essential ux skills for technical communicators (stc summit 2010)
DESCRIPTION
Covers basics of user-centered design and 3 ux skills anyone can use: heuristic review, card sorting, and usability testing. I presented these slides with Will Sansbury and Yina Li at STC Summit 2010. It's a revised version of the workshop we did in Atlanta.TRANSCRIPT
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Essential User Experience Skills forTechnical CommunicatorsSummit 2010 • May 5, 2010
Will SansburyInteraction DesignerPracticeWorks Systems
Yina LiTechnical WriterHorizon Software
Rachel PetersSr. Analyst, UXThe Home Depot
1. Card Sorting
2. Heuristic Evaluation
3. Usability Testing
What isuser-centered
design?
User-centered design is an approach to design that grounds the process in information about the people who will use the product.
What is User-Centered Design? Usability Professionals Associationhttp://www.upassoc.org/usability_resources/about_usability/what_is_ucd.html
User-centered design looks like this.
Phase 1Analysis
Phase 2Design
Phase 3Evaluation
Phase 4 Deployment
User-centered designis common sense.
Image by malias (flickr)
Phase 1: AnalysisHow would you like your hair cut?
Phase 2: DesignSnip, snip.
Phase 3: EvaluationHere’s a mirror. What do you think?
Phase 4: Deployment Have a great day!
Essential Skill #1
Card Sorting
What aisle is hot dog chili on?
With the hot dog buns?
Chili’s kind of like a soup…
Chili has beans…
Nah, that’s too easy!
Is hot dog chili a condiment?
Card Sorting 101: It’s easy and fun.
about the
local chapter
competitions
eventsscholarship
job listings
conference information
Typical card sort instructions
• How would you organize the STC Atlanta site?• Group the cards into categories.– Is something missing? Use a blank card to add it.– Something doesn’t belong? Put the card aside.– Card belongs in more than one group? Be creative.
• Label the categories– Use a blank card to name each category.– Category names are up to you.
Card sorts reveal patterns (usually).
What’s your goal?Card sorts aren’t just for designing menus or tables of content.
What are these?
Image by Flickr user Swami Stream
My wordsflowersdaisiespetalsspringpurplepinkgreenyellowhappyprettyphoto
Photographer’s wordsfarmers marketflowerssan franciscocaliforniacannonoutstanding shots
Your words?
Classification is ultimately an imperfect and messy undertaking; don’t let yourself get caught up in the false goal of getting it “right.”
Donna Spencer, Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories
Classification ≠ Findability
Everything you want to know…
Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories
Donna Spencer
Available from Rosenfeld Media: http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/cardsorting/
Essential Skill #2
Heuristic Evaluation
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How do you counter bubble bursters?
Heuristic evaluation involves having a small set of evaluators examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles.
—Jakob Nielsen
Nielsen’s heuristics for user interface designhttp://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html
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Nielsen’s heuristics for user interface designhttp://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html
Recognized by whom?
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Louis Rosenfeld’s Heuristics for IA
• Accommodate behaviors of repeat users who know what they’re looking for.
• Labels and headings should be clear and meaningful.
• Provide clear calls-to-action for what a user might want to do next.
Complete list available on Lou’s blog at http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000286.html
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Heuristics…
• ground your feedback in industry best practices.
• lend the voices of experts to your cause.• give you a means of structuring your
feedback in a consistent, digestible format.
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Narrative report
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Visual report
A common misperception of the evaluation of content quality is that its scope is limited to the correction of typos and grammatical errors.
—Colleen JonesFounder, Content Science
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Jones’ heuristics for content http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/04/toward-content-quality.php
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Colleen Jones’ Heuristics for Content
Usefulness & Relevance• Does the content meet user needs, goals, and interests?• Does the content meet business goals?• For how long will the content be useful? When should it expire?
Has its usefulness already expired?• Is the content timely and relevant?Clarity & Accuracy• Is the content understandable to customers?• Is the content organized logically and coherently?• Is the content correct?• Does the content contain factual errors, typos, or grammatical errors?• Do images, video, and audio meet technical standards, so they are clear?Jones’ heuristics for content http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/04/toward-content-quality.php
Essential Skill #3
Usability Testing
What is usability testing?
38Image by Seattle Miles - http://www.flickr.com/photos/denemiles/3970279665/
Time to explore!
Is this your first Summit?
Your local chapter won the Award of Distinction this year. You would like to go to the Award Banquet. Find out what you need to do to attend.
What did we learn?
How to run a usability test?
1. Define your goals2. Create the test3. Find people4. Run the test5. Analyze the results6. Report the findings
You do not have to be perfect.
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Still interested? STC Usability SIG: http://www.stcsig.org/usability
Usability Professionals’ Associationhttp://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/
SIG CHI of ACMhttp://www.sigchi.org/
IxDAhttp://www.ixda.org/
Jakob Nielsen’s Alert Boxhttp://www.useit.com/
UX Mattershttp://www.uxmatters.com/
Any questions?Rachel PetersSr. Analyst, User ExperienceThe Home Depot
Will SansburyInteraction DesignerPracticeWorks Systems, LLC
Yina LiTechnical WriterHorizon Software International