Who I am

UX Specialist for Universal Mind

Not a Designer Not a Developer

I sit in betweenA real live Catalyst

also known as merhl.com

What is UX?

It’s a term used to describe the overarching experience a person has as a result of there interactions.

What is UX

“Design is not just about coming up with a solution, it’s !guring out the right way to look at the problem”.

The “what” before the “how”

UX Process

Research

Personas

Wireframe

Design Framework

Vision Prototype

Research

“Customers sometimes do not know what they want,”

“It can be dangerous to just listen to what users say they need.”

John Seely Brown, the co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation

“It is more from engaging with users, watching what they do, understanding their pain points, then you get big leaps in design,”

Debra Dunn, an associate professor at the Stanford Institute of Design

None of this means that input from users is unimportant. Designers must find a multitude of ways to understand users’ needs at a deeper level.

Research

Immerse yourself in the the culture of the useras fast as possible

Create/Understand the User GoalsA single sentence that defines the goal (ie. iPhoto or Aperture)

User Interviews/observationsUse open ended questions What makes a good day or a bad day? What Activities currently waste your time? How do you find workarounds, shortcuts? What did you do when you first came in today?

Research

Types of Users

BeginnersSales/Execs/Marketing

IntermediateAre the most important

Expertsthe Subject Matter Experts (SME’s)

Research

Immerse yourself into the industry

Competitive Research

Collage boards/Demos

Personas

Personas are fictitious people who represent the archetypal qualities of your audience. They provide targets for design and are generally very effective for communicating design and research activities throughout an organization.

Personas are

Drawn from field research

Named as individuals

Developed for specific contexts

Typical and believable

Personas are not

Based on demographics or market segments

Drawn from gut feelings about your audience

User profiles or stereotypes e.g. “Soccer mom”

Personas

Context Scenariosconcise narrative descriptions of one or more personas using a product to achieve a specific goals.

Wireframes

BrainstormingWith fellow Designers/Developers/Clients ie. Affinity Diagrams

Design Studio Session

Wireframes

Wireframe the user screens and interactionsStart to place content

No Design applied little or no color

Built using FireworksJust a personal preference

Several Iterations/Refinement

Wireframes

Used by DesignTo start the Design Framework

Used by Developers To start the Back-end Architecture and Services

Used by ClientsHelp identify content detailTo show to Stake Holders or other Meetings

Wireframes

Pretend the interface is magic

Design Framework

Starts after wireframes have been completed

Collaborating with Designer

Several Iterations/Refinement

Design Framework

Vision Prototype

Most important deliverable

A real working application in the deploying technology

Can capture key problems before full application is built

Apply design framework

Rapidly built from a couple days to a couple weeksbuilding out key sections and UX flows

Vision Prototype

User Testing/ValidationRobust formal to Friends and Family testing, Silverback

Stake Holder buy in

Data/Service Validation

Marketing

Demos for trade shows, other

Vision Prototype

Created and skinned in Flex/AIR using CSS and DegrafaAllows for a nice separation between code and skins

Devs can take and reuse the skins/views in the production application, saving dev time

Vision Prototype

Demo

Resources

Cooper.comAbout Face 3 - book

degrafa.org

adaptivepath.com/

wireframes.linowski.ca/

konigi.com/

http://flowingdata.com/

merhl.com - joe@merhl.com