1. 1  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 tandemseven.com | 508.746.6116 Interaction Design in Industry Lawrence J. Najjar, Ph.D. lnajjar@tandemseven.com 5th Annual Regional HFES Student Chapter Conference California State University, Long Beach February 27, 2010

2. 2  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 2 Agenda  Who am I?  Why is this talk relevant?  What is interaction design?  Interaction design process  The good, the bad, and the ugly  What I’ve learned  Summary

3. 3  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 3 Who am I?  Ph.D. engineering psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology  27 years experience including:  Campbell Soup Company employee intranet  HomeDepot.com  US air traffic controller user interface  Wearable computer for poultry plant quality assurance inspectors  Over 50 professional publications and presentations (see http://www.lawrence-najjar.com) http://www.lawrence-najjar.com

4. 4  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 4 Why is this talk relevant?  Most human factors jobs are in industry 1,2  Industry is different from academia  Want to give a sense of what interaction design in industry is like

5. 5  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 5 What is interaction design?  Field that designs the interface between people and machines, such as computers  Focuses on the way user interfaces work, not the way they look

6. 6  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 6 Interaction design process  Goals  Stakeholder & user interviews  Personas  Functional requirements  Wireframes  Usability feedback  Specifications

7. 7  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 7 Goals  Business  User  Application

8. 8  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 8 Stakeholder & user interviews  One interviewer, one note- taker  Talk to stakeholders for 1 hour  Talk to representative users in their work environments for 1 hour  Ask specific and open-ended questions  Summarize findings

9. 9  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 9 Personas  Use interview notes to create 5 or fewer textual descriptions of major representative users  Include background, goals, needs, tasks, priorities, challenges  Used for requirements and to guide design decisions

10. 10  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 10 Functional requirements  Based on prior tasks, identify high-level user interface requirements for functions & content (if applicable)  Focus on what users do, not how they do it  List and prioritize each requirement  Possibly scope the requirements  Move some requirements to later phases  Iteratively review with client

11. 11  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 11 Wireframes  Minimal graphics, minimal color drawings of the user interface for a page  Focus on how the user interface works not how it looks  Show page layout, placement of data elements & controls, navigation  Helpful for refining requirements & task flows  Iterate with client

12. 12  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 12 Usability feedback  Get small sample of representative users  Work with one user at a time for 1 hour  Ask how the user would perform important tasks  Show wireframes for each page  Look for ways to improve the design

13. 13  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 13 Specifications  Include image of each wireframe  Describe how the user interface controls work  Allow developers to bring the user interface to life  Provide information for quality assurance testing

14. 14  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 14 Interaction design process  Goals  Stakeholder & user interviews  Personas  Functional requirements  Wireframes  Usability feedback  Specifications

15. 15  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 15 Interaction design in industry: The good, the bad, & the ugly  The good  More job opportunities  Slightly higher pay  Greater design creativity  Probably more impact (short-term)  Shorter delay of gratification  The bad  Less work outside of software user interface design  Fewer opportunities for training  Few opportunities for research  Few opportunities for publishing  Faster pace  More time pressure  The ugly  More layoffs

16. 16  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 16 What I’ve Learned  Easy is hard  User interaction design is an art and a science  No one gets it right the first time  Users are bad designers but good reviewers  Just because you can doesn’t mean you should  Several iterative designs of a static, low-fidelity user interface are more effective than one version of a dynamic, high-fidelity user interface prototype  No one takes the training. No one reads the Help.  Air traffic controllers don’t want a “Help” button on their keyboards

17. 17  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 17 Summary  A career in interaction design in industry has pros and cons  Focus is on doing good work fast  Major cost and time pressure  Gratifying work  Fun

18. 18  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 18 1.Peres, S. C. & McCloskey, L. (2009, July) HFES 2009 salary and compensation survey. Human Factors Bulletin, 52(7). Retrieved from: http://www.hfes.org/web/HFESBulletin/July2009SalarySurvey.html http://www.hfes.org/web/HFESBulletin/July2009SalarySurvey.html 2.Usability Professionals’ Association (2009, August 18). UPA 2009 salary survey. Retrieved from: http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/surveys/2009sa larysurvey_PUBLIC.pdf http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/surveys/2009sa larysurvey_PUBLIC.pdf References

19. 19  TandemSeven Inc. 2009 19 Lawrence Najjar lnajjar@tandemseven.com http://www.lawrence-najjar.com/ Contact me