Intro to User Experience

Class 1

Welcome

Girl Develop It is here to provide affordable and accessible programs to learn software through mentorship and hands-on instruction.

Some "rules"

We are here for you!
Every question is important
Help each other
Have fun!

Introduction

I'm here to help!

Twitter: @aarahkahak
Email: snkahn@gmail.com

Agenda

Some definitions and history
Exercise: Simplify
The anatomy of a design
Finding out who your users are
Getting started with Testing
Designing a test
Working with users
Exercise: Conduct a brief test

1. What is User Experience?

User Experience is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service.

What does a UX Designer do all day?

Lurk
Consume vast quantities of sticky notes
Create amazing whiteboard art

Ok, maybe it's more like this...

Some common themes

Advocacy and education.
Finding problems, proposing actionable solutions.
Facilitating communication.

A bit of history

1900s- make human labor more efficient.
1950s- Toyota's 'respect for people' philosophy.
1970s- Xerox PARC.

Don Norman, the first UX Architect

1990s- Applie hired a cognitive scientist named Don Norman.
He was the first person to have the title 'UX Architect'.
One of the Godfathers of UX

Why should we care about UX?

Think about an object you use every day.

Pretty + functional = the holy grail.

Anyone ever heard of this company?

Tying it back to websites

Pretty != usable.

2. Simplify: Exercise

Simplify this

3. The anatomy of a design

Information Architecture
Content Strategy
Interaction Design
Visual Design

A bit of theory

What is Information Architecture?

Some examples

Navigation
- Breadcrumbs
- Sidebar menus
- Footer menus
Headers and sections in content blocks

Example

What is Interaction Design?

Clickable
Scrollable
Action words, like 'Submit'
Typeable (inputs)

Example

An example from my working life

Separating Visual Design

Pictures
Colors
Typography
Overall look and feel

4. Finding out who your users are

Before there can be design, there must be data.

What you need to know

Demographics
Technological Capabilities
Common contexts

Tools to try

5. Getting Started with testing

Just go for it!

The small test- any testing is better than none.

Pros

Cheap
Easy to get your feet wet
Start to get high up buy-in

Cons

Will by it's nature be small in scope
Will probably need more testing to be useful

The big test

Pros

Get a wider range of input.
Get more in-depth feedback.
Authority.

Cons

More expensive
Slow/Time consuming
Less focused results are more
challenging to apply.

Ongoing testing

Make it a habit, and you'll never have to do a giant test again!

6. Designing a Test

Coming up with a testing plan
Test styles
Remote vs. in-person
Tools to use

Users don't have the all answers, either.

Have a test plan

Organize yourself.
Provide your tester something to react against.
Respect everyone's time.

Example

Known Problem:
Non-intuituve browsing mechanism.

Leading Question:
How would you search for the latest edition of the wall street journal?

Naturalistic vs Task-oriented

There is no one right way for every situation.
Naturalistic- can be better for fishing for information in general.
Task-focused- can be better for answering very specific questions.

In-person vs Remote

Types of tests

In-person moderated- sitting with the user, interactive.
In-person unmoderated- watching through a mirror, or recording and viewing later.
Remote moderated- an interactive session via a tool like Skype.
Remote unmoderated- using a tool like Open Hallway

7. Working with users

Rumor has it they're just people.

Recruiting

Don't wait until you have a specific test to run, build up a list
Be social
Use your application/website

Scheduling

Leave extra time for fixing problems
Remember to eat lunch!

Legal Stuff

Check with your organization or client's organization first.
Even if they don't have an explicit policy, they might want to have a conversation

Running a Session

Be friendly and confident.
Be mindful of language.
No technobabble.
No leading.

8. Exercise

Let's test something!

Next class: July 29th, 6:30-8:30pm

Homework: Test Something!

Pick a project that you’re working on.

Find one thing that you think is a problem.
Find a living person, if possible someone who might feasibly use the project in real life some time.
Ask them to try to complete a task that will involving that potentially problematic thing.
Listen to what they say, watch what they do, and take notes. Make note of tone and body language.
Was it enlightening? Can you use this to further design and planning discussions in your organization or with your client?