week six user centric design

User-centric Design

Wayne MacPhail

Week Six

Online JournalismJOU-732

Wayne MacPhailwmacphail@gmail.com

University of Western Ontario

Overview

• The Why of Bad Design

• The Realities of Being Human

• Know Thy User

• How to Know Thy User

Bad Design

• Complex

• Arcane

• No cues

• Inhuman(e)

The hated Meridian phone system

The hated remote

Good Design

• Elegant

• Easy

• Adored

Why the Difference?

LOVE HATE

Why Design Fails

• No communication

• Geeks like buttons

• Mechanists vs. Humanists

• No understanding of human factors

When Design Works

• Listening well

• One button

• Human focus

• Accessible elegance

The Realities of Being Human

Count the Passes

Our experience of the real world is filtered through our imagination, our senses, expectations, limitations and memories.

Realities of being human

We can be absolutely blind to data

we don’t expect.

Being Human

• Our short-term memory is fragile, limited and easily taxed.

• Our long-term memory compresses events and is unreliable.

Realities

• Limited bandwidth - especially when busy or focussed

• We are easily distracted

We often believe people

experience the world the same way we do.

Human NatureWe understand symbols, conventions, narratives, patterns and scripts.

Being Human

We don’t always have the full function of our senses, brains or limbs.

Human experience

We don’t all share the same pool of human experience and cultures

Social Relations

We easily form social relationships, especially under stress.

We Satisfice

We need feedback.

You must understand these realities to design effective interfaces for

other human beings.

User Interface Design

• Users? Variety of birds.

• Their goal? Getting food.

• Their interface? The perches.

• The design? In progress.

User Interface Design

Prototype

Simple iterative design

Interface supports the users and their goals

Rule #1

“Know thy users for they are not you.”

Who is the user?

• Who are they?

• What do they need?

• What do they want?

• What are their expectations?

• What are their limitations?

Rule #2

“If you want to know your users, you have to spend time with

them.”

Maybe they’re not

like you at all

• Younger

• Older

• Busy

• Color blind

• A “Newbie”

• A senior citizen

• Impaired

Sites for Sore Eyes

Probably, they don’t care

• About your cool design

• About your graphics

• About your buttons or code

• Your Flash program

….unless it helps them find what they want to find.

Rule #3

“Your user is on a mission, and it isn’t to learn how

great you are at building a fancy web page.”

User Hell Site

Learning From Your Users

Fact Finding Methods

• Competitive Analysis

• User Needs Assessment

• Surveys

• Interviews

Competitive Analysis

• Research other sites for your niche

• Research other sites for niches like your niche

• List features, note language, pay attention to graphic design

• Don’t take them as the gold standard

User Needs Analysis

• Start open-ended and wide

• Probe for emotions, language

• Discover needs, goals

• Probe for limitations, environment

• Don’t limit choices

Surveys

• You want to find out who they are and what they want.

• Keep the list under 10 questions

• Between 5 and 10 minutes to complete

• Use yes/no questions and open ended

Interviews

• Choose people to represent your user groups.

• Decide what you want to learn.

• Write up a protocol and question list.

• Ask questions in a neutral manner. Take good notes.

Contexual Interviews

• Go to where the users work or play.

• Watch them closely.

• Combine this with a regular interview for more information.

Wayne MacPhailwmacphail@gmail.com

wmacphail