The document discusses user experience (UX) and its importance for software applications. UX seeks to understand user needs in order to improve productivity, reduce mistakes and training, and foster loyalty. Common UX techniques include user research through interviews and observations to develop personas and scenarios, as well as prototyping and collaborative design sessions. Prototyping solutions iteratively and testing them with users is important for refining the user experience. The document emphasizes understanding users and involving them in the design process.

1. What is User Experience? February 21, 2007 William Tschumy User Experience Evangelist, Western Region Microsoft

2. “ Questions about whether design is necessary or affordable are quite beside the point: design is inevitable . The alternative to good design is bad design , not no design at all. Everyone makes design decisions all the time without realizing it …and good design is simply the result of making these decisions consciously …” -- Douglas Martin (book designer)

3. Put a different way…

4. “ You cannot not have a [user] experience” -- Clued In , Lou Carbone CEO, Experience Engineering

5. Wait a minute: I’m doing internal LOB applications… Why do I care?

6. The short answer is: Money

7. User Experience (UX) seeks to understand the implicit and explicit needs of a system’s constituencies

8. Understanding and satisfying your constituencies’ needs means they: Are Happier Are More Productive Require Less Training Make Fewer Mistakes

9. How do I get started?

10. All techniques start with data collection and end with specific recommendations Information gathering Analysis Recommendations > > Common goals, different methods

12. User Research: Immersive research Intercept interviews on the street…to get quick reactions to questions Camera studies allow people to interpret their environment and activities when we can’t be there What People Say and Make Semi-structured interviews in customers’ workplaces to gather information on their daily activities and needs

15. Scenario Prototyping The scenarios show how these characters may go about doing a task typical of their role and the challenges they face within the current environment Fictitious narratives or scenarios are developed to illustrate key themes of user needs uncovered in the research. They each have different key goals and motivators. Scenario Prototypes gather requirements through narratives

16. Personas & Scenario Prototyping (cont’d) Scenario outlines the major features of the business or application Profiles are based off of user research, and are consistent with both the value map and the business model

17. Collaborative Design Respondents can work as teams, discussing individual views of the information hierarchy aloud. Card sorting is useful in early stages of development to prioritize and cluster potential content offerings, find new content areas of value, and identify new areas of functionality. This technique helps identify a user-centric view of the information architecture and nomenclature.

18. Collaborative Design (Cont’d) Users make word-to-image associations when describing their collage to the group/facilitator, and articulate what a product/brand/interface SHOULD be as well as what it SHOULD NOT be. Users can voice tacit perceptions that would otherwise not emerge in a focus group setting through non-verbal exercises. Collaging helps to elicit metaphorical associations or attitudes users have with specific topic areas.

19. Collaborative Design (Cont’d) Collaborative sessions with constituents co-design possible screens. Constituents provide immediate input and feedback - developing and revising paper-based prototypes on the fly. Rough sketches - or paper-base prototypes - shared with customers early in the design process to get their feedback on various homepage concepts. The team was able to “test” the concepts while exploring their needs and expectations in greater depth.

20. Usability Testing HTML-based prototype (without final visual design) test the navigation and site functionality. Testing highlighted opportunities to streamline the site structure and overall user experience. Usability testing identifies quick fixes that could be made before launch and those that would be addressed in subsequent launches.

22. Experience prototypes model, simulate, or otherwise dynamically represent aspects of the experiences. These prototypes are the tangible outcomes of the design activities that embody—in whole or in part—significant attributes of the relationships between experiences. These prototypes are different from Scenario Prototypes - Scenario Prototype focus on requirement gathering through narrative. Experience Prototypes focus on iterative solution development. Experience Prototypes

23. Experience Prototypes ‘ living’ identity Product design advertising packaging online

24. Describes key interactions and processes, both from a constituent perspective and system perspective. Interaction Design focuses on accomplishing a given task on a page, or on a small set of pages Information Architecture (IA) focuses on how concepts evolve over time as each constituent moves through the product or service Interaction Design & IA

25. Interaction Design: Flows “ Managing your home” experience –constituent perspective “ Edit Photo Title” experience —constituent perspective share/categorize manage home identify need find solution follow-up estimate/ order provider visit

26. Information Architecture Conceptual Model Site Map

27. ID, IA: One experience, Many channels

29. A Content Matrix is an exhaustive listing of all the content in a given product, service or business. It relates the content between the user requirement and the position within the product, service or business. Content Strategy (Cont’d)

30. How should our product, service or business look visually? Visual Design

31. Please rank these mood boards. 1 =most favorite, 12 =least favorite Mood Boards: A basic vocabulary

32. Thank You! William Tschumy [email_address] 415.420.3746 User Experience Evangelist, Western Region Microsoft