The Process of UX Design

CMPT 363

“Design isn’t finished until somebody is using it.”
— Brenda Laurel

What does a holistic user experience design process look like?

Topics to Explore

1. Software Development Processes
2. User Experience Design Processes
3. Our Design Process (aka Toolkit)

What does a holistic user experience design process look like?

Software Development Processes

WaterFall Challenges

• Software development as pure production
• Knowing all required information upfront
• Time estimates are extremely hard to make
• Often entire project must be completed to fully test
• Long feedback and development cycles

Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

With Agile we can combine iterative design with incremental development…

Lean Development (based on the Toyota Way)(1)

• A mindset, or way of thinking, commitment to achieve a totally waste-free operation that’s focused on your customer’s success
• It is achieved by simplifying and continuously improving all processes and relationships in an environment of trust, respect and full employee involvement
• It is about people, simplicity, flow, visibility, partnerships and true value as perceived by the customer

(1): Source: David Hogg, High Performance Solutions, 2008

With Lean each Design (Decision) is Viewed as a Hypothesis

A hypothesis can be defined as an educated guess that then can be tested to be shown correct

Example Hypotheses (includes outcome & assumption)

• We believe that our customers will find the “add to cart” button because it is highly visible
• We believe that our customers will be able to complete the checkout process because it is very simple

Waterfall vs. Agile vs. Lean?

What does a holistic user experience design process look like?

User Experience Design Processes

Source: PeopleSoft

These look really detailed and appealing, but are they always practical?

These look more approachable, but do they give enough specifics?

What does a holistic user experience design process look like?

Our UX Design Process (aka Toolkit)

Our Process as a Toolkit (of Activities)

• Discover & understand
• Strategize & conceptualize
• Visualize & prototype
• Evaluate & refine

Discover & Understand

Discover & Understand

• Affinity diagrams
• Contextual inquiries
• Empathy maps
• Interviews
• Job stories
• Jobs to be Done
• Personas
• Proto-personas
• Surveys
• Task analysis
• Five Ws and one H
• The five whys
• User stories

What is the difference between a user goal and a task?

User Goal vs. Task

Goals

• Things users want or need to achieve
• Tend to remain constant over time
• System independent
• Reaching a goal changes the state of the world

User Goal vs. Task

Tasks

• Must be performed to reach goals
• Tend to change over time, often due to technology
• System dependent
• May require problem solving

Questions to Help Discover User Goals and Tasks

• Why would they use the system (goals)?
• What do they need to do to reach their goals (tasks)?
• What are common problems encountered?
• When would they use the system?
• Where would they be using the system?

Example Task Analysis Tools

• Task inventory (incl. frequency & importance)
• Task frequency & importance matrix
• Task sequences
• Flowcharts

Task Importance & Frequency Matrix

Organizing an Interface by Tasks

• Important & frequent - higher visibility, fewer taps
• Important & infrequent - higher visibility, more taps
• Unimportant & frequent - lower visibility, fewer taps
• Unimportant & infrequent - lower visibility, more taps

Strategize & Conceptualize

Strategize & Conceptualize

• Conceptual models
• Content strategy
• Journey maps
• Kano model
• Problem statement
• Product design principles
• Product Reaction Cards
• Seven stages of action
• Usability/UX goals
• Value Proposition
• Valuing UX

Usability Goals - How it Works

• Learnability (first-time users)
  • The product should be easy to learn
• Efficiency (experienced users)
  • The product should be efficient to use
• Memorability (casual users)
  • The product should be easy to remember
• Error-resistance (all users)
  • The product should minimize usage errors

Defining Usability Goals

• Common factors for consideration are
  • Frequency of use
  • Importance of task or need
  • Task structure (e.g. complexity, repetition)
  • Motivation/attitude
• Assign a priority to each goal (e.g. 1-3)
  • Could be specifically measured, but overall usability assessment (e.g. SUS) is usually sufficient

UX Goals - How it Feels

• Product Reaction Cards by Microsoft (2002)
• 118 words (60% positive, 40% negative)
• Sample words
  • Appealing
  • Complex
  • Familiar
  • Hard to use
  • Organized
  • Relevant
  • Too technical
  • Valuable

Defining UX Goals with Product Reaction Cards

• Select a set number of attributes (i.e. 4 to 8)
  • For each attribute, assign a priority and note reason
  • Consider visualizing results (e.g. word cloud)

Visualize & Prototype

Visualize & Prototype

• Content inventory
• Content prototyping
• Design patterns
• Task flow diagrams
• Platform design principles
• Responsive Web Design
• Storyboards
• Visual design principles
• Wireframes

Content Prototyping

An approach where real content is utilized early on during a project for the creation of all prototypes

Evaluate & Refine

Evaluate & Refine

• 5-Second test
• Cognitive walkthrough
• Heuristic review
• Usability testing (informal and formal)

Measuring Usability Goals

• Learnability (first-time users)
  • Can a new user complete a task?
• Efficiency (experienced users)
  • How fast can a user complete a task?
• Memorability (casual users)
  • How easy can a repeat user recall how to complete a task?
• Error-resistance (all users)
  • How often does the software cause users to make an error?

Measuring UX Goals with Product Reaction Cards

• Measuring
  • Reduce attributes to ≈ 60 to 80
  • Ask participants to select most relevant 10
  • Visualize the results (e.g. word cloud)

Summary

• Software Development Processes
• User Experience Design Processes
• Our Design Process (aka Toolkit)

References and Suggested Books

• 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk
• About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann and David Cronin
• Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
• Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug
• UX Team of One by Leah Buley

Image Credits (for images without source URL or note)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model