1. Building a Better Website: User-Centered Design Selma Zafar Senior User Experience Designer OpenRoad Communications

2. About me

3. Session Topics User Centred Design User Centred Design Methods Introduction to Information Architecture Information Architecture Creation Information Architecture Evaluations

4. User centred design

7. How do we get to know our users and their needs?

9. 1.Interviews 2.Surveys 3.Observational Research 4.Diaries

11. What users say and what they do are different

12. What can’t be answered

13. Should the Buy button be red or orange? Is it better to use a drop-down menu or a set of radio buttons for a certain set of choices? Where should the Foo product line reside in the IA? Is it better to have 3 levels of navigation, or should we stick to 2 levels even if it means longer menus? How should you write the Help information to best teach people how to correctly use the system? Specific Design Questions

14. Predicting use "Would you use (potential future) feature X? "How useful is feature Y?

15. What can be answered

16. What users thought of the site AFTER use Explore general attitudes Understand how they think about a problem Critical incident method

17. The Long Interview Grant McCracken Mental Models Indi Young

18. 2. Surveys

19. 5 Processes in Survey Design

20. Social Processes

21. Persuasive processes

22. Business processes

23. Cognitive Process

24. Analytical process

25. 5 Processes in Survey Design 1.Social: collaboration among stakeholders 2.Persuasive: getting respondents to answer the questions 3.Business: do I have the questions and response categories that will yield data to help us answer our business questions 4.Cognitive: understanding about how memory and context affect respondents answers 5.Analytic: how do I analyze and present the data

26. Good Survey Approaches Keep survey’s short and concise Avoid embarrassing questions (don’t ask "how old are you?"), Minimize the need for personal information Make every question is relevant and avoid lengthy questionnaires Allow users to change answers easily in online surveys

28. Observational Research Goal: Watch people in context of their natural environment to understand how they complete tasks.

29. Things to pay attention to: Language: what are users calling items? Problem Solving: how do they work around issues? Interaction with Others: when and why do they talk to others? Tasks: How are they completing tasks? In what order?

31. Diary Study Participants keep a diary, or journal, of their interactions with a computer system, any significant events or problems during their use of a system, or other aspects of their working life

32. What do they record? the date and time of an event, where they are, information about the event of significance, ratings about how they feel, etc.

33. Advantage Obtain information about the user's experience over time. Feedback provided while the user is interacting with the product

34. Disadvantage All information is self-reported

35. 1.Interviews 2.Surveys 3.Observational Research 4.Diaries

36. Source: http://gapingvoid.com

37. observation design solution

38. observation design solution conclusion

39. I observed X happening. 65% of survey responded Y. I heard employees say Z during interviews.

40. But what does that tell us about the world?

41. ObservationMany calls heard during call centre visit included common tasks, universal in format to all employees, typically characterized as low-stress or not time-sensitive. ConclusionThese calls could have been answered through the intranet. Opportunities exist to further drive call centre displacement and encourage use of intranet channel with employees. Design Implication Obtain and use call centre call-log data to further prioritize and highlight intranet content.

42. ObservationEmployees review their benefits information once a year during the annual benefits adjustment period, driving a lot of traffic to that section of the site every October. ConclusionEmployees may be unfamiliar with improvements or changes to process because there is no incentive to learn them since their last time through. Employees have little opportunity to "master" the process and feel competent. Opportunity exists to let employees know "what's changed" since their last time through the benefits adjustment process. Design Implication Acknowledge the infrequent time-based (temporal) aspect of the benefits experience by focusing on design learnability. Assume this is the user's first time through the process, because they've likely forgotten everything from last year.

43. 1.Observation 2.Conclusion 3.Design Implication

44. Information Architecture 101: Card Sorting

46. IA Challenges for Websites Reflects a company organization chart that your users don’t understand Stale, out-dated content ‘Dumping Ground’ for content No publishing standards or style guide

47. Business/Context ContentUsers

48. CARD SORTING

49. “ It is important to use Card Sorting for the right reasons and the right time in the project and to analyze the results in combination with other inputs. ” - DONNA SPENCER 2009

50. Steps in a Card Sort 1.Decide what you want to learn 2.Select the type of Card Sort (open vs closed) 3.Choose Suitable Content 4.Choose and invite participants 5.Conduct the sort (online or in-person) 6.Analyze Results 7.Integrate results

51. Product Targets CRM Project Review CRM Organizati on Chart Christmas Party Walkathon Results Year in Review Meeting Vacation Policy Pay Days Vacation request form Year in Review Meeting Product Targets CRM Project Review CRM Organizati on Chart Christmas Party Walkathon Results Vacation Policy Pay Days Vacation request form OPEN VS CLOSED Vacation Policy Christmas Party CRM Project Review CRM Organizati on Chart Product Targets Year in Review Meeting Pay Days Walkathon Results Vacation request form Vacation Policy Christmas Party CRM Project Review CRM Organizati on Chart Product Targets Year in Review Meeting Pay Days Walkathon Results Vacation request form Company News Departments Human Resources Projects Company News Events Human Resources Projects Company News Departments Human Resources Projects OPEN SORT CLOSED SORT

52. Selecting Content Do’s 30 – 100 Cards Select content that can be grouped Select terms and concepts that mean something to users Don’ts More than 100 cards Mix functionality and content Include both detailed and broad content

53. Analysis

54. Look at What groups were created Where the cards were placed What terms were used for labels Organization scheme used Whether people created accurate or inaccurate groups

55. Category Characteristics Users understand the categories & can find information Content fits well in categories with not too much overlap Category names match users mental models

56. Online Tools Optimal Workshop (www.optimalworkshop.com) Card Sorting

57. Information Architecture 101: Task Testing

58. What it is good for 1.Improving the organization of your site 2.Improving top down navigation 3.Improving your structure terminology 4.Isolating structure itself 5.Focuses on content - No visual design; page layout, content design 6. Getting user data early (before site is built) 7.Cheap and quick to try out ideas

59. What it is not 1.Not testing other navigation routes 2.Not testing feature links, see also links 3.Not testing search 4.Not testing page layout 5.Not testing visual design 6.Not a substitute for real-site user testing – usability testing with visual design etc 7.Not a replacement for card sorting

60. Task Based Testing #60 The information in this presentation is confidential. Please do not redistribute. Thanks!

61. Define Your Goals

62. Planning What are you testing? Why are you testing? Who are you testing? When are you testing?

63. Selecting Tasks General applicable to all users Represent the variety of use cases Reflect the main goals of your website e.g. Contact Information Corporate Information News, blogs

64. Writing Tasks 1.Use real scenarios to make task believable 2.Don’t use the name of the location of the information in the task. 3.Keep it simple and to the point – don’t embellish with a whole story. 4.Read the task out loud to someone first! If they don’t understand it, then rewrite it.

65. Each Task Must… 1.Be specific 2.Be clearly worded 3.Use the customer’s language 4.Be concise

66. Selecting Participants

67. How many users to test? 30 minimum (ideal 50 – 100) Multiple user groups – 25+ per group 10 tasks maximum

69. Analysis

70. Summary

71. User centred design

72. Never ask someone what they wants, work to understand what they do.

73. 1.Interviews 2.Surveys 3.Observational Research 4.Diaries

74. observation design solution conclusion

76. CARD SORTING

77. Task Based Testing #77 The information in this presentation is confidential. Please do not redistribute. Thanks!

80. Selma Zafar selma@openroad.ca twitter.com/selmaz