I taught a class titled "You Don't Know C.R.A.P. about UX/UI" for SkillShare Philadelphia on 8/23/11. For more information on the class visit: http://www.skillshare.com/You-Dont-Know-CRAP-about-UX-UI/1632896614/

1. You Don’t Know C.R.A.P. about UX & UI

2. Who am I? Philadelphia (‘burbs) born and raised. B.S. in Systems & Information Engineering from UVA – 2005 Masters of Information from UC-Berkeley – 2007 First UI Design Project: Touch Screen Treadmill Interface Current Position: Lead Interaction Designer at The Cadient Group

3. Who are you?

4. Lets Play a Game!

5. What is User Experience? All aspect’s of user’s interaction with the company, its services and its products. Not only in relationship to software. Meet the needs of the customer. Make the products enjoyable. Go beyond what the customer says they want. *Nielsen-Norman Group

6. Gulf of Evaluation We want a small gulf! The common goal of all products The user: Starts with a goal Translates to an intention Translates to a sequence of actions The amount of effort a person must exert to interpret a display: Perceive Interpret Evaluate *Norman, D. The Gulf of Evaluation

7. Small Gulf of Evaluation

8. I am not the user …your teammates are not the users. And, the customer is not always the user.

9. User Centered Design Needs Assessment Personas Goals Task Analysis User Scenarios Comparative Analysis Design Initial Sketches, Interaction Diagrams Low-Fidelity Prototyping High-Fidelity Prototyping Build Evaluate Low-Fidelity Usability Testing Heuristic Evaluation Formal Usability Tests Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

10. The user is always right …but they never know what they need.

11. Personas When to use: The end-users’ goals are unclear, the team isn’t sure how to prioritize features Why: Identify your most important customers Identify user goals and objectives. Capture use cases for the product Develop an idea for the market Have a common “person” to point to Tool to Try:Usersbox.com

12. Personas: Who are the students? What matters from students’ point of view? What are their goals? What about the teacher? What matters for the business?

13. Task Analysis When to use: At the beginning of every design cycle. How to use: Break a goal into specific tasks. These tasks may be referred to as requirements Assign a priority to these requirements based on user research and business needs. Low, Medium, High or N/A

14. Task Analysis Lets Try an Example

15. Are we ready to sketch?

16. Prototype & Test Repeat, repeat, repeat

17. Lo-Fidelity Prototyping a.k.a wireframes When to use: To signal the flow of interaction, To separate the content from layout & display, When the designer is not the developer Value: Save on development time, realize design problems early before making big investments. Heavyweight Tools: Visio, Fireworks, OmniGraffle Mediumweight Tools:Balsamiq(Cross Platform)SimpleDiagrams (Mac), Mockingbird (Web) Lightweight Tools: Marker & Paper or Whiteboard,

18. Visual Design in UI Design Contrast: If they’re not the same, make them different Repetition: Repeat colors, shapes, fonts & sizes. Reuse patterns. Alignment: Line things up. Make it clean. Proximity: Group LIKE things. Put similar information close together. Organize & De-Clutter

19. User Scenarios & Interaction Diagrams

20. Design Exercise Re-organize a flier

21. Point out C.R.A.P. in Google Search

23. Metaphors and UI Patterns Map to some facet of the real world task Direct engagement & manipulation Lots of resources out there: UI-Patterns.com Yahoo! Design Pattern Library Book: Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell Site: http://designinginterfaces.com/firstedition/

24. Example Metaphor

25. Why we test: VCR Buttons to Control a Printer Tabs of Arbitrary Groups Samples from Interface Hall of Shame

26. Usability Testing Test if a page becomes more usable because of the layout. What does the layout communicate? Guidelines: Test the interface, not the user Give clear scenarios and tasks to accomplish Quick & Dirty: Not much time, Grab a co-worker Formal: Determine time requirements for task completion, compare two designs on measurable aspects Requires Experiment Design

27. Discount Usability Testing Usability Heuristics Visibility of system status Match between system and the real world User control and freedom Consistency and standards Error prevention Recognition rather than recall Flexibility and efficiency of use Aesthetic and minimalist design Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors Help and documentation How Use on Lo or Hi-Fidelity Prototypes, or built products Use a small set of 3-5 evaluators Check for compliance with usability principles *Jakob Nielsen

28. What’s wrong with this website?

29. Is this familiar?

30. Training is Not an Excuse for Poor Design

31. Resources Books The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman Usability Engineering by Jakob Nielsen The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper GUI Bloopers by Jeff Johnson PhillyCHI Websites DesigningInterfaces.com Use-it.com UI-Patterns.com UXMag.com AListApart.com Local Groups