UX Training
BEGINNERS GUIDE
Marko Aleksic
Chapters
Intro
User Research
Card Sorting
Contextual Interviews
First Click Testing
Focus Groups
Heuristic Evaluation
Individual Interviews
Parallel Design
Personas
Prototyping
Online Surveys
System Usability Scale
Task Analysis
Usability Test
Use Cases
Outro
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
What is UX?
CHAPTER I
Definition
The first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother.
Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products that are a joy to own, a joy to use.
- Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen
It’s not just what it looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works.
The User Experience is
Everyone’s Responsibility!
UX - U = X
Where “X” now means “don’t do it”
Who is
User Experience designer?
UX designers are primarily concerned with how the product feels. A given design problem has no single right answer. UX designers explore many different approaches to solving a specific user problem. The broad responsibility of a UX designer is to ensure that the product logically flows from one step to the next.
UX Designer also needs to be
Psychologist
Deliverables
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Wireframes
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Storyboards
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Sitemap
Tools
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Photoshop
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Sketch
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Illustrator
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Fireworks
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InVision
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Etc...
User research
CHAPTER II
Definition
User research helps you to understand users so that we can respond more effectively to their needs.
It focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies.
Methods
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Card sorting
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Contextual interviews
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First click testing
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Focus groups
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Heuristic evaluation
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Individual interviews
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Parallel design
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Personas
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Prototyping
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Surveys
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System Usability Scale
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Task analysis
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Usability testing
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Use cases
Card sorting
CHAPTER III
Allows users to group your site’s information. This helps ensure that the site structure matches the way users think.
Definition
Method to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site.
Topics are organised into categories.
Actual cards, pieces of paper, or one of several online card-sorting software tools.
Benefits
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Build the structure for your website
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Decide what to put on the homepage
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Label categories and navigation
Types
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Open card sort
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Closed card sort
Open card sort
Users organize topics by themselves
Closed card sort
Users sort topics into predefined categories
- Card sorting techniques
- Best Practices
- How to Conduct a Card Sort
- Analyze Your Data
Summary:
Contextual interviews
CHAPTER IV
Enables you to observe users in their natural environment, giving you a better understanding of the way users work.
Definition
Researchers watch and listen as users work in the user’s own environment, as opposed to being in a lab.
Contextual interviews tend to be more natural and sometimes more realistic as a result.
They are also usually less formal than lab tests and don’t use tasks or scripts.
Benefits
- Any issues that users are facing
- Equipment they are working with
- How their space is set-up
- Preference between mouse and keyboard
- The type of internet connection they have
- How long does it take to complete common or target tasks
- Whether there are people there and willing to assist the user if they need help completing a task
First click testing
CHAPTER V
A testing method focused on navigation, which can be performed on a functioning website, a prototype, or a wireframe.
Definition
First Click Testing examines what a test participant would click on first on the interface in order to complete their intended task. It can be performed on a functioning website, a prototype or a wireframe.
Y u so important?
First Click Testing allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of the linking structure of your site, including the navigation
See how users get around the site and complete their intended task
Hey First click testing
Methodology
- Provide the participants problem to solve
- Documented the correct path to completion for each task
- Track each click
- Track how long it takes the user to make this click
- Assess were they able to find the correct information
- Assess the ease or difficulty of completing each task
Best practices
- Check optimal paths with note takers/data loggers prior testing
- Hide from participant that he's taking First Click testing
- Start tasks from Home screen
Interesting online tool
www.optimalworkshop.com
Focus Groups
CHAPTER VI
Discussion with a group of users, allow you to learn about user attitudes, ideas, and desires.
Definition
A focus group is a moderated discussion that typically involves
5 to 10 participants.
Through a focus group, you can learn about users’ attitudes, beliefs, desires, and reactions to concepts.
Focus group users tell you about their experiences or expectations but you don’t get to verify or observe these experiences.
Choosing participants
- Age
- Occupation
- Experience
- Education
- Ethnicity
- Topics you would like to cover
- Pretest questions to ensure they are clear and logical
- Develop open-ended questions to encourage discussion
- Arrange questions in a way that flows naturally
- Hire a skilled moderator to facilitate the discussion
- Create a script
- Change the order of questions and topics to keep the discussion flowing smoothly
- Plan to spend about two hours with the group
- Tape the sessions
- Have one or more note takers to ensure everything is captured
Heuristic evaluation
CHAPTER VII
A group of usability experts evaluating your website against a list of established guidelines
Definition
A heuristic evaluation is a usability inspection method for computer software that helps to identify usability problems in the user interface (UI) design.
10 heuristics most commonly used in industry
Jakob Nielsen's heuristics
Visibility of system status
PRINCIPLE I
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
Match between system
and the real world
PRINCIPLE II
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
User control and freedom
PRINCIPLE III
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standards
PRINCIPLE IV
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Error prevention
PRINCIPLE V
Even better than good error messages is a careful design that prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Recognition rather than recall
PRINCIPLE VI
Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
PRINCIPLE VII
Accelerators—unseen by the novice user—may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
PRINCIPLE VIII
Dialogues should not contain information that is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
PRINCIPLE IX
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Help and documentation
PRINCIPLE X
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.
Other used heuristics
Gerhardt-Powals’ cognitive engineering principles
Weinschenk and Barker classification
Best practices
- Small set of expert evaluators
- Examine and use usability principles (the "heuristics")
- Quick, cheap and easy
- Developed to aid the design
Benefits
- Quick and inexpensive feedback to designers
- Early feedback
- Best corrective measures to designers
- Usage with other usability testing methodologies
- Further examine potential issues.
Methods
- Planning
- Running
- Reporting
Planing
Heuristic evaluation
Experts
Material an equipment
Expert analyst familiar with the product
Running
Heuristic evaluation
Heuristics briefing first
Experts use mock tasks and record observations
If 2 or more, they should not communicate during testing
Problem list rated
Reporting
A list of identified problems
Report sent to development team
Problems should have prioritisation
Heuristic evaluation
Individual interviews
CHAPTER VIII
One-on-one discussions with users show you how a particular user works. They enable you to get detailed information about a user's attitudes, desires, and experiences.
Definition
Individual interviews allow you to probe their attitudes, beliefs, desires, and experiences to get a deeper understanding of the users who use your product. You can also ask them to rate or rank choices for site content. These interviews can take place face-to-face, by phone or video conference, or via instant messaging system.
Parallel design
CHAPTER IX
A design methodology that involves several designers pursuing the same effort simultaneously, but independently, with the intention to combine the best aspects of each for the ultimate solution.
Definition
Several people create an initial design from the same set of requirements. Each designer works independently and, when finished, shares his or her concepts with the group. Then, the design team considers each solution, and each designer uses the best ideas to further improve their own solution.
Benefits
- Ideas generated quickly and cost effectively.
- Several approaches to be explored at the same time.
- Final solution benefits from all ideas proposed.
Best practices
- Define which layouts to address
- Clarify the expectations regarding fidelity of the designs
- If using a team approach, be sure your teams have equivalent skills
- Establish the evaluation criteria
Personas
CHAPTER X
The creation of a representative user based on available data and user interviews. Though the personal details of the persona may be fiction, the information used to create the user type is not.
Definition
The purpose of personas is to create reliable and realistic representations of your key audience segments for reference. These representations should be based on qualitative and some quantitative user research and web analytics. Remember, your personas are only as good as the research behind them.
Example
Peter
Male
College
35 years old
Married
Apple user
Active on Twitter
Drives Toyota
Prototyping
CHAPTER XI
Allows the design team to explore ideas before implementing them by creating a mock-up of the site. A prototype can range from a paper mock-up to interactive html pages.
Definition
A prototype is a draft version of a product that allows you to explore your ideas and show the intention behind a feature or the overall design concept to users before investing time and money into development. A prototype can be anything from paper drawings (low-fidelity) to something that allows click-through of a few pieces of content to a fully functioning site (high-fidelity).
Benefits
- Cheaper to change product early in the development
- Allows gathering feedback from users while you're still planing and designing
Low-Fidelity prototyping
- Paper-based
- Do not allow user interactions
- Hand-drawn mock-ups to printouts
- Quicker to create
- Enable early visualization of alternative design solutions
- Users may feel more comfortable suggesting changes
High-Fidelity prototyping
- Computer-based
- Allows realistic (mouse-keyboard) user interactions
- Take you as close as possible to a true representation of the user interface
- More effective in collecting true human performance data
Tools
Pen and paper
Balsamiq
InVision or Marvel app
Photoshop
Axure
WebZap (PS plugin)
HTML
LucidChart
Surveys
CHAPTER XII
A series of questions asked to multiple users of your website, help you learn about the people who visit your site.
Definition
An online survey is a structured questionnaire that your target audience completes over the internet generally through a filling out a form. Online surveys can vary in length and format. The data is stored in a database and the survey tool generally provides some level of analysis of the data in addition to review by a trained expert.
System Usability Scale
CHAPTER XIII
SUS is a technology independent ten item scale for subjective evaluation of the usability.
Definition
Provides “quick and dirty”, reliable tool for measuring the usability. It consists of a 10 item questionnaire with five response options for respondents; from Strongly agree to Strongly disagree.
Benefits
- Industry standard
- Useful for new products or features
- Is a very easy scale to administer to participants
- Can be used on small sample sizes
- Effectively differentiate between usable and unusable
Task analysis
CHAPTER XIV
Involves learning about user goals, including what users want to do on your website, and helps you understand the tasks that users will perform on your site.
Definition
Process of learning about ordinary users by observing them in action to understand in detail how they perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals.
Tasks analysis helps identify the tasks that your website and applications must support and can also help you refine or re-define your site’s navigation or search by determining the appropriate content scope.
Purpose?
- What your users’ goals are
- What users actually do to achieve those goals
- What experiences users bring to the tasks
- How users are influenced by their physical environment
- How users’ previous knowledge and experience influence
- How they think about their work
- The workflow they follow to perform their tasks
When to perform?
Early in the process - prior to design work.
Helps you with:
Website requirements gathering
Developing your content strategy and site structure
Wireframing and Prototyping
Performing usability testing
Types
Cognitive task analysis
Focused on understanding tasks that require decision-making, problem-solving, memory, attention and judgement.
Hierarchical task analysis
Focused on decomposing a high-level task subtasks.
How to perform?
Identify the task to be analyzed.
Break this high-level task down into 4 to 8 subtasks
Present the analysis to someone else who has not been involved
Usability testing
Identifies user frustrations and problems with your site through one-on-one sessions where a "real-life" user performs tasks on your site.
CHAPTER XV
Definition
Evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users. Typically, during a test, participants will try to complete typical tasks while observers watch, listen and takes notes. The goal is to identify any usability problems, collect qualitative and quantitative data and determine the participant's satisfaction with the product.
To run an effective usability test, you need to develop a solid test plan, recruit participants , and then analyze and report your findings.
Benefits
- Lets identify problems before they are coded.
- Learn if participants are able to complete specified tasks successfully
- Identify how long it takes to complete specified tasks
- Find out how satisfied participants are with your Web site or other product
- Identify changes required to improve user performance and satisfaction
- And analyze the performance to see if it meets your usability objectives
You don't need a formal lab!
Cost factors
- Time
- Recruiting costs
- Participant Compensation
- Rental costs
Use cases
CHAPTER XVI
Provides a description of how users use a particular feature of your website. They provide a detailed look at how users interact with the site, including the steps users take to accomplish each task.
Definition
A use case is a written description of how users will perform tasks on your website. It outlines, from a user’s point of view, a system’s behavior as it responds to a request. Each use case is represented as a sequence of simple steps, beginning with a user's goal and ending when that goal is fulfilled.
Benefits
- Explain how the system should behave and in the process
- Help brainstorm what could go wrong
- Provide a list of goals and this list can be used to establish the cost and complexity of the system
What use cases include
- Who is using the website
- What the user want to do
- The user's goal
- The steps the user takes to accomplish a particular task
- How the website should respond to an action
What don't
- Implementation-specific language
- Details about the user interfaces or screens.
Main success scenarios
Use case in which nothing goes wrong.
BASIC FLOW
Alternative paths
These paths are a variation on the main theme. These exceptions are what happen when things go wrong at the system level.
ALTERNATIVE FLOW
How to write a Use case?
- Identify who is going to be using the website.
- Pick one of those users.
- Define what that user wants to do on the site.
- For each use case, decide on the normal course of events when that user is using the site.
- Describe the basic course in the description for the use case.
- When the basic course is described, consider alternate courses of events and add those to "extend" the use case.
- Look for commonalities among the use cases. Extract these and note them as common course use cases.
One more thing...
UX Training
By Marko Aleksic
UX Training
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