Research

I n my experience of working with clients in diverse industries on ever changing platforms you quickly realize there is no one path to good User Experience. Designing UX for a Coke ad campaign mini website is not the same as the UX of a mission-critical interface reporting the health status of Pratt & Whitney PurePower® Engines on a Airbus Aircraft on take off.

The amount of UX you can devote to a client is also dependent on various factors: time frame, budget, maturity of client, sophistication of client with emerging technologies, their history with User Experience, sophistication of their internal software engineers, and design and marketing teams.

The central premise of User Centered Design is that the best designed products and services result from understanding the needs of the people who will use them.
Design Council

Good design is more than meets the eye. The visual part of a design – the look and feel – is only part of my process. Beneath the surface lies the foundation of a successful design: a user centered design process. It is a development cycle which takes into consideration what users really need and makes adjustments by exploring, testing and tuning the design until these needs are satisfied. The result of this is a high level of usability: the design is effective, efficient, engaging and easy to learn.

Analysis and Planning

The process can be applied to all design practices that have the aim to provide a good user experience. There are a variety of tools, techniques and methods at each stage of the process which are used to progress the design. The product’s probability of success is greatly increased by understanding and using these techniques

STRATEGY
Planning out the objectives and goals of the project, specifying organizational requirements.
Project space, project schedule, selecting methods and techniques, briefing.

REQUIREMENTS
Definition of scope, user needs, content and information requirements, functional specifications.
Personas, accessibility, feature set, ethnographic research, differentiation, purpose.

STRUCTURE
Structural design of the information space to facilitate intuitive access to content.
Information architecture, interaction design, wireframe, progressive disclosure.

INFORMATION DESIGN
Designing the presentation of information to facilitate understanding.
Navigation, table of contents, indices, visual hierarchy.

VISUAL DESIGN
The visual treatment of graphic elements, the look and feel of the product.

Methods and Techniques

USER REQUIREMENTS
It is vital to use all available resources to gather information about the users’ requirements. Successful projects use an average of five different sources of information. These may be focus groups, contextual or individual interviews, observation, surveys, etc.

PERSONAS AND SCENARIOS
A persona is an archetype comprised of habits and characteristics of the target audience. Scenarios are little stories describing how typical user tasks are carried out. They help to anticipate and identify the decisions a user will have to make at each step in their experience and through each environment or system state they will encounter.

PROGRESSIVE DISCLOSURE
Managing the information complexity or cognitive load by displaying only relevant information at any given time prevents information overload. For example through effective signposting of destinations in a wayfinding system or using “read more” links on a website.

USABILITY TESTING
Evaluating a product by testing it with representative users helps to identify usability problems by collecting quantitative data on the users’ performance (e.g. error rate) and establishing their satisfaction with the product.

RAPID VISUALISATION
Visualizing ideas and concepts rapidly using pen and paper is helpful to communicate them to the team and to test ideas quickly without investing time and resources into polished design. Rough and unpolished looking sketches, wireframes and storyboards encourage constructive feedback and stimulate discussion.

PROTOTYPING
Prototypes are simple, incomplete models that can be used to evaluate responses to form (looks-like prototype) or aspects of build and functionality (works-like prototype) of a product. They typically evolve from concept sketches or wireframes to low and high-fidelity models as they progress through the development cycle.

AESTHETICS
Visual design impacts greatly on the usability of a product. Users prefer a beautiful look & feel over an ugly or dull one. Aesthetic designs are perceived as easier to use, whether they are or not. Good designers find a perfect combination of accessibility and aesthetics.

GOOD PRACTICE GUIDELINES
It is important to consider good practice guidelines relevant to the project in order to address broad user requirements and meet accessibility standards.

PROJECT SPACE
A dedicated project area where research and visualizations can be organized spatially on walls provides a creative work environment where meetings can be held surrounded by stimuli. Constructing a story about the project in the space providing roughs and unpolished design invites others to comment and contribute.

STICKY NOTES
Comparing notes is a useful tool to aid decision making. Ideas are written down on individual sticky notes, weighed against one another and organized according to priority or other criteria (speed, cost, quality, desirability etc). This technique can also be used with users to get them to put their considerations in order of importance.

USER CAPABILITIES

Users have different requirements depending on their situation and capabilities. Catering for these needs and enabling access to the product or system for as many people as possible is the aim of inclusive design.

ACCESSIBILITY
high stress levels: short of time,responsibility for children
varying abilities: eyesight, motor abilities, hearing impairment
low confidence: unfamiliar with system, first time user
language barrier: English not first language, low literacy, dyslexia
low perception of safety: fear of discrimination, compromised data security, injury

USER GOALS
Users’ needs depend on what they are trying to achieve when they use the product. These user goals inform the information requirements that need to be addressed in order to achieve a high level of usability.

USER INVOLVEMENT
The most successful results are achieved when the user is involved in every step of the design process either through direct feedback, user testing, observation or informed evaluation using previously gathered information.