creating a great user experience in sharepoint
TRANSCRIPT
Creating a Great User Experience in SharePoint
MARC D ANDERSONPRESIDENT, SYMPRAXIS CONSULTING LLC
SPONSORS
Co-Founder and President of Sympraxis Consulting LLC, located in the Boston suburb of Newton, MA, USA. Sympraxis focuses on enabling collaboration throughout the enterprise using the SharePoint application platform.
Over 30 years of experience in technology professional services and software development. Over a wide-ranging career in consulting as well as line manager positions, Marc has proven himself as a problem solver and leader who can solve difficult technology problems for organizations across a wide variety of industries and organization sizes.
Author of SPServicesAwarded Microsoft MVP for SharePoint Server 2011-2016
Who Is Marc?
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.
What’s the Solution? SharePoint
Microsoft Doesn't Advise You Customize SharePoint 2013http://www.cmswire.com/cms/information-management/microsoft-doesnt-advise-you-customize-sharepoint-2013-016608.php
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.
What Is “User Experience”?
How does the user feel when they are finished with using
SharePoint?“User experience” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience
How Can We Succeed?
Form vs. FunctionForm Function
Typically the domain of Designers, Marketing
folks
Typically the domain of
Developers, IT folks
RealityIt has to be both:“function requires
form” The Form v Function Ratio by Dan Antion http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/The-Form-v-Function-Ratio
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
Consumer Web
Image from The Conversation Prism http://www.theconversationprism.com/
A sound Information Architecture provides: Consistency Simpler maintenance One version of the truth
Use wisely: Content Types Managed metadata List-based Site Columns
Information Architecture
Image from “Explain IA Poster” http://userallusion.com/blog/2010/10/explain-ia-poster/
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.
Be the User
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
Collaborative Development
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?”
Consultative Services
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”?
Use the “Mom Test”
Create a frictionless experience
Prefill everything you can based on context
Add some coolness Remember the power of
good IA
Form, Forms, Forms
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
Don’t Talk About Budget (Too Much)
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?
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
Size Matters
Whether you aim at mobile or now, you must have a mobile strategy
Understand your population
Mobile First?
Images courtesy: Method IT, TechNet
Know your user base Browsers
Brands Versions
Screens Size Resolution Shape
Bandwidth Available RAM
Lowest Common Denominator
Image from NetMarketShare – timeframe = Q3 2015http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&qpcustomd=0&qptimeframe=Q
“It works on my machine” doesn’t
cut it.
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
Mind the Fold
Image 2: F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/
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
Use Real Estate Wisely
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?
Error Messages
Remove the developer from the equation
List-Based Settings vs. Property bags
Give users control – it’s their system
Focus on important development work
Relinquish Control
Search is about finding, not searching Search is not just a search box Requires regular care and feeding Use search to drive effects
Seek and Ye Shall Find…
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
Additional Thoughts and Contradictions
It always comes back to “It Depends”
Remember…
Form vs. FunctionForm Function
Typically the domain of Designers, Marketing
folks
Typically the domain of
Developers, IT folks
RealityIt has to be both:“function requires
form” The Form v Function Ratio by Dan Antion http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/The-Form-v-Function-Ratio
thank youquestions?
live ratingsSYMPMARC.COM@SYMPMARC
spca.biz/H3Z8
Contact InformationEmail [email protected]
Twitter @sympmarcBlog http://sympmarc.com
SPServices http://spservices.codeplex.comSPXSLT http://spxslt.codeplex.comBooks http://sympmarc.com/books
The Middle Tier Manifesto http://bit.ly/middletier