Building solutions in SharePoint isn’t simply about getting the functionality right based on the business requirements. Developers must think about the entire user experience. In this interactive class, we’ll discuss questions like: * How should the user feel when they use this piece of functionality? * Will they see it as saving them work or creating new work? * How will it compare to what they see on the consumer Web? We’ll look at good and bad examples from SharePoint itself, as well as specific customizations.

1. Creating a Great User Experience
in SharePoint
Marc D Anderson
Sympraxis Consulting LLC

2. Who Is Marc?

3. Session Overview
• Building solutions in SharePoint isn’t simply
about getting the functionality right based
on the business requirements.
• Developers and designers must think about
the entire user experience.
– How should the user feel when they use this piece of functionality?
– Will they see it as saving them work or creating new work?
– How will it compare to what they see on the consumer Web?
• We’ll look at good and bad examples from
SharePoint itself, as well as specific
customizations.

4. Forrester Report on SharePoint Adoption
“Dissatisfaction is centered on several
areas, including adoption challenges, a
dislike for the SharePoint user experience,
a preference for other tools like email and
skepticism over its business value.”
“Business management’s dissatisfaction
with SharePoint and perception of its value
is hurt by uninspired user experiences.
Microsoft SharePoint faces a challenging future: Forrester | PCWorld
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027391/microsoft-sharepoint-faces-a-challenging-future-forrester.html
SharePoint Adoption Faces Three Barriers: Mobile, Social, Cloud
http://www.slideshare.net/johnrrymer/share-point-survey-2012-slideshare

5. Why Should We Care?

6. What’s the Solution?
Use SharePoint as an out-of-box application whenever
possible - We designed the new SharePoint UI to be
clean, simple and fast and work great out-of-box. We
encourage you not to modify it which could add
complexity, performance and upgradeability and to
focus your energy on working with users and groups to
understand how to use SharePoint to improve
productivity and collaboration and identifying and
promoting best practices in your organization.
SharePoint
Microsoft Doesn't Advise You Customize SharePoint 2013
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/information-management/microsoft-doesnt-advise-you-customize-sharepoint-2013-016608.php

7. What Is “User Experience”?
User experience (UX or UE) involves a person's
emotions about using a particular product,
system or service. User experience highlights the
experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable
aspects of human-computer interaction and
product ownership.
How does the user feel when they
are finished with using SharePoint?
“User experience” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience

8. Consumer Web
• The consumer Web is both
a source of inspiration and
an anathema for enterprise
developers
• Our users expect no less
than what they see on
Facebook, Dropbox,
Google, etc.
• It’s an expectations
problem
Image from The Conversation Prism http://www.theconversationprism.com/

10. Form vs. Function
The Form v Function Ratio by Dan Antion http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/The-Form-v-Function-Ratio

11. Information Architecture
A sound Information
Architecture provides:
• Consistency
• Simpler maintenance
• One version of the truth
Use wisely:
• Content Types
• Managed metadata
• List-based Site Columns
Image from “Explain IA Poster” http://userallusion.com/blog/2010/10/explain-ia-poster/

12. Be the User
• Don’t think about what
SharePoint does or how it does
it. Think about what your users
want.
• Too many developers eschew
SharePoint as a collaboration
tool. Use what you build.
• If it’s too slow or cumbersome to
you, guess what? It’s worse for
your users.

13. Collaborative Development
• Sit with your users
• Listen to what they are
asking for
• Repeat what they want
• Iterate, iterate, iterate
• Lather, rinse, repeat – It’s
never “done”
• Agile with a small “a” – roll
with the punches

14. Consultative Services
• Don’t expect your users to
understand all
functionality
• Training can’t cover
everything –demonstrate
patterns
• Be an internal consultant
• “How can I help you to
solve your requirements?”

15. Use the “Mom Test”
Questions to ask:
• Can a relatively
inexperienced technophobe
make sense of this?
• Do we feel like people will
need training? Why?
• How often will they use it?
• Is it visually appealing?
• Is it “accessible”?

16. Don’t Talk About Budget (Too Much)
• Your end users don’t care
about your budget
• Figure out how to help them
• Look for quick wins – they
can help fund the big changes
• Decide if the workloads
SharePoint supports are
important enough
• Find executive support

17. Speed Matters
Two Seconds
Boston Globe, February 02, 2013: Instant gratification is making us perpetually impatient ow.ly/i8Pth
Ramesh Sitaraman, a computer
science professor at UMass
Amherst, examined the viewing
habits of 6.7 million Internet users
in a study released in 2012. How
long were subjects willing to be
patient?
Do you think that’s gotten any
longer?

18. Size Matters
• Views should show the
amount of information
required to make
decisions, no more
• Carefully balance server
side and client side code
• Large images can kill the
UX

19. Lowest Common Denominator
• Know your user base
– Browsers
• Brands
• Versions
– Screens
• Size
• Resolution
• Shape
– Bandwidth
• Available RAM
Image from NetMarketShare – timeframe = Q1 2014
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&qpcustomd=0&qptimeframe=Q
“It works on my
machine” doesn’t cut it.

20. Mind the Fold
• If users have to scroll every
time they land on a page,
you’ve put things in the
wrong place
• Eyes scan from upper left
to lower right, much as a
TV “paints” the screen
Image 2: F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/

21. Use Real Estate Wisely
• Decide on your design
aesthetic
–Few dense pages vs.
many sparse pages
–Graphics vs. text
–Color vs. monochrome
• Pet Peeve: Executive
images or senseless
banners

22. Forms
• Often the first impression of
SharePoint
• Forms are where the
“rubber meets the road”
• Bad forms === bad UX
• Use form enhancements:
– Lookup fields
– Cascading dropdowns
– Visual cues

23. Error Messages
• Please, please, please NEVER:
“Contact your administrator”
• Correlation IDs – Good idea,
horrible execution, especially
for SharePoint Online
• Tell the user:
– What happened?
– What did I do to make it happen?
– How can I fix it?

24. Relinquish Control
• Remove the developer
from the equation
• List-Based Settings vs.
Property bags
• Give users control – it’s
their system
• Focus on important
development work

25. SharePoint 2010 Example:
Switching Views

26. Additional Thoughts and Contradictions
• Consistency to a fault - Don’t be
constrained by what SharePoint
gives you
• Yet, you’ve bought a box, don’t
stray too far out of it
• Name it – it’s not SharePoint
• Visual cues – not just text
It always comes back to “It

28. Form vs. Function
The Form v Function Ratio by Dan Antion http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/The-Form-v-Function-Ratio

29. Contact Information
Email marc.anderson@sympraxisconsulting.com
Twitter @sympmarc
Blog http://sympmarc.com
SPServices http://spservices.codeplex.com
SPXSLT http://spxslt.codeplex.com
Books http://sympmarc.com/books
The Middle Tier Manifesto http://bit.ly/middletier