from usability to user experience to information architecture

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/Creative commons

From Usability to Customer ExperienceAnd the bits inbetween - stuff I’ve learnt from user testing

Joe Leech 29th March 2007

joe leech made this 2006


So what do you do?

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly - Dali Lama


So what do you do?

I work for an internet

company

So you build websites?

Well, no, not really

So you design websites? Umm, sort of

Make it as simple as possible. But no simpler. - Albert Einstein


What do you do then?

I make things, um, easier to

use, like websites

mobile phones,interactive TV,

paper stuff like bills

and you know

Easy is Hard - Peter Lewis, NY Times


Oh ok, like that, guy, what was his name,

Nielsen?

Design without the ego. - Anon


Nielsen’s heuristics

For every problem, there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong. - H. L. Mencken.


Flash 99% BadEncourages design abuse,

gratuitous animations, non-standard GUIs

Since our problems have been our own creation, they also can be overcome. - George Harrison

joe leech made this 2006We know very little, and most of what we know is wrong. - George Casaday

Our main conclusion is that our simple assumption that we are all doing the same and getting the same results in a usability

test is plainly wrong

http://tinyurl.com/yoskwr

Rolf Molich


Oh ok, like that, guy, what was his name,

Nielsen?Yeah, I do that…

…but lots more as well

If the user can't use it, it doesn't work. - Susan Dray


User testing

I didn’t see them [the asterisks]. There’s nothing that explains what they mean.

The user is NOT a lower life form - Ken Becker


User testing

Glad I bought my glasses!

Know thy user, and YOU are not thy user. – Anon


User testing

What’s that?

Every time we get it idiot-proofed, Ma Nature produces cleverer idiots. - Robin Kinkead

Next of kin


User testing

If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse. - Henry Ford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect


User testing

If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse. - Henry Ford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

Let people try and do what they want with a design, not what you tell them they must

do. A realistic test scenario gives realistic

results. A scenario that no one would ever think of

doing is not worth testing... unless you want the practice.


User testing

Not sure I understand

If there's a 'trick' to it, the UI is broken. - Douglas Anderson


Yeah, I do user testing…

Not sure I understand

If there's a 'trick' to it, the UI is broken. - Douglas Anderson

…if you find yourself explaining how a screen works, record

your explanation while they sit there.

Feel stupid when they go "oh right".

Use that explanation to redesign the page


User testing

People are not logical – Anon

Version A:- Interior--- Trim--- Engine- Exterior--- Colour

Version B:- Trim & Colour- Interior- Exterior- Engine


Like what?

…but lots more as well

If the user can't use it, it doesn't work. - Susan Dray

Information Architecture

what?

joe leech made this 2006 If the user can't find it, it doesn't exist - HFI button


Home

FAQs ResourcesDiscover

joe leech made this 2006 If the user can't find it, it doesn't exist - HFI button


Home

FAQs ResourcesDiscover

IA without getting your hands dirty:•Stats and server logs•Internal search engine queries•Search referrals

joe leech made this 2006Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect. - Benny Hill



Ohhhhh, okay, what other kinds of stuff do you do?

Wireframing

The chief cause of problems is solutions. - Eric Severeid

Wire-whating?


Wireframing

Coding is long. Design is short. Paper is cheap - Anon


Wireframing

You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site. - Frank Lloyd Wright

You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer

on the construction site.

Frank Lloyd Wright


Wireframing

We see what we look for, not what we look at - Ulrich Neissert


Cool, but why wireframe? Why not just design?

Good question. I’m not a designer.

There are other things I know

about

Even experts are novices at some point – Anon

Like what?


Task Analysis

Supposing is good, but finding out is better. - Samuel Clemens


Persuasion in design

Today most products and services are bought, not sold. - AL & Laura Reis

joe leech made this 2006For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. - Richard Feynman


Brand is important

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. - Richard Feynman


… I think I get it, you build websites?

Great, my brother’s girlfriend’s cousin sells

jewellery and wants to set up a website - shall I give

her your number?

yeah…

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete

fools. - Douglas Adams


Read more!

sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/www.uxmag.comwww.lukew.com/ff/www.37signals.com/svnwww.bokardo.comJoeleech.netwww.cxpartners.co.uk

Stay in [email protected]

+447905 334163


Bye!joeleech.net

from usability to user experience to information architecture

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design abuse

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