El documento habla sobre la importancia de incluir a los usuarios en el proceso de diseño de experiencia de usuario (UX). Resalta que si los usuarios no forman parte del proceso, no se está haciendo un verdadero diseño centrado en el usuario. Recomienda utilizar tanto métodos cualitativos como cuantitativos e involucrar a los usuarios a través de entrevistas, grupos de discusión y pruebas de prototipos para comprender mejor sus necesidades y preferencias.
Modelo de Tríptico Fiestas Patronales de una Unidad Educativa
Práctica UX: Llevando al usuario al proceso de diseño
1. Práctica UX:
Llevando al usuario
al proceso de diseño
#prácticaUX | @saturdave
Día Mundial de la Usabilidad 2014
Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogotá
7 Noviembre 2014
3. Si el usuario no forma parte del
proceso, no estás haciendo UX.
4. Grammenos, Dimitris. “Stupidity, Ignorance, and Nonsense as Tools for Creative Thinking” in interactions, September-October 2014 (volume xxi.5): pp. 56—59.
5. El Efecto
Einstellung
Photo taken from Sheridan and Lahaye “Psychological warfare and Einstellung effect (1)” in Chess News (http://en.chessbase.com/post/psychological-warfare-and-einstellung-effect-1) on November 5, 2014.
11. Elige el Método Correcto
• Cada uno tiene fortalezas & debilidades
• Cualitativo, para descripciones detalladas
• Cuantitativo, para datos numéricos
⭐️• Funcionan mejor cuando se combinan
12. Investigación de Usuario Indirectos
Inventario de Contenido
Atención al Cliente
Análisis de la Web
Recorrido Cognitivo
Evaluación de la Competencia
Evaluación Heurística
13. Investigación de Usuario Directos
Encuestas de Usuario
Entrevistas
Grupos de Discusión
Talleres
Investigación Contextual
Shadowing
Tarjetas de Reacción al
Producto
Clasificación de Tarjetas
Estudios de Diario
Collage de Imágenes
Prueba de Prototipo
Test de Usabilidad
Eye-tracking
Sesiones de Diseño
en Colaboración
14. Documentación de la Investigación
1. Formulario de Consentimiento
2. Screener
3. Plan de Pruebas
4. Guía de Pruebas / Guión
5. Calendario de Pruebas
6. Artefactos de Estudio
7. Lista de Verificación de Estudio
15. No existe un único
método mágico.
Photo taken from Rob Boudon’s photo stream on Flickr (http://tinyurl.com/lgf6t4v) on November 5, 2014.
16. Elige participantes adecuados
• Formaliza el proceso de reclutamiento
• Crea un screener de reclutamiento
• Considera métodos cuidadosamente
⭐️• Comienza a reclutar pronto
17. Métodos de Reclutamiento
Listas de email
Grupos de clientes
Firmas de Investigación de Mercado
Solicitación Contextual
Reclutamiento a traves de Internet
Craigslist
18. Plantea Preguntas Adecuadas
• Céntrate en comportamientos, no opiniones
• Utiliza el lenguaje del usuario
• Usa preguntas simples
⭐️• Evita preguntas si puedes observar
19. Usa Lo Que Tienes
• Usa entregables ya creados
• Haz uso de procesos existentes
• Involucra colegas / clientes
⭐️• Encuentra & utiliza conexiones existentes
20. Pequeño. Repetido. Frecuente.
3P9h3o9to taken from Mr.TinDC’s photo stream on Flickr (http://tinyurl.com/pdcwauw) on November 5, 2014.
22. Lápiz y
papel
son
nuestros
amigos.
Wireframes from Andreas Holmer — http://wireframes.linowski.ca/2009/12/omnigraffle-wireflows/; taken from the Web on October 11, 2014.
30. Gracias.
Esta presentación puede ser localizada en
slideshare.net/saturdave
Dave Cooksey
dave@saturdave.com
Notas del editor
Buenas días. Es un gran placer estar aquí en Bogotá. Mi español es muy pobre. Entonces mi charla es en inglés. Disclupame. Pero las diapositivas son en español.
However, thanks to my Spanish tutor, Andrés, the slides for my talk this morning are in Spanish.
I want to start this morning by telling you a story about how I was recently fired from a project this year. Now, it sounds worse than it was because in all truth, I was all set to fire my client before she did it herself.
I was hired earlier this year to act as user experience architect by a marketing agency to architect a corporate website. The client had a specific list of deliverables, all which were familiar to me: personas, content strategy, wireframes, and a usability test. But when we started doing the work, I noticed that the client’s expectations were not aligned with mine. And real conflict arose when the client demanded that I craft a brand messaging hierarchy. She asked me pointedly, “Isn’t the brand part of user experience?”
User Experience. I will admit in front of you all right now, I have never liked the term User Experience.
It’s an umbrella term lacking in specificity, which I guess is what makes it so useful. User Experience includes all the processes and people who contribute to creating a design. Here’s a graphic I found from a CHI conference on User Experience from 2005. Look at all the various folks who are included under User Experience. I love this guy here with an ellipsis under him. This could be anybody!
And that’s the problem with the term User Experience. There is a lack of clarity around what user experience practitioners do. So today, I want to make the assertion that User Experience must be based on engagement with actual users.
If you are not involving users in your design process, you are not practicing UX.
If you are drafting page layouts without input from users, you are a UI designer, not a user experience architect. If you are designing the look & feel of an experience without input from users, you are a graphic designer. If you are coding pages without input from users, you are a front-end developer.
I believe our work needs to focus directly on the user. Because what makes our work truly valuable and different is our focus on the actual people who will be experiencing what we design. And with our techniques and methods, we can ensure that the experience we are building will be useful and enjoyable.
But there is another important reason to focus on users that relates to how we work as designers that I would like to discuss today.
Let’s start with an example. Of the 2 central circles, which one is larger?
Most of you would say that they are equal in size because we are familiar with the gestalt effect, or the capability of our brain to generate whole forms. We have seen these diagrams before and have heard or read about optical illusions.
When 7 postgraduate computer science students were independently shown the previous image and asked which central circle was larger, all 7 said the circles were the same size. But when 7 children, aged 3 to 6 years-old, were shown the same image and asked the same question, they all said that the central circle on the right was larger.
And the children were correct. The one on the right is larger—8% larger.
The children’s ignorance of optical illusions allowed them to state the obvious while the postgraduates experiences biased their answers. This is known scientifically as the Einstellung Effect.
The Einstellung Effect is a term coined in 1942, by Abraham Luchins. Luchins studied how people solve problems. He enlisted participants in experiments to solve problems measuring water quantities using a set of jars. It was discovered that participants mechanically adopted a solution after successfully solving several problems even if there were simpler or different solutions.
The Einstellung Effect has also been used to describe why chess players often fail to win because they tend to play the same way and do not creatively approach the game.
Consider the way you solve problems at work. You have best practices you follow. You have case studies you refer to. You have methodologies. While these are great for facilitating work, they’re not the greatest in helping you stay creative, in approaching problems in novel ways.
Basically, design can become a habit. We get used to the way we do things. “This worked well in the past.” There’s nothing wrong with it in itself. But over time, this attitude can make our designs less than stellar. And it can cause work to become tedious and boring.
We also have another thing hamstringing our creativity.
I like asking questions. A lot of them. I often have clients become frustrated when I start peppering them with questions and I’ll get the common response, “You’re the expert. Why are you asking me? Isn’t this what we hired you for?”
I have gotten used to answering this way, “I am not an expert in your business. You know way more about [x] than I could ever learn in this limited engagement. However, I am an expert in researching users and evaluating technology. And part of my role is asking lots of questions both of you and your users.”
Design is a practice that requires open questioning and curiosity especially if we are tasked with creating something new. How can we be expected to be creative and solve problems—which is the heart of design—if we do not ask questions? If we don't try to see other perspectives?
So, here’s my first recommendation to you today: Be curious. Ask questions. Challenge assumptions.
I believe in our business that means user research.
So the second thing I recommend is for you to place the user the center of your practice. This, I believe, will keep your mind open and will improve your designs.
Now, this doesn’t mean formally building out a research team. It means creating a culture where the team looks to the user to inform and validate design.
And the way we do this is very important. Which leads me to my third recommendation: Be quiet and listen. Watch the user. And think about what you observe.
Keeping an open mind is difficult. But when working with users, we need to make ourselves open to what they have to show us. That means inviting them to join us at the table and then immediately shutting up. We need to let them tell us their stories in their words. We need to watch while suspending our own assumptions in order to discover things we didn’t know before. And we need to critically think about what we have seen. And then give yourself time to soak up what you’ve seen and heard. Give yourself time to analyze. Give yourself time to think.
So, let’s talk about practical user research techniques used in involving the user in design.
Regardless of the research method your choose, here are some things to keep in mind that I have learned over the years. These directions will help you organize your research activities and communicate your learnings.
First, think carefully about which method you’re going to use.
Each method has things there good for and things they’re not so good for. Take for example the survey or questionnaire. It’s one of the easiest ways to gather opinions from users. But it’s not good for understanding why people do what they do.
Remember that quantitative methods are good at gathering statistical data while qualitative methods are good at gathering rich, descriptive information.
But more importantly, methods are best when combined because they compliment each other to explain user behavior from different angles.
Start with indirect research methods.
Indirect research methods look at data and artifacts generated by user activity. We use them to discover patterns and outliers in user behavior. This informs the questions we want to ask when engaging users.
Look at what you can get your hands on: look at Web analytics or the competition. Review them with an open mind looking for something interesting.
Once you have done some indirect user research, then move to direct research with users.
Here is a list of common methods that will have you engaging users to find answers. Some of these are easier to perform than others. And they each have specific areas they are good at. For example, card sorts are good for exploring organization while contextual inquiry is good at looking at environmental factors. Surveys are good at collecting opinions while usability tests are good at observing actual behavior.
This list of documentation will help you formalize the research process.
Why formalize the research process?
It keeps you and your team focused
It keeps things organized—there are a lot of moving pieces in a study
It facilitates gathering the information you need from stakeholders
And it creates buy-in from those stakeholders
I have found these documents listed here to be invaluable. Later today in my workshop, we’ll look at the how’s and why’s of creating the documents.
There is no one method that does everything, that answers every question.
And trying to design one study that answers all of your questions will not lead to good results for a number of reasons:
Because your time with users will be limited.
Because you will start to lose focus.
And because the results will be difficult to communicate & make actionable.
Next, get the right people in the room.
No matter how well you plan a study, if you have the wrong people in the room, you won’t learn anything. Worse, you could learn the wrong things and take the design down the wrong path.
Let me say that I have found that this is the hardest part of user research. No matter how often we talk about users, when we have to describe them in individual terms, it’s get complicated quickly.
Make recruiting users a formal activity with timelines and deadlines. This will help you focus on this crucial part of the study and get answers to hard questions.
Create a recruiting screener, which will contain all the questions you ask prospective users along with selection criteria. This document will help you take vague, attitudinal inputs from stakeholders and turn them into concrete individual characteristics or behaviors.
Think about the goal of the study—what you are trying to learn. Then imagine what each activity might be able to provide in terms of the questions you want to raise.
Finally, start this process early. It takes lots of time to find the right people. You want to give yourself time to monitor recruitment and keep looking for the right people. There’s nothing worse than accepting recruits because you’ve run out of time.
You can look for users almost anywhere. It depends on who your real users are. The more specific the persona you are designing for, the more difficult time you may have.
Just try to think where your users are and which method is closest to where they are.
Back when I worked exclusively in e-commerce, I found the most valuable recruiting methods to be the online intercepts and contextual solicitation, which basically was me asking shoppers at the mall to participant in a study. Contextual solicitation means that I went to the store and asked folks to participate in studies right there in the store.
Another thing to keep in mind is to ask the right questions.
This is a lot harder to do than it sounds. But a few ways to ensure good questions are
Focus on behavior—this isn’t market research, which focuses on opinions
Speak the user’s language
Keep your questions simple
And it’s always better to observe behavior than to ask users about behavior—our brains are not configure to reflect on what we do while we do it; and remember, what people say they do and what they really do are two different things.
And finally, use what you have.
Don’t try to establish new practices from scratch. Let research evolve organically. This will ensure that your research will be more likely to be understood and accepted by colleagues and clients.
Try to leverage existing documentation; do you create wireframes as part of your design process? Then you have all you need to conduct a prototype test.
Leverage the processes and people that exist in your organization before introducing new ones
And look for ways to use existing customer connections; for example, customer service satisfaction surveys or customer feedback panels
You will undoubtedly have lots of questions. But you can’t answer them all in a study. So, craft small studies. Focus on answering one key question with each study.
Repeat your studies. Small studies mean you will not get to learn everything in one study. So do more than one.
And perform research frequently. If you are crafting small, focused studies, you can manage doing studies at various points in a project and during every project.
Now, when to test, you may ask? Test your ideas as early as possible.
And that testing can be informal.
Here’s an example: I recently redesigned the taxonomy of a large bridal and special occasion e-commerce website.
The first thing I did was write down all the existing categories on index cards. I then pinned them on a board. I then performed a lot of indirect research: sales data, clickstream analysis, a long list of competitor sites, proposed designs from the creative team, the proposed new facet schema from the e-commerce team… And while I was researching, I added cards to the board. I scratched out labels and introduced new ones. And I began to play around with a new structure. I also sketched out wayfinding paths, navigation schema, and page designs on large sheets of paper.
Then, before I put anything down in a spreadsheet or drafted sketches in Omnigraffle, I invited two good friends over for dinner. Both have gotten married. Both are articulate. And both LOVE to shop.
It was a Saturday night. We ordered out. And I opened a bottle of reposado. I showed them my ideas on how to organize the store. And we talked about weddings—not in terms of e-commerce—but in terms of shopping. And what I gained from that evening, besides spending quality time with two of my friends, was confidence that my data structure made sense to someone besides me. I was then ready to craft a card sort exercise to test the new taxonomy.
One last point I would like to make is that at the beginning of a design, we should keep to low-fidelity sketches. They should look rough, unfinished, as if they are inviting us to critique them, play around with their pieces.
Hand sketches communicate in a relaxed, impromptu way. They politely give us permission to move things around, add, subtract, delete. They let us change our minds.
Oh, and one last point on sketches… We have the luxury of playing around with things. It’s our job. We’re designers. But account managers and other ”business folks” do not. When is the last time you saw a balance sheet or a statement of work written in pencil? Keep this in mind when interacting with the business and clients.
I’d like to close with a challenge to you. If you’ve never done user research or haven’t performed any lately, there are 2 things I want to to try next week when you get back in the office. And don’t worry. They’re easy to do. And they’ll make your work better.
One, perform some indirect user research and share the results.
Take a look around. See what you have already available. Clickstream analytics. Search logs. AB test results. Competitive experiences. Analyze them and draw some conclusions. Better yet, develop a few questions that direct user research could answer.
Then share the results informally: in an existing meeting, in an email to a colleague, with a client over coffee, or posted on the wall of your cubicle. Hell, tweet it. The important thing is to start asking questions and thinking of ways you might answer them.
Not sure where to start?
Here is a list of easy but very informative methods that all of us can do.
Content Inventory - everyone has content so starting here makes sense; how is it organized? does it meet user needs? is it easily accessible? how could it be improved?
Customer Service - if anyone knows the issues of your website or application, it will be customer service; talk to them and see what they say
Web Analytics - if you can get a hold of clickstream data or search logs, you can learn a lot about what content and functionality is being used and how
Competitive Analysis - take a look at what competitors are up to; are there ways of structuring the experience that seem standard? are there missed opportunities?
And second, perform a user test. This can be very informal—someone you know from school or a family member or someone in your organization that does not work in design, development, marketing, product management.
Simply put a design in front of a user and get some feedback. Wireframe, napkin sketch, HTML prototype, existing website.
If you’re worried about doing this wrong, don’t worry. This ain't science.
Science is predictive. Its methodological rigor ensures that its predictions are correct and repeatable. This is not what we are aiming for.
We are looking for inspiration. We are looking for details we did not notice. We are looking for understandings that are locked away inside of our users minds and may not be readily available on the surface.
What we’re doing is design research, which I believe is the the foundation of the user experience practice—a user-centric user experience practice.
We’re doing this for ourselves to boost our creativity and make our jobs more engaging.
We’re doing this for our clients, ensuring that we are translating their business goals properly and making our products more competitive in the marketplace.
Oh, yeah, and we’re doing it for the users—we’re making their lives simpler and more enjoyable.