ux meets code concepting
DESCRIPTION
Slides from the Concepting your app day at the UX Meets Code track in Barcelona, Spain 4-6 December 2009TRANSCRIPT
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Concepting
What is…
• User experience (UX) is the overall perception and interaction of a user with an entity.
• Usability is an undefined measurement about how a user can reach his goal with an entity.
• Interaction design (IxD) is the process of specifying an entity with regards to usability.
• Graphical design (GD) is the artistic arrangement of visual items to communicate the content.
What is…
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GD: • Draw button image • Set margins • Define colors
IxD: • Define button action • Define button text • Define which view comes next
UX: • The button looks nice • It is placed at the right position • It does the right action
Usability: Good, since 9 out of 10 users know how to use this button.
Result
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How Much Does User Experience Cost?
Mean amount of time: 6% of total project time
Ideal amount of time: 10% of total project time
(For professionals)
5 (Nielsen 1993)
What Does it Return?
• Ideally: • Reduces development time • Saves money to the author and the user
• Usually: • Prevents from major usability problems • Reduces the user’s time to reach a goal • Increases the reputation of your work by users and other authors
• Unfortunately: • Time savings and resulting cost savings are hard to measure • The same holds for reputation
• The concept describes the essence of interaction and functionality taking the user requirements into account
• The concept explains also the effect of the business, technology and appearance on interaction and functionality
• The ”Proof of concept” relates only to technology
Concept vs. Proof of Concept Technology
Business
Functionality Interaction
Appearance Product
Concept
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The description of the concept is the core document for further
design, specification and development.
Proof of concept
Textual Sketch Graphical Prototype
Concept Descriptions
Ego, VW's 2028 concepts Fiat FCC concept Suzuki Kiashi Concept Car
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There are many ways how concepts can be communicated.
Concept Description
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My cool travel-mate concept
The level of detail of the UX concept description can vary based on • The maturity of your concept idea (verbal working prototype) • The target audience you are trying to impress (partners, co-authors,
communities) • The next Go / No-go decisions to make
Concept Definition
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Concepting is the process to reach a proven vision of an entity with regards to usability.
• A concept can describe a product or service that does not yet exist • Some parts of the product are explained, the rest is left to your imagination
and reasoning • The concept description is a subset of a full product or service description
(e.g. detailed specification document) • A concept is a “high-level” summary, not going into product details
Concepts for Mobile Devices
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A concept can describe an existing or non-existing product, application or service.
Concept Objectives
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Objectives
Summarize To describe the essence of your product (idea)
Visualize To make your ideas more visible and concrete
Prove a point To convince some stakeholders (investor, product management, product development,…) to invest more on your idea
Share to evaluate To study different design and implementation alternatives To provoke discussion
Investments of more interest, time, money, effort,…
Exercise
How would you describe the concept of your application or service?
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Target Groups
• Not everyone wants to use your product • Different user groups have different needs and
reasons for their purchase and usage decisions • There is no point to try to make a design that will
satisfy everyone
• Identify potential end users and end user groups • The aim is to recognize user groups where the
product/service can serve best and be most profitable
• When you know the user group, you can create a “user persona”
• You are most likely a part of the target group, but not the whole group
Maemo 5 Target Group
• The most modern, leading edge consumers
• Technology is their life • Highly sociable with and active
lifestyle • More likely to be male, single
and young (under 30) with high economic level
• Digital Natives
Define the common UX Design Drivers.
UX Design Drivers
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Adapted from: Roto & Rautava: User Experience Elements and Brand promise (2008)
Practical Hedonic Mobile UX
User Persona(s)
• Who is she/he • Name, gender, age, location • Family ties and photos • Profession and lifestyle
• Additional information • Personality traits • Technology choices • Goals, behaviors or motivations • Differentiators
• Base them on people that you personally know • Personas help to create scenarios and stories • ”Would my persona really behave like this?”
Describe the Context of Use
• People • Places • Things • Time
Context
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The concept description should document not only the product itself, but also the context: people, places, things and time.
Motion
Stationary • Lay, sit
On-the-move • Walking • Running
Travelling • Drive • Sit • Stand
Handling items
Carry
Use
Move
Outfit
Jackets, bikinis
Pockets
Gloves
Holders
Senses
See: obstacles, lighting
Hear: noise, speech
Feel: cold
Time
Fragmented flow
Waiting, rushing, ..
Social
Friends
People around you
Privacy
Technical
Network • Access • Costs
Battery power
Connections • Wireless/
wired • Web, GPS,
Bluetooth, other devices
Mobile Context Issues
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There are many issues that can define the mobile context at any given moment.
Mobile Context Examples
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Mob
ile A
pplic
atio
n U
tilit
y
High
Impossible
Low
Medium
Feature B is useful while walking.
Feature C is usable in most mobile situations.
At home/office On the move
Feature A requires two hands.
Example C Reject call and hit
the red hardkey on the run
Example A Two-finger gesture
required for zooming an image
Example B Navigate and scroll the map with your
thumb while walking
Mobile Context: Home vs. On the Move Issue At home/office On the move
Motion Sitting steadily in armchair User and device are moving
Light Stable indoor lighting Bright daylight, dark at night
Noise Air conditioning humming Traffic, people talking
Flow of time Few system interruptions Many context interruptions
Connections Always on-line 3G connection lost, off-line use
Cost Fixed rate WLAN Charged by downloaded data
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User’s attention
No disturbance, full focus on device
Many distractions, potentially on all senses
Storyboards
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Use case Storyboard
Accessing phone from web browser
Write storyboards to illustrate the desired and realistic use cases.
How is your concept/storyboard better than other apps or services out there?
UX Benchmarking
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Your product Competitor
Look at the competing applications • What is the core concept? • What kinds of UX targets they might have? • What kinds of tasks the user can do with the
applications? • What kind of UI solutions there are for certain tasks? • What are task times and task steps? • What kind of visual design styles and solutions are
being used?
Relevant documents • Maemo 5 Desktop Widget UI Guidelines v1.1 • Fremantle Master Layout Guide v1.1 • Hildon 2.2 Widget Spec
• Hildon 2.2 UI Style Guide
Platform Guidelines
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Wireframes
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Descriptions of interaction between the screens
Sketches of the screens
A “map” showing an overview of all the screens and the interactions between them.
More about this in the interaction design session.
• A prototype simulates the functionality of the UI • A prototype can be
• Paper-prototype (even hand-made) • Screenshots • Computer/terminal-based prototype • Flash demo
• Basically anything showing the main task flow • The purpose predefines the level of the prototype
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Sometimes it is good if the prototype is not that well-polished.
Prototypes
Exercise
Write a storyboard for your own application or service.
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Transfer the Vision to a Document
• Write down all ideas related to the application or service – “The user does…” • Tell stories how the user interacts with your application/service • Take
• Pencil • Paper • Credit card • … and draw a screen of the N900
• Sketch your main flows according to the stories • Discuss your main flows with people • You just learned the basics of paper prototyping • You just did your first concept
Move Towards Interaction Design
• Concepting usually requires many iterations before the concept is “proven” • The concept contains only the major use cases • The concept may also contain
• Short description of the main views • Short description of possible gestures for the main views • Evaluation of portrait vs. landscape orientation
• After that interaction design takes care of the details • Minor use cases • Exceptions • Etc. • More about this in the interaction design session
Take Home Messages
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• Write down the vision of your application or service and try it out with others.
• The better the user experience, the higher the recognition and appreciation of your work.
• You are not the target group of your application or service.
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UX Driven Development For Mobile SW Developers by Forum Nokia
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