’s been out for a month and we haven’t
heard a thing back from our users!
? ? ??
?

178. Infrastructure > Proactive
Reactive feedback is all too common
1 3 11
2

179. Infrastructure > Proactive

180. Infrastructure > Proactive
Rating scale in the application

181. Infrastructure > Proactive
Rating scale in the application
Remote troubleshooting

182. Infrastructure > Proactive
Rating scale in the application
Remote troubleshooting
Effective status updates

183. Infrastructure > Proactive
Takeaways
Think how users are going to provide
1 3 11 proactive feedback into the SDLC
2 Figure out a strategy for when things
go wrong
Provide status – both good and bad
– to users where possible

184. Implicit
Personas Purpose Prototype
Interface
Platform Productivity Performanc
e
Infrastructure
Proven People Proactive

185. Overall Takeaways
Implicit
Be Implicit by defining personas, purpose
Personas Purpose Prototype
and prototyping before you start coding
Interface Define the Interface – think about how the
platform choice, productivity, and
performance will affect the user Performanc
Platform Productivity
e
Support an Infrastructure that enables
Infrastructure
proven, proactive applications designed by
a team that understands user experience
Proven People Proactive

186. “Architecture is the balance
between art and engineering”

187. But does this apply to
Software Architecture?

188. SOA
ESB
Web Services
Transactions
ORM
Replication
etc.
Engineering Concerns

189. Personas
Platform
Prototype
Purpose
Proven
Productivity
Performance
Putting the User (Art) back into
Architecture

190. If you want slides, please email me – or
check out the recording on my blog
(URL below)
simon.guest@microsoft.com
http://www.simonguest.com
© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it
should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.
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