WHAT IS USER EXPERIENCE?

Good user experience is all about making apps extremely easy to use

You want your users to:

• Be more productive with less training
• Feel more satisfaction using your app

UX is the measure of

FRICTION

between a user and their goal

Two Types of FRICTION

• Cognitive friction - mental challenges
• Emotional friction - feeling challenges

 

Both slow the user down and make the user experience more painful

Great UX Yields Three Feelings

Delighted

Satisfied

Productive

=>  word of mouth

=>  increased loyalty

=>  become proponents

Left Brain

Logical

Sequential

Rational

Analytical

Objective

Looks at parts

Right Brain

Random

Intuitive

Holistic

Synthesizing

Subjective

Looks at wholes

DEVELOPER

UX DESIGNER

Why is this a challenge?

It Might Be More Like This

solve problems with code

facilitate user goal achieve-ment

MINDSET SHIFT

• We love solving technical problems
• A UX focus is about coding for a new platform -- the human brain

Information Architecture

Visual
Design

Functionality

Usability

Typography

User
Interface

Content
Strategy

Interaction
Design

REDUCE COGNITIVE FRICTION

COMMON UX TRAPS

Jam as much on the screen as possible

Forcing the user to think like a dba

Coding for the power user

Expose technical jargon to the user

Being inconsistent

Creating a messy UI

Good UX Requires Us To

• Present data that is meaningful
• Use terms your users will understand
• Display just enough information
• Code for the common user
• Be consistent throughout the app
• Deliver a clean UI

UX MYTHS

some rules have changed

W h i t e   s p a c e   i s   w a s t e d   s p a c e

small details don't matter

OK to give users a lot of choices

Users know what they want

users don't care what your app/site looks like

WHAT IS OUR GOAL?

Lower cognitive friction

COGNITIVE FRICTION

• Increases needless brain activity
• Breaks user's flow of thinking

WHAT CAUSES COGNITIVE FRICTION?

Slow app performance

App is difficult to use

App is difficult to use

App becomes too complex over time

App has too many choices, too many options

REDUCING COGNITIVE FRICTION

VISION AND MENTAL HACKS

CENTRAL VISION =
High Res

PERIPHERAL VISION =
Low Res

The brain loves easy to recognize shapes

White space creates low cognitive friction

GROUP
HACK

space,
color
 & shapes
delineate
groups
 

repeating
elements
need
clear
spacing

ALIGNMENT HACK

a single pixel alignment issue increases friction

ATTENTION
HACK

user movement
in user's
peripheral vision
to get their

attention

COLOR HACK

avoid color combinations that create cognitive friction

LEADING HACK

Help the user's brain work less by leading them to their goal

• numbering the steps
• onboarding overlays
• wizards

PROGRESSIVE HACK

Not overwhelming the user — only show what they need when they need it

• just-in-time information
• make common options and commands visible
• hide less common options

STATUS HACK

Keep the user's brain calm by keeping them informed

• provide up-to-date information
• animated countdown bar

RECOGNITION HACK

Always rely on recognition, not on recall

• icons
• visual previews
• list of things to choose
  from

WORKFLOW HACK

Identify the simplest workflow for the user to achieve their goal

PROCEDE SOFTWARE CONSIDERATIONS

Workflow

• Take a few workflow cases
• What is the user trying to accomplish?
• What workflow would be intuitive and help the user select the right path?

UX Design Process

Empathize

Define

Tech Possibilities

Needs of User

Business Goals

Ideate

Prototype

Test

In Conclusion

• UX is all about minimizing cognitive friction
• Mental and visual hacks help us minimize cognitive friction
• Prototyping and testing helps reduce risk

• Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug
• Lean UX, Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden
• Effective UI, Jonathan Anderson, John McRee, Robb Wilson & the EffectiveUI Team
• User-Centered Design, Travis Lowdermilk
• Web Design for Developers, Brian Hogan
• User Experience Design, Smashing Magazine
• UX for Lean Startups, Laura Klein

Resources

• Luke W UX articles and presentations
• Steve Krug presentation
• Usertesting  resources
• Killer UX Design, Jodie Moule
• Principles of Beautiful Web Design, Jason Beaird

More Resources

Questions?