uPortal 3 User Experience A Designer’s Perspective

Common understanding of design Design's role in the community Speak to uP3 work Action Items

Common understanding of design What is User Experience? The sum experience of a user while interacting with the system or product

Common understanding of design What is Design? The aim of design is to create good user experiences

Common understanding of design Designers think about: –People and their goals –How to adapt technology to people Attraction Satisfaction Representation Adoption

Common understanding of design Art –Artificial –No Constraints –Expression Design –For use –Has Constraints –Science Design, while exploratory and often visual, is a scientific process with a commercial goal where the end product is used.

Common understanding of design Design is science –Observation –Hypothesis –Test & Validate Designers don't instinctively know the answer either - but we'll find out!

Design’s role in the community What should [a portal for Higher Ed] be? –Community How should it be used [by people]? –Designers How can it be done [with technology]? –Developers

Design’s role in the community Where is design in the uPortal community?

Design’s role in the community Until there is more designer involvement and emphasis on making the product desirable and usable, uPortal will not reach its full potential Significant barriers to entry for both product use and community contribution Powerful, but unattractive functionality that is difficult to use

Design’s role in the community

Designers are not developers (usually) –Speak a different language –Have different goals –Follow a different core process –Use different tools –Produce different artifacts

Design’s role in the community Designers are scared away when: –Forced to learn and speak “tech talk” –Asked to design in a “dev environment” –Misunderstood as “skinners” –User Experience is not prioritized –Not given development support

Design’s role in the community It’s symbiotic –Developers need Designers to envision and design a good user experience –Designers need Developers to build the experience

uP3 User Experience A User-Centered Design (UCD) approach The chief difference from other interface design philosophies is that user-centered design tries to optimize the user interface around how people can, want, or need to work, rather than forcing the users to change how they work to accommodate the system or function.

uP3 User Experience User Research Analysis Design Concepts User/Usability Testing Observation Hypothesis Test/Validate What does UCD do?

uP3 User Experience User Research

uP3 User Experience Personas Fictitious characters that are created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product. Personas are given characteristics and are assumed to be in particular environments based on known users’ requirements so that these elements can be taken into consideration when creating scenarios for conceptualizing a site.

uP3 User Experience Comparative/ Competitive Analysis

uP3 User Experience Heuristic Analysis Usability Heuristics are a set of industry-defined principles that govern good design. Since common usability heuristics evolved over time they are generally considered to be a standard in best practices for high-level usability evaluation.

uP3 User Experience UE Goals –Modernize the User Experience –Layout Customization –Improve Usability Powerful and attractive functionality that is easy to use

uP3 User Experience Design Concepts

uP3 User Experience User Testing –Effectiveness –Efficiency –Satisfaction

Action Items Support good design in the uPortal community –Prioritize work that results in UE improvements –Support UE improvements on the backend –Review design activity and give feedback –Get Designers and UE people at your institution to participate

Action Items Incorporate design in your projects –Get users involved (you have direct access) –Submit design ideas –Do "Brick Wall" user testing of designs with users at your institution and post the feedback –Sponsor "Compliant" user testing at your institution