Observing the User Experience

Mike Kuniavsky Presentation: Licia Sbattella

User Research
UR is the process of understanding the impact of design on an audience.
Surveys, focus groups, and other forms of user research conducted before the design phase can make the difference

From the users perspective, their experience is continuous

What they understand affects not just what they can accomplish, but what attracts them to the product, and what attracts them to a product affects how willing they are to understand it. UE can extend to nearly everything in someones interaction with a product
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Example
For Web sites (and other information management products)
there are three general categories of work when creatig a user experience:
Information Architecture Interaction Design Identitiy Design

Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Information Architecture
Information needs of Information Architects
Demographics physical and employment characteristics (age, education level, income, job title, ) A Web use profile that summarizes a communitys Web experience (how long someone has been using the Web, how much time he spends using it, and what kinds of things he uses it for. Appropriate terminology Mental models (how people actually understand the topic, what kind of pictures they have built for themselves of how a given task is done or organized, the means or relationships of terms they use (at the supermarket: the user mental model is based on meals) user profiles, surveys, conceptual inquiry and task analyses, card storing, diaries
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Interaction Design
In the world of dynamic information,
there is not a single interface

The Interface experience is not just functionality,

but readability, navigation, and advertising it encompasses all facets of someones interaction.
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Interaction Design
Information Needs of Interaction Designers
Task flows: strings of actions that are necessary for something interesting to happen (this includes knowing in what order people look at the elements, what their expectations for the next step are what kind of feedback they need, whether the results are what they had anticipated The predictability and consistency of interfaces is critical (how much is enough? How much is needed?) The relationship between the features on a site and the emphasis of specific interface elements is critical Different audiences first time users / experienced users teenagers / 40s /80s

Useful Tools

Task Analysis (for finding out what interaction sequences should be, the terminology and the emphasis of features) Focus Groups (the easiest way of determining peoples priorities Task based usability testing Log analysis Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Identitiy Design
The style, the feeling, the vibe of a Web site is what makes it unique. The identity is a combination of:
What a site does, how it looks, what associations it evokes, its editorial voices, what association it evokes, how it emphasizes certain features over others. The editorial voice of the site Visual themes (can create an elements of recognition for a site or for a group of sites The features a site emphasizes The association with an existing brand
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Identity Design
Information Needs for Identity Designers
The competitive strengths (what the product does better than its competitors) The direction of the users attention Who the current users are What kinds of references and associations they prefer and understand

Useful Tools
Focus groups Surveys / Interviews Competitive Analysis
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Recruiting
Demographics Friends and family Expand your Horizon
Community email mailing lists and online bulletin boards Your users New employees Past research participants

Prescreening
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Recruiting
Screening
Stick to 20 questions (most defined in 10 to 15) Make it short Be clear and specific Never use jargon Ask for exact dates, quantities, and times Every question should have a purpose Order questions from general to specific Question should not lead Clearly state the format of the research Build in flexibility Phone or email screening Scheduling Pitfalls: the wrong people, no-shows, bias. Anonymity, teenagers schedules

Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Interviewing
The interview structure
Introduction Warm-up General Issues Deep Focus Retrospective Wrap-up

Non-directed interview:
the process of conducting interviews that do not lead or bias the answer The process of getting at the users thoughts, feelings and experiences without filtering those thoughts through the preconception of the interviewer
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Non-directed Interview
Non-directed interview. Every question should:
focus on the experience, not extrapolation Focus on immediate experience Be non judgmental Be focused on single topic Be open-ended (avoid binary questions) Define terms Dont force opinions Restate answers Follow-up with examples, but always wait for an undirected answer first Use artifacts to keep people focused on the present and to trigger ideas. Be aware of your own expectations Never say the participant is wrong Keep questions simple, both in language and in intent Always review your tapes

Running a non-directed interview

Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Common Problems
Close-ended questions: Questions with complex answers Words with multiple meaning Asking people to predict the future Invocation of authority or peer pressure Assuming you know the answer Assuming that they can answer the question People will not always say what they believe People will sometimes answer to a different question Breaking the rules Videotaping interviews
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

User Profiles
User Profiles:
Your create one or more fictitious users and try to model them and their lived From general characteristics, you model specific individuals who would buy and use your stuff Your final profile helps you define and compare your ideal with reality Everyone on the team can reference and use them as sounding boards for development ideas.

When to do it:
always the first step of your research plan
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

How to do it
Two groups:
The people who know the characteristics of the users (marketing res., support, sales, business develop.) and The people who need to know those characteristics (engineering, identity des, inter. des, inform archit.)

How to do:
Interview local experts on previous exp Talk to users
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

List of Attributes
The first step is to make a list of audience attributes
Post-it notes to have them write down things they suspect about th audience Share them

Demographic
Age Gender Income and purchasing power Location Cultural Title Company size Computer Monitor Net connection Experience Browser brand and version Operating system

Technological

Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

List of attributes
Web use
Experience Typical tasks

Environment
Use location Use Time Tool context Competition

Lifestyle / Psychographic
Values and attitudes Media Activities
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

List of Attributes
Roles
Titles Responsibilities Training Power Relationships Interactions Short Term Long Terms Motivation Outcome Pain
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Goals

List of Attributes
Needs
Functional Emotional Reasons

Desires
Stated desideres (what do your users say thay want?) Unstated desires (What do they really want?)

Knowledge
Domain knowledge Product Knowledge Competitive Awareness
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

List of Attributes
Usage Trends
Frequency Considerations Loyalty

Tasks
Reason Duration Order Criticality Method Model
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Clustering
Once you ve gathered the giant list of attributes, cluster them into profiles Discuss respect to what was expected Keep the number of major clusters between three and eight Create people around the clusters Prioritize Tell stories
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Using profiles
Document
The name of the profile A demographic description The profiled persons goals His needs His abilities His perspective on the task and the product

Share Develop with profiles Regularly update

Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Focus Groups
Focus Groups
are structured group interviews that quickly and inexpensively reveal a target audiences desires, motivations, values, experiences, and priorities An excellent technique for uncovering what people think about a given topic and, especially, how they think about it A focus group series is a sequence of tightly moderated group discussions among people taken from a thin slice of a products target audience. Cfr con contextual inquiry / survey
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Focus Groups
An environment where people feel comfortable revealing their thoughts and feel Often coupled with contextual inquiry and tsk analysis a complete picture of how and why people are behaving right now What Focus Groups are not good for To get usability information Focus Groups results are impossible to numerically generalize to a larger population (as surveys) In situations where it is important to prove a point or to justify a position Four types of Focus Groups: Exploratory, feature prioritization, competitive analysis, trend explanation
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

How to conduct a FG
A schedule The target audience The scope The topics Recruiting
Participants who are close, but not exactly ideal target audience Never recruit people who know each other Avoid people who know about how focus groups work Screen out people who have significantly more knowledge about any of the topics than the other participant
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

How to conduct a FG
FG questions should be:
Carefully ordered Nondirected Open-ended Focused on specifies Personal Unambiguous

The structure: The introduction, the main discussion, and the wrap-up
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

How to conduct a FG
The Moderator
Always in control Always moving forward Nonjudgmental Respectful Prepared Spend sometime with the group beforehand Stick to the guide, but be opportunistic when necessary Engage everyone in the discussion Avoid introducing new terminology and concepts Restrict your body language Clarify comments Restate ideas Probe for alternative perspectives Dont dominate the discussion Provide time to think Use humor when appropriate Keep the energy level high Give people a break Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

Moderating the discussion

How to conduct a FG
Asking questions
Prioritize issues Write down opinions before discussing them Use the participants exact thoughts and words, when possible Use the participants exact thoughts and words when possible Key questions need to be asked verbatim Be ready with examples

Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

How to conduct a FG
Common Problems
Group-think Faulty assumptions Latecomers Reticent Groups Quiet participants Overly talkative participant Group dominance Unqualified participants Tangents Hostility Offensive Ideas Highly emotional topics
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella

FG observer instructions
Listen Don t jump to conclusions FG are not statistically representative FG participants are expert FG are not a magic bullet Feel free to pass questions to the moderator People are contradictory Don t write people off Save some pizza for the moderator
Accessibility - Prof. Licia Sbattella