3. Agenda for today
Answer these questions:
• What is Information Architecture (IA)?!
• What does “good” mean?!
• How is IA best used and when?!
• What IA tools can I walk out of here with today?!
Attempt these stunts:
• Funnel development !
• Persona segmentation !
• Collaborative design session brief creation!
6. What is information architecture (IA)?
• Making complex things be clear(er)!
• Making things not just look good, but be good!
• Consensus facilitation!
--!
• NOT “just Sitemaps and Wireframes”!
• NOT “the old name for UX”!
• NOT “just digital”!
7. I Have used IA to help
• Change the audience for Sharpie from a office supply
consumer to teenagers looking for a self expression tool!
• Grow a 150,000 member Facebook fan base for JELL-O
over the weekend.!
• Pilot a revolutionary diet for people with Type 2 diabetes!
• Analyze and strategically prioritize digital marketing
efforts and improvements for Herman Miller in support of
their movement into the B to C market!
8. Research
Strategy
Architecture
Design
Execution
basic process
of making
things
9. Research
Strategy
Architecture
Design
Execution
Why What Who When How Next
? ? ? ? ? ?
Questions that Need
Answers
10. IA can be used when
• Conducting Research (Persona Research, User
Interviewing, User Testing, Competitive Research,
Contextual Inquiry)!
!
• Formulating Strategic Insight (Stakeholder
Interviewing, Analytics, Goal Setting, Key Performance
Indicator Development, Heuristic Evaluation)!
!
• Creating Structural Blueprints (Product Roadmaps,
Site maps, Process/Flow Diagrams, Requirements,
Experience Maps, Cross Channel Maps, Prototypes)!
11. Research
Strategy
Architecture
Design
Execution
Why What Who When How Next
? ? ? ? ? ?
Goal
Setting
Workshop
Persona
Workshop 3 tools of the IA
Collaborative trade we will
Design Session learn today
12. Lesson 1:
Using goal
Setting to
establish checks
and balances
upfront
13. In this lesson
• You will gain a basic understanding of the tools used for
measuring and evaluating the quality of a product or
serviceʼs user experience !
• You will learn the importance of prioritizing what you
measure. !
• You will learn the importance of setting goals!
• You will understand the difference between directional
goals and specific goals!
• You will be able to help your team to understand the
goals for your user experience!
14. What do we use to measure?
• User testing !
• Satisfaction Surveys!
• Usage Data/Analytics!
• Social Media Statistics!
• Sales data, even non digital equivalents!
• Qualitative metrics (sales force or
customer service quotas)!
15. What are we actually measuring?
• The simple answer is… NOT everything.!
• The more complicated one is … measure
what matters.!
16. Awareness:
How do people know Getting at
about you? Or not what matters
know about you?
!
Acquisition: Attach to the Funnel:!
Where are you
bringing people to
!
your product from? • What you have today!
• Opportunities you
Distraction: Conversion: Competition:
When they don't Where are When they
have!
proceed? places that proceed but not
Where do they people decide with you? Start thinking about
go? Add why? to proceed with Where do they
your business go? Add why? what you would need to
measure in order to
determine if each part
Action:
What is the 1 of the funnel is
thing you want optimized.!
users to do
Loyalty:
Do they ever
come back?
(Optional)
17. Awareness:
Example:
Social Media
Word of Mouth
Small
Acquisition:
Blogger Network
Community
Search Engines
Advertisement
News
Collec6ve
Social Media
Distraction: Conversion: Competition:
Advertisements
Home page
Article page
Main Stream
Music Sites
Twitter page
With
the
goal
of
Facebook page Other Music
Blogs
providing
quality
local
music
news
Action:
Read the
News
(Note:
I
made
this
up,
no
hipsters
were
harmed
in
the
Loyalty:
crea6on
of
this
example)
Sign up for the
community
(Optional)
18. Awareness: How do We
Add
burning
Social Media
Word of Mouth
people have no
find us?! social
ques6ons
and
Where are
loyal users Acquisition: media!
what
you
know
likeliest to Blogger Network
Search Engines
come from?! Advertisement
Social Media
Distraction: Conversion: Competition:
Home page Main Stream
Advertisements Article page Music Sites
Twitter page
Facebook page Other Music
Blogs
We donʼt track How long
Action:
suggested Read the
should we
content today! News expect people
to stay?!
We have never Do people
talked to users! appreciate Our time on
suggested site average is
content? Do Loyalty:
less than a
Sign up for the
they want to community minute!
share?! (Optional)
19. Finding the right measures
If you have a question about! Examples to be looking at…!
If something is effective! Completion rates !
Whether something is findable! Speed to find!
Peopleʼs Expectations! Bounce Rates & Time on Site!
Satisfaction! Interviews, Surveys, Ask Sales and CSRs !
Is enough Information provided?! Are people clicking to further information
consistently?!
Are people using the path as designed?! Click path data!
(Courtesy
of
Richard
Dalton)
20. Attach measurement plans to questions
The
Big
Ques6ons
Planning
to
measure
Awareness: How do people find User interviews and Surveys!
out about us?!
Acquisition: Where will our loyal Surveys, Analytics: Traffic Sources for Repeat
users be coming from?! Users !
Conversion: What is the average Analytics: Time on site compared to industry
time on site for us? What is averages and for loyalty users vs single article
normal?! users!
Action: Will people interact with Analytics: Click rates on items suggested on article
the content we suggest they pages!
interact with after reading the entry
article?!
Loyalty: How will loyalty users Analytics: Compare variety of points across loyalty
differ from new users?! users and single article users!
Other: How should sharing work? Surveys, Interviews, Analytics: Track social sharing
What do people share?! behavior to establish baselines for types of events!
21. Exercise 1
Imagine that your team is being asked to redesign
the General Assembly experience. !
!
As a group, fill in the funnel with: !
!
q Facts – you (like many startups) wonʼt have many ;)!
q Questions youʼd like answers to!
q Existing pieces of the experience!
q Opportunities to explore!
q How you might measure things along the way!
27. Example: Specific Goals
Our Goals for the next 6 months!
– Establish an average time on site with our loyalty
users of 2+ minutes (matching industry standards for
news sites)!
– Produce an average of 100+ unique social media
impressions per month for the news organization
brand!
– Increase the likelihood of loyalty users to click of
secondary materials from 10% to 20% through better
content tagging and human curation!
28. Lesson 2:
Personas
distill
research into
weaponized
bits
29. In this lesson
• You will understand the value of personas in the design
process!
• You will be able to identify potential sources for personas !
• You will learn how to segment target users into persona
targets!
• You will understand why stories are a powerful tool to
incorporate into your personas!
• You will learn strategies and common pitfalls when
selecting photos to accompany your personas. !
30. Why personas work:
• People like having someone to design for:
meaning there is already a persona or two living
in the head of every member of your team.!
• Personas inspire teams to work towards a
shared vision instead of many disparate ones!
31. Choosing Representative
Personas:
• Step
1:
Make
a
post
it
for
each
user
type
you
can
think
of
• Step
2:
Group
them
on
a
wall
into
clusters
by
how
they
might
think
about
or
use
your
product
or
service
• Step
3:
Pick
3-‐5
clusters
of
people
that
seem
like
the
ones
most
important
to
whom
you
are
trying
to
reach
• Step
4:
Choose
one
“person”
from
each
of
those
clusters
that
you
feel
could
stand
up
and
make
decisions
for
that
whole
group
if
a
vote
were
to
occur
• Step
5:
Decide
what
you
know,
and
what
you
need
to
know
• Step
6:
Devise
a
plan
to
find
out
what
you
don’t
yet
know.
32. Who to Prioritize?
Urgent Not Urgent
Important
Important
1st 3rd
Not Important
Not Important
2nd SOL
Urgent Not Urgent
33. Quick ways to get to
know your users:
• Talk to potential users!
• Talk to actual users (if you have them)!
• Talk to competitive users (no one said you couldnʼt –
unless they did, then donʼt)!
• Spend time shadowing users in their real lives!
• Watch people using equivalent or similar things to what
you are making!
• Use competitive things in the market!
• Social media listening!
• Blogs, customer reviews, forums… the internet is HUGE!
34. Example: theArtistsway
Persona research done on
Urgent Not Urgent 3 segments:!
1 Professional
Artists • Survey distributed on
Important
Important
social media for 3 types of
3 Students artists to learn differences!
Craft Artists
2 • Buy-along trips to local art
supply stores!
• Remote usability tests of
current sites used for
Not Important
Important
buying supplies online to
discuss functionality and
pain points!
• Interviews and studio
visits were done to
Urgent Not Urgent
discuss storage of
supplies, how far in
advance supplies are
bought etc!
!
35. Exercise 2:
q Individually brainstorm
Urgent Not Urgent
the different types of
users the GA campus
Important
needs to serve (and not
Important
serve)!
q Within your team, plot
them on the urgency/
important 4 up !
q Decide the top 3 clusters
Not Important
Important
you would research as
personas and the best
ways to research them!
Urgent Not Urgent
36. Building each persona:
• Step 1: Choosing a name and photo!
• Step 2: Rough demographics, home life, work
life, digital life!
• Step 3: Attitudes and Product/Service/Industry
Related Feelings !
Common pitfalls in photo and name selection:!
!
• Racially insensitive or inappropriate!
• Hot people!
• Stock photos or headshots!
• “Thatʼs not so-n-so”!
• Team or customer photos or names!
!
37. Narrating each
personas experience
• Step 1: Put on the shoes of each persona and describe
the world they experience today. !
• Step 2: Write a story of what they see. What do they
wish was better? Where would your product fit in?!
If your product is in their story today, be brave!!
!
Show the under belly and admit the flaws of what
you are offering through their eyes. What is their
likely reaction?!
!
38. How to tell the story
effectively
• Capture quotes you think people would say or emotions
you anticipate they would have!
• Try to write the personas in their words!
• Grab screenshots and video grabs where you can to
show the experience through their eyes!
• As you read your story, use the visuals to support it!
• Ask your team for confirmation that the story seems
realistic and not over the top in either a positive or
negative direction!
39. Example: theArtistsway
About Janie: Professional Artist
Digital Life:
Janie is a designer at heart and by trade. She Janie is a Mac enthusiast for work, but a
is an artist living and working in a small studio mostly iPad user when it comes to her
she shares with husband and photographer -- casual browsing and emailing. She also
in the West Park Slope neighborhood of is starting to get into social media and
Brooklyn. loves to post things she finds on her
Facebook wall for her friends to see and
occasionally to her agencyʼs blog.
When shopping for clothing, art supplies,
whatever: quality and style matter to Janie Technology and Media Diet:
more than price. She doesnʼt often shop at
mass retailers and loves spending a Saturday • Loves to browse blogs and design
browsing the local markets and boutique magazine sites on her iPad. Also a
retailers. She considers her digital life much iPhone 3G user, but doesn't browse
the web very consistently from it.
the same. And chooses to use devices and • Loves her Macbook Air for ease of
"I'm finally digital, now tools she likes to look at and use. travel and slick design
• Bose noise canceling headphones,
I'm ready for my art In the last 5 years Jane's entire life has also essential for travel
• Netflix Instant Subscriber, great for
business to be." migrated online, but she feels like her business her since they donʼt have cable
as an artist has been left without a place that is anymore
Age: 53 meant for her. All the tools available are for • eBook purchaser, keeps the clutter
consultants, not artists. down in a NYC apartment
Work Life: Professional Artist • Has a personal and business
Home Life: Married to Michael, 54. Design Minded + Facebook accounts
• Has a business twitter account which
No children. Owner of a 2 cats she doesnʼt touch but tells her staff
Business Savvy +
Income Level: 120k household about content to post
. +
Digital Savvy
40. Lesson 3:
Sketching
Experiences
and managing
scope
41. In this lesson
• You will understand the basics requirements for
preparing and hosting a collaborative sketching session.!
• You will learn the basic outline of a process to facilitate
collaborative sketching and a basic structure for
synthesizing ideas that come out of a collaborative
design session.!
• You will synthesize ideas generated by others for use in
future product planning!
42. What s the difference between
sketching and drawing?
• Drawing: The art or skill or making such
pictures or diagrams!
• Sketching: Give a brief account or general
outline of!
43. Only you can prevent
brainstorms
• The most important thing to remember when
running a session is that the quality of what you
put into preparing will reflect itself in what comes
out of the session!
• If you go in and throw blank paper around and
say “lets draw the new product” – you will get
blank paper of a generic product out of it. !
44. Preparing a good brief
Just like on a secret spy mission, a good briefing
should have:!
!
• Intelligence: from the competition (herein referred to as
the enemy) audience, market and/or industry!
• Dossier(s): Your personas from the last lesson!
• State of Affairs: Where you are today (if anywhere) !
• The Assignment: A set of experiences you want them to
redesign during the session !
!
45. Framing the
Assignment(s)
• Pick a Persona!
• Pick an important task (something the user
will accomplish)!
• Describe the personaʼs completion of the
task (as the world is today)!
• Draft the assignment for the session!
46. Example:
Current Situation: Joan is a professional artist who orders the
same supplies on a regular basis. Today she manually orders
monthly and on an as needed basis through Dickblick.com. She
manages her business through spreadsheets and a variety of
paper based methods. Much of the rest of her life is now online
and she is interested in a new way, but hasnʼt heard of such a
thing for artists like her.!
!
Your Mission: Work with your team to envision a product
experience for Joan to manage and execute her monthly art
supply purchases online. For this first task, letʼs start with Joan
hearing about this new product on a site like Facebook,
investigating it and signing up to use it for the first time.!
47. Exercise 3
Write a short scenario for each of your GA
personas. !
!
If time allows, we will vote on one scenario to
sketch through.!
48. What Happens after
the Brief?
• Brief (5 Min)!
• Sketch Individually (10 min)!
• Group Sketch (15 min)!
• Present to Room (5 min per group)!
!
49. Fortune Favors the Bold
Bring in Friends: Ok so you are sitting there
saying, I am one person, no team. Thatʼs ok!
Invite some friends. It wonʼt be exactly ideal
BUT I bet you get something out of it.!
!
Bring in Users: This exercise is excellent with
an internal team. But bringing users into a room
and doing this together can be an amazing way
to unlock insight and bring new ideas to life. But
I will warn you it takes careful planning and
excellent moderation.!
!
50. What is Scope and Why
Should you care?
Scope
=
What
we
all
agreed
to
do
51. Preparing to Scope
• Truth #1 Some of the ideas that came out
of the session will be bad !
• Truth #2 Someone will have to make a call!
• Truth #3 Not all important features will have
been captured.!
52. Understanding Prioritization
Brandʼs Prioritization:! User Prioritization:!
ü Meets Competitive/Industry or ü Appropriate for my life!
Regulatory Bar!
ü Relevant to me!
ü Meets Contractual Obligation!
ü Availability of Resources or ü Within reach in price and
Partners! availability!
ü Budget to Produce!
What measurement is fair?!
!
• High: Must have and would consider holding launch until I get it!
• Medium: Is pretty essential but launch is priority over it!
• Low: Nice to have but not essential!
53. A format for
prioritizing:
Feature or Brand (H,M,L)! User (H,M,L)! Phase Cost/Hours to
Idea! Decision! Produce!
Insert! Insert! Insert! Insert! Insert!
!
• Allows for dual prioritization!
• Allows for phase designation outside of
prioritization!
• Indicates cost/time per feature or idea (optional)!
If things get messy: Get out the monopoly money. Each stakeholder gets an
even cut of the phase 1 budget and has to buy the features and functions
they want. It will get interesting.!
54. Example: MusicLocal
Feature or Idea! Brand (H,M,L)! User (H,M,L)! Phase Decision!
Mobile Site: Low! High! Beta Phase 2
Upload of Pictures! (watch traffic to
decide if functionality
is implemented in
phase 2 release)!
Website: Multi High! High! Phase 1!
picture uploading
during posting
process!
55. But wait! there s more...
Than I can cover in 3 hours.
But now you know the right place to start.