User-Centered Design Process
05-391 / 05-891 Designing Human-Centered Systems Fall 2011 Jason Hong jasonh@[Link]
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HCI Approach to UI Design
Tasks
Organizational & Social Context
Design Technology Humans
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Overview of design process
Design Prototyping Evaluation
What we discuss about today will be incorporated into how your projects are done
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Outline for Today
Myth 1: Good design is just cool graphics
graphics part of bigger picture of what to communicate & how also need to consider what people are trying to do and how to improve why are there so many bad web sites? hard to use apps?
Myth 2: Good design is just common sense
underestimates work needed for great designs
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Myths about Good Design
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Early Nintendo Wii Prototypes
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Early Nintendo Wii Prototypes
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Early Nintendo Wii Prototypes
Myth 3: We can fix the interface at the end
overlooks cost of major changes good design includes making sure you have the right features
Myth 4: Marketing takes care of understanding customer needs
does not help you understand behavior
what people say vs. what they do and what they actually need
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Myths about Good Design
A reporter who asked Jobs about the market research that went into the iPad was famously told, "None. It's not the consumers' job to know what they want."
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Steve Job on Marketing
Who Builds User Interfaces?
A team of specialists (ideally)
graphic designers interaction / interface designers information architects technical writers marketers test engineers usability engineers software engineers users
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One fairly typical process: waterfall
Requirements Specification
Design
Coding
Integration and Testing Operation and Maintenance
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What Processes are there for Building Applications?
Called waterfall because when you finish one phase you are not supposed to go back up stream Thoughts?
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What Processes are there for Building Applications?
You cant go back up if theres a problem downstream
Design is unrealistic / infeasible Cant adapt
Should be getting more feedback throughout
Testing
Tossing over the wall at each phase
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Problems
Implies that you design once (and get it right first time)
Not typically advocated anymore, but terminology and biases remain
Not optimal for user experience
Ex. Well fix the user interface at the end Ex. Do testing all at once (rather than progressively as you go) Testing for software engineers different than for user experience practitioners Software quality testing vs user testing
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Waterfall Model
Course project structured around iterative design Fail fast Design
Prototype
Evaluate
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Alternative: Iterative Design
[Link]
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IDEO Shopping Cart
Design is driven by requirements
focus on core needs, not how implemented, may be multiple ways of achieving goals Ex. Android phone not as important as mobile app
A design is a simplified representation of the desired artifact
Ex. Ex. Ex. Ex. text description of tasks screen sketches or storyboards flow diagrams / task structure interactive prototypes
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Design
Site Maps
Storyboards
Schematics
Mock-ups
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Web Design Representations
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Web Design Representations
Site Maps
Storyboards
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Web Design Representations
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Web Design Representations
Schematics
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Web Design Representations
Mock-ups
Usability Goals?
Want to make sure we make progress
We do this by setting and measuring goals
According to the ISO:
The effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments This does not mean you have to create a dry design or something that is only good for novices it all depends on your goals
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Looks cool Does what it was supposed to do Less Time Easy to learn Simple / no training Low cognitive load Responsive Easy to understand flow
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Example Usability Goals?
Intuitive Error tolerance Easy to remember over time how to use Flexibility Feels good to use Easy to maintain Consistent / internally externally Battery life / energy Affordable Good docs
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Example Usability Goals?
Predictable Durable / non-obsolescent Fewer bug reports / complaints on forums Depth / expertise
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Example Usability Goals?
Learnable
faster the 2nd time & so on
Memorable
from session to session
Flexible
multiple ways to accomplish tasks
Efficient
perform tasks quickly
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Example Usability Goals 1/2
Robust
minimal error rates good feedback so user can recover
Pleasing
high subjective satisfaction
Out of box experience
first time to oh thats cool or time to being productive
Fun
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Example Usability Goals 2/2
Learnability Memorability Flexibility Efficiency Robustness Pleasing Out of box experience Fun
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How might you measure these usability goals?
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How might you measure these usability goals?
[Link] magazine/15-09/ff_halo
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Case Study: Game Testing for Fun in Halo 3
After each session Pagulayan analyzes the data for patterns... For example, he produces snapshots of where players are located in the game at various points in time five minutes in, one hour in, eight hours in to show how they are advancing. If they're going too fast, the game might be too easy; too slow, and it might be too hard.
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Case Study: Game Testing for Fun in Halo 3
He can also generate a map showing where people are dying, to identify any topographical features that might be making a battle onerous. And he can produce charts that detail how players died
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Case Study: Game Testing for Fun in Halo 3
A similar report showed that in the game's first level players often ran out of rounds for their rifles. This was a mystery, because the designers had been careful to leave more than enough ammunition lying around. The team checked Pagulayan's video records and found that people were firing at the aliens when they were too far away, misjudging the range of the weapon and wasting bullets.
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Case Study: Game Testing for Fun in Halo 3
At first the designers couldn't figure out how to fix this problem. But then Griesemer stumbled on an elegant hack: He made the targeting reticule turn red when enemies were in range, subtly communicating to players when their shots were likely to hit home. It worked. Last week 52 percent of players gave the Jungle level a 5 out of 5 rating for "fun," and another 40 percent rated it a 4.
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Case Study: Game Testing for Fun in Halo 3
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Where People get Lost in Halo
Know thy Users
Cognitive abilities
perception physical manipulation memory
Organizational / job abilities
what skills required who they talk to
This topic will be covered more in-depth later in semester
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The User is Not Like Me
You already know too much
easy to think of self as typical user easy to make mistaken assumptions this is the most common mistake possible
How to avoid this problem?
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The User is Not Like Me
Keep users involved throughout design
understanding work process getting constant feedback on designs
A user-centered design mind-set
thinking of the world in users terms (empathy) not technology-centered / feature driven, think of benefit to users
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Nobody is born knowing this stuff You've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner If it's not obvious to them, it's not obvious A computer is a means to an end. The person you're helping probably cares mostly about the end. Beginners face a language problem Most UIs are terrible. When people make mistakes it's usually the fault of the interface. You've forgotten how many ways you've learned to adapt to bad interfaces.
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Phil Agres How to Help Someone Use a Computer
Alternatives to Focusing on Users
I would personally argue that usercentered design is key to innovation
Finding real problems people have, helping to solve them in best way
But sadly, its not always the way things are done in industry An Open Letter to Blackberry Execs (June 2011), by anonymous
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I believe these points need to be heard and I desperately want RIM to regain its position as a successful industry leader. Our carriers, distributors, alliance partners, enterprise customers, and our loyal end users all want the same thing for BlackBerry to once again be leading the pack. While we anxiously wait to see the details of the streamlining plan, here are some suggestions:
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An Open Letter to Blackberry Execs
1) Focus on the End User experience Lets obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice the end user doesnt care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people arent hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work.
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An Open Letter to Blackberry Execs
Android has a major weakness it will always lack the simplicity and elegance that comes with end-to-end device software, middleware and hardware control Lets start an internal innovation revival with teams focused on what users will love instead of chasing feature parity and feature differentiation for no good reason (Adobe Flash being a major example). When was the last time we pushed out a significant new experience or feature that wasnt already on other platforms?
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An Open Letter to Blackberry Execs
Rather than constantly mocking iPhone and Android, we should encourage key decision makers across the board to use these products as their primary device for a week or so at a time This way we can understand why our users are switching and get inspiration as to how we can build our next-gen products even better! Its incomprehensible that our top software engineers and executives arent using or deeply familiar with our competitors products.
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An Open Letter to Blackberry Execs
Myths of Good Design Who builds interfaces? Waterfall methods vs iterative design Design representations Usability Goals Two key phrases
Know thy user The user is not like me
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Recap
Readings to do before class
Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt Apprenticing with the Customer [Link] 03365 Remember to use VPN if off campus
Assignment #1 and #2 due Friday Buy (or get access to) book The Design of Everyday Things
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Next Time
