GENINTDRM-UX Flashcards
User Goals
Users always want something, because they are people, and people always want something. Whether they are trying to get laid on a dating site, looking for sneezing pandas on YouTube, or stalking old boyfriends on Facebook, they want something. They might also want to do something productive (or so I am told).
Business Goals:
Every organization has a reason for creating a site or app in the first place. Typically it’s money, but it might be brand awareness, or getting new members for a community, etc.
The specific type of business goal is important. If you want to show more ads your UX strategy will be a lot different than if you want to sell products or promote via social media.
These things are often called “metrics” or “KPI’s” by the business-y folks.
Align the goals:
The real test of a UX designer is how well you can align those goals so the business benefits when the user reaches their goal. (Not the other way around!)
YouTube makes money via ads, and users want to find good videos. Therefore, putting ads in the videos (or on the same page) makes sense. But more than that, making it easy to search for videos and find similar videos will get users to watch more, which makes YouTube more money.
If the goals are not aligned then either users can get what they want without helping the business (lots of users, no success) or the users don’t get what they want (no users, no success). If YouTube made you watch 60 seconds of ads for every 30 seconds of videos, they would die a quick, painful death. Ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat. But a few seconds of ads is a small price to pay for those sweet, sweet sneezing pandas…
Psychology
The mind of a user is complex. You should know; you have one (I assume). UXers work with subjective thoughts & feelings a lot; they can make or break your results. And the designer must ignore their own psychology sometimes too, and that’s hard!
Usability
If user psychology is mostly subconscious, usability is mostly conscious. You know when something is confusing. There are cases where it is more fun if something is hard — like a game — but for everything else, we want it to be so easy
Design
As the UX designer, your definition of “design” will be much less artistic than a lot of designers. Whether you “like it” is irrelevant. In UX, design is how it works, and it’s something you can prove; it’s not a matter of style.
Copywriting
There is a huge difference between writing brand copy (text) and writing UX copy. Brand copy supports the image of the company. UX copy gets shit done as directly and simply as possible.
Analysis
In my opinion, most designers’ weak spot is analysis. But we can fix that! Analysis is the main thing that separates UX from other types of design, and it makes you extremely valuable. It literally pays to be good at it.
important question
The important question isn’t when. It’s what. As in: what are you trying to learn about your users?
Subjective Research:
The word “subjective” means that it is an opinion, or a memory, or your impression of something. The feeling it gives you. The expectations it creates. Not a fact.
“What is your favorite color?”
“Do you trust this company?”
“Does my ass look fat in these pants?”
Objective Research
The word “objective” means a fact. Something true. Something you can prove. Your opinion doesn’t change it, no matter how hard you wish.
“How long did you spend using our app?”
“Where did you find the link to our site?”
“How many people visited our website today?”
Open Questions
“How would you describe me?” — This allows for a wide range of answers, and works well when you want all the feedback you can get.
Leading Questions
“What are my sexiest features?” — This narrows the answers to a certain type. My example assumes that I have some sexy qualities, which might not be true! Be careful: this type of question also excludes answers you might want to know!
Closed/Direct Questions
“Which is sexier, my elbows or my knees?” — This type of question offers a choice. Yes or no. This or that. But remember: if the options are stupid, the results will be stupid
examples of subjective research
interviews observations focus groups surveys card sorting google
Interviews
Get somebody and ask them a set of questions, one-by-one.
Observation
Give people tasks or instructions and watch them use your design, without help. Afterward, you can ask them questions.
Focus Groups
Get a bunch of people in a room together and ask them to discuss your questions.Note: Confident people often persuade others in the group, and a few random people are an unreliable example of anything, which is why I would rather set myself on fire than do a focus group in real life.
Surveys
A form, which people answer on paper or online. These can genuinely feel anonymous, which is useful.
Card-Sorting
Each person gets a set of ideas or categories (on cards or post-its), which they sort into groups that make sense. After many people have done this it gives you an idea of how your menu should look. ProTip: don’t use your colleagues for this. Use normal users
user research
Ask the same questions, the same way, to everyone.
Avoid interpreting questions or suggesting answers.
People might lie to avoid embarrassment or if it seems like you prefer a particular answer.
Take notes or record the interview. Do not rely on your memory, ever.
NOT PERSONA PROFILES
Personality types Demographics Characters in your “brand story” Stereotypes based on your experience Shallow or 1-dimensional Concepts Predictions
persona profile defined
It describes the goals, expectations, motivations, and behaviour of real people. Why do they come to your site? What are they looking for? What makes them nervous? And so on.
All the information you need should be in your research and data. If you can’t back it up with research or data, you’re just making shit up and you should stop.
bad persona
Persona A is a female, between the ages of 35-45 with an above average income and education. They have at least one child and own at least one new vehicle. They are outgoing and career-oriented, and tend to be right-brain thinkers.
Why it’s bad: That might be great if you’re selling ads, but as far as UX goes, that profile is basically useless. Why? Because it doesn’t allow you to say “no” to any feature ideas. What sort of features does a female between 35-45 need? It could be anything!
good persona
Persona A is an experienced manager, mostly interested in one or two areas of expertise. They visit often, but they are pressed for time, so they focus on “collecting” content to read on the weekends. They tend to be prolific social media sharers, mostly to Twitter and LinkedIn. They consider themselves thought-leaders, so public image is important.
Why it’s useful: Now you have a lot of information to use! You know that fluffy content will not be popular, self-curating will be a big deal and you have a basis for setting up content categories. They need easy access to sharing, and only certain types of social sharing will be relevant.
You also get to say “no” to a Facebook campaign, because these users don’t spend time there, and digest emails will be better than frequent notifications because these people are already pressed for time.
Ideal Users
Several!
When you think about features, think of the most valuable version of the users you see in real life. You’re not trying to support the current behaviour; you’re trying to nudge those users toward an “ideal” version of themselves.
Ideal Users
remember that all users are not alike! You will probably have a few different behavioural groups, and they all deserve a good profile.
Device Design
Step 1: How does it like to be touched? With your finger or your mouse? I am not going to cover that in this article, because I already wrote this ProTip about Touch vs. Mouse interfaces. It should get you started.
Device Design
Step 2: Start small. Many people think “mobile first” has something to do with mobile being popular. Kind of, but not really: if you design for the smallest, least powerful device first, then you will focus on the content, and your core functionality. That leads to simple, beautiful apps. If you do it the other way around, it’ll be like trying to put a marshmallow into a piggy bank, which is neither simple, nor beautiful.
Device Design
Step 3: What special powers does this device have? Mobile devices travel with us so — surprise — we spend more time on them and location becomes a factor. They are also small, so moving the device itself can be a feature. Laptops, on the other hand, don’t travel as well, but they are more powerful, they have huge screens and keyboards, and the mouse allows more precise selections and functions. Don’t worry about “consistency” so much — different devices require different thinking sometimes.
Device Design
Step 4: Consider the software. “Mac vs. PC” is more than a cute ad campaign. Read through the UX guidelines before you start. Also, iOS7 or Windows 8 look different than iOS6 or Windows Vista. You may need to choose which versions you will support, and which you will ignore. Every time you support one it multiplies the design, development and maintenance time in the future. Think ahead!
Device Design
Step 5: Be responsive. Is it on the web? Does it support a few different types of phones? What if Apple makes a new iPhone that is a little different? The modern internet — whether it is a website or an app — works on all devices, so make sure yours can stretch or adapt to whatever device the user decides to use.
Device Design
Step 6: Think about more than one screen at a time. This one is a bit advanced, but I think you’re ready for it. Can you use your phone and computer together, like a remote for your TV? Could a group of phones control a game on a tablet, all in the same room? What if you’re logged in on two devices, can you “throw” data from one to the other? What about syncing information; will that cause issues in real-time? Give it some thought!
Design Patterns
A design is not necessarily good just because it’s common. To be a “good” Design Pattern, a solution must be common and usable.
Some design ideas become popular because they allow lazy UI designers to ignore a challenging feature. It’s like putting a bag over someone’s head because they are ugly.
Design Patterns
For example: Facebook’s “hamburger” button — which represents the hidden menu in many mobile apps — has started appearing on full-size websites that have plenty of space for a menu. It’s common because hiding the menu is easier than designing a nice one, not because the results are better. In real life, many users don’t notice the hidden menu at all, and they leave the site or get lost.
That’s bad. And lazy.
Design Pattern Resources
Good UI PatternTap Anatomy of Perfect Landing Page Mobile Patterns Timoa on Pinterest
Information Archetecture
If the idea of creating “structure” in “information” is completely new to you, this presentation might help get you started: Understanding Information Architecture. Information Architecture (IA) can be relatively simple with a small project, and incredibly complicated with a large project. IA is invisible. To work with it, we need to draw a Site Map.When pages are organized this way — like a family tree — it is called a “hierarchy” or “tree”. Most sites and apps are organized like this (but it’s not the only way).
