4. * …user interface design
* …a step in the process
* …about technology
* …just about usability
* …just about the user
* …expensive
* …easy
* …the role of just one person/department
* …a single discipline
*
6. Frazer
„I just want to buy what I
need and get out‟
Key goals We must
• Knows what he wants to buy • Clearly show key features of each
product
• Avoid spending time browsing
•
*
Provide easy comparison between
• Get something balanced between price
products
and quality (look is not important)
• Show him relevant offers
Behaviours We must not
• Gets bored shopping and easily • Don’t focus on fluffy descriptions of
frustrated products
• Wants tried and trusted products • Don’t overwhelm him with choice
• Happy to let others do the thinking for
him
• Easily influenced by discounts
8. Goal: To book a flight to New York in July
“There are a few airports I
could fly from”
Departure “Normally I just want to
airport book the flights and none
of the shows or museum
trips, but I do like to see
what‟s going on”
Destination Date / time Price Book tickets Confirmation
“I can be flexible with “I‟m not necessarily after “I won‟t look at the email
dates, but I‟d prefer not to the cheapest, it‟s a again until just before I
get up too early. And I combination of things” travel”
need to Liaise with my Specifics
sister in New York”
“I must have an
aisle seat”
Users need to easily move between
Other people are often involved these different options in order to make
in the date / time discussion. an informed and confident decision.
9. Goal: To purchase items in my basket
Basket New or existing Delivery details Payment Confirmation
New customer
List of selected Select Enter name
Add product Enter credit
items and checkout and email Enter address Confirm
to basket card details
quantities option address
Existing customer
Edit basket
Select save
Login name and
address
Add new name
and address
Notes
Several existing customers find it easier to
checkout as a new customer as they don’t
remember their username and password and
find managing address fiddly. We should aim to
make this much simply with the next release
and enhance the process for repeat customers.
10. Why do people leave the checkout?
Basket
Sign in/ Register
Delivery
Payment
Confirmation
90% 73% 54% 22% 8%
Why do 90% leave from Why do 73% leave from Sign Why do 54% leave from Why do 22% leave from
Basket In/ Register Delivery Payment
Call to action unclear Users unsure of option Have to re-enter Do not accept paypal
address
Miss-communication Do not want to create Do not agree with
with wording account Bad form design delivery cost
12. *
- Interested in me (remembers my preferences)
- Perceptive (makes good guesses at what
information I‟ll want next)
- Forthcoming (doesn‟t hold back useful
information)
- Self-confident (doesn‟t keep asking me annoying
questions)
- Responsive (discrete – not too demanding) * “If we want users to like our
software we should design it
- Forgiving (If you make a mistake it lets you
undo) to behave like a likable
- Not a show-off (doesn‟t clutter with showy
person:
respectful, generou
controls)
- Focused (too many choices become a burden)
- Fudgeable (allows the user to partially complete)
s and helpful.” Alan
Cooper
Me – I work as a product support engineer for Microsoft Advertising and I am currently studying for a Masters in Multimedia, I have studied HCI, Multimedia and interaction and now aim to focus on user experience. Coming from a customer services background prior to Microsoft and always working within support and services I feel that the way users experience and interact with products is paramount to their success.
Because the term ‘User Experience’ can encompass a wide ranging set of disciplines, it is often easier to look more specifically at how not to define it.
It’s not uncommon to confuse “user experience” with “user interface” — just because you have the best most intuitive customizable interface doesn’t mean it provides a great experience….look at myspace!!It is the process. In order to create a great experience for your users andnot just design something that we’d like to use, we need to keep listening and iterating.User experience isn’t even about technology, It’s not just about what device is being used but about the environment, culture and tasks performed, plus some people will never upgrade from IE 6!!In addition to usable, we need to recognize useful, desirable, accessible, credible, findable, and ultimately valuable as the essential facets of user experience.As designers we have to find the sweet spot between the user’s needs and the business goals, and furthermore ensure that the design is on brand, even if that brand doesn’t know their users needs or business goals!
Even way before the term Interface was ever dreamed of, Mark Twain was spot on with his knowledge of people….The ultimate goal is for you to create better products, and services that have a transformational, measurable and lasting impact on the user.As with any project we have to be mindful of real-world constraints of time, budget and resource plus pressures from sales teams!, so here a a couple of key techniques which I have found useful throughout the design process.Each of these techniques can be used on their own or in tandem to inform a specific area of the users experience.
Here we can see a persona, ‘Frazer’ created for an ecommerce site, showing his key goals and behaviors as well as must and must not’s for designing for this user.Personas are documents that demonstrate your different user groups’ profiles. A persona represents a set of users who are carrying out the same task or are from the same demographic grouping.
Task modeling builds on the user requirements that is uncovered in persona research and turns them into process flows that match the expected steps and content needs.
Here is a similar model but from a system perspective. It centres again around the user but this time focussing on the steps in the system the user must take.
We can also model the user behaviours by looking at their interacting with the site. By using tracking data we can see where they drop off in a process and by conducting usability testing we can propose reasons why they may not complete the process at each step.
After talking about;User researchPersonas,Task flowsAnalysisAnd drop off ratesHow do we put these into practice.
Alan Cooper, author of About Face, regarded by many as a bible of user experience design proposes that a big part of enjoyable engagement with an application is through the use of polite computing.Designing a system, process or application with real-life characteristics is a proven way to engage a user.The key points of this are above.
But don’t go too far!
Looking now at further interaction techniques, site extensions with social media and other applications including foursquare, flickr, instagram and those above establish an increased credibility, exhibit confidence whilst empowering the user to connect while staying within the site or application. This increases the stickiness of the app/site.
Research has shown that users prefer the recommendations of those that they trust who may not necessarily be termed an ‘expert’ so if I see that 15 of my friends for example like a particular restaurant or are listening to particular song, I would be more likely to engage that if I am reading a review or recommendation from an expert. Being able to vote on a site, ‘like’ an app or share its content promotes trust and believability in the product or service and allows the community to decide what it feels is ‘cool’ or important.
Being able to customize a particular app or part of an app will also go a long way to creating a sense of ownership. This doesn’t mean you need to go as far as allowing full customisation such as when building a pair of Nike ID trainers but could be as small as creating an avatar or selecting homepage elements important to the user such as on bbc.co.uk
Gamification is a relatively new term with regard to creating multimedia applications.
In a nutshell, it is the process of taking an artifact, adding certain game mechanics to give it a new layer of interactivity or fun meaning that engagement rates are higher. The example shown above used a simple timer for form completion and resulted in over 3000% increase in user sign-up. Who doesn't’t like a challenge?!!!
In a nutshell, it is the process of taking an artifact, adding certain game mechanics to give it a new layer of interactivity or fun meaning that engagement rates are higher. The example shown above used a simple timer for form completion and resulted in over 3000% increase in user sign-up. Who doesn't’t like a challenge?!!!
It is important however not to just add game mechanics for the sake of it. We are not trying to motivate consumer behavior through adding game mechanics but rather motivating human behavior through psychology. Just adding points, levels, scorecards, achievements, badges and assignments is one thing, but being able to make these appropriate, variable and providing timely feedback will increase user engagement. Gamification also works very strongly with other social trends and for those users who value status and proof, can be key to keeping them engaged,
We should however be wary of making any game mechanics too hard. Psychology research shows that just being able to press a button to win is not enjoyable for the user. Being able to provide side-games or small challenges during the process will help long-term engagement and promote re-playability. Be aware of the users capabilities, it is no use designing for an expert user when the target audience is beginners or vice versa.
Everything has a personality: everything sends an emotional signal. Even where this was not the intention of the designer, the people who view the website infer personalities and experience emotion.The challenge for all of us with user experience design is deliver more than just delightful experiences. Games like farmville, mafia wars and even back to tamagotchi which you’ve probably forgotten to feed in the last 15 years succeed because you cannot win or complete the game in one go, they encourage you to return at set intervals in order to proceed through the game.
This brings us full circle to now look at how User Experience can be defined. It is a combination of all of the above, and whilst there is no ‘magic formula’ to succeed each time, it is important to be aware of how each tool, process or function works and benefits in order to use them to their fullest potential.
Above all, Users interests should be at the heart of all design.
