In the IT field there are a lot of questioning regarding the boundaries, responsibilities, tools and deliverables for the design and development of applications and websites. What are the roles needed in a team to make a professional website or application from beginning to end? What is the set of skills/tool you should have in your pocket? There are so many terms nowadays.

In the middle of another attempt to clarify this matter, I found a schema that looks reasonable. I see myself into those three first blocks: webdesign, interactiondesign and interactiondevelopment. One thing is sure: Web development is not for me.

For my frustration (or not) I don’t have a label! Why should I have one? And you? Where do you fit into?

What amazed me here wasn’t the future vision of Microsoft on how devices will be so deep inserted in our environment. There is nothing new about this since it has been described already for some time by different authors.

I’ve read substantial material about those ideas, but one thing is to read, and another is to see, to visualize it. I have to remember my visual literacy teacher at university: “One image tells more than thousand words”.

This video shows an inspiring vision on how the future of devices could be. Let’s not forget to pay attention to the exciting user interfaces (emotional ones), eligible use cases, and certainly a superbly produced movie.

I hope to live to see that working!

From uidesign.net - View Article

UML 1.3 has been released. The 3 Amigos ( Booch, Jacobson and Rumbaugh ) are each publishing a book about UML. Many others have already been published and many more will follow. Jacobson’s Objectory Methodology has been renamed and repackaged as Rational Unified Process.

UML is complex! Of that there can be no doubt. Because it comes with the hitherto impossible dream of “unification” of design methods, the software community are eager to take it up. Professionals are afraid of being swept away by the adoption of this new technique and they are afraid of looking silly in front of their colleagues. How many of you right now have a half thumbed book on UML lying on your desk?

I find this hysteria worrying. For greater reason than I find any hysteria worrying. The problem with UML is that it comes as part of Rational Unified Process. RUP aka Objectory is particularly important to UI Design and Development because it is about Controllers and Controllers are about behaviour.

In his 1994 book, Ivar Jacobson proposed the Use Case as the specification for the controller in an MVC architecture. This leads to the adoption of Model, View and Controller Stereotype definitions in UML. The controller in theory is a state machine middle layer which controls the program flow between Views and Model (persistence) layer. The Use Case describes the User interaction with the system. It has even been advocated that the Use Case is the System Test plan, already written.

Since, the original papers and book, there have been many proposals on how to write a Use Case, when to write it and what to write it about. Even in recent material such as UML Distilled by Martin Fowler, the water is muddied by a vague definition and indeed two proposals as to what a Use Case is, and when to write one.

The basic problem with all of this is that a Use Case takes the form of a narrative which reads: the user does this; the system does that; the user does something else; the system does the next thing. More specifically this may read like; the User selects an item from the list; the system highlights the item and opens a dialog of item attributes. This is undoubtedly a system design. In fact it is more than that, it is an Interaction Design. Interaction Design is the job of a User Interface Designer.

So who I hear you ask do Jacobson et al propose should write these Use Cases - these Interaction Specifications to use another term? Well there are two schools of thought on that one also. First off - the Business Analyst or Domain Analyst. It is the job of a Business Analyst to write the specification. They should understand what the system must do functionally. What the business needs the system to perform. The second school believe that a requirement should not detail such things and Use Cases should be written by programmers at the Design Stage of a development project. Uh huh!

So in conclusion the User Interaction is developed by either the Business Analysts or the Programmers. Neither sets of people have necessarily any training in User Interaction, so there is little hope that they will make a good job of it.

There is a further complication with this process. Lets imagine that the project does have a User Interface Designer or a number of programmers with interface design skill. If they should modify the interaction at development time so that it is more usable, then two things happen. The design which is built will no longer match the design as specified which means that the Use Case can no longer be used for testing. Secondly, tracking what has actually been built in terms of functionality and where it can be found, against the original functionality which is buried inside the Use Cases, becomes next to impossible.

The reality is simple. You cannot have good User Interface Interaction Design and Usability together with Use Cases. It would only work if the Interaction Design and Prototype Usability Testing were done up front before any Use Cases were written. In a real project this would never happen. Besides, if the Use Cases are the requirement document, how can it be possible to design the User Interaction without a requirement. If the requirement is an Interaction Design then why employ an Interaction Designer?

The adoption of Rational Unified Process in its complete form is likely to set the development of good User Interface Design back by perhaps 20 years.

By Silvia Reitsma

My mother never liked that much to read manuals or to learn to operate electronic equipments. I thought it was really great she got to use a cell phone and I was even more surprised when I asked the phone number of my aunt and she said: “Wait, I will check my cell phone.”

I thought she had learnt with someone how to save the numbers in the phone’s memory, but she just came back with her phone completely covered with post-it notes with her most dialled numbers.

The experience before interaction in fact can be called “expected user experience”, not user experience. The expectations are shaped by branding, individual opinions, advertisements, and earlier experiences with similar products.

The expected user experience plays a key role when the actual user experience takes place, as the user will compare the real UX against the expected UX. We can start to investigate user experience from the moment a user interacts with a product and when the product gives feedback to user’s interaction.

I, particularly, never understood that fanaticism of certain people to the point of catching Bill Gates and his multibillionaire Microsoft and throwing them into fire (ok, I understand more or less, but for me that only happened with religious fanatics and Marilyn Manson fans). Anyway, I bet everyone will be impressed with what they are to see.

Everything started when I read Microsoft would announce a revolutionary product. I confess I thought: “it will be just a mobile phone, something like the Apple iPhone, but less refined.” And I confess again, I got surprised when I saw the Microsoft toy. Actually it looked like a table, but in reality, it was not just a table, but an interactive computer-table!

Microsoft Surface is basically a computer in the format of a table, integrated with a 30″ touch screen: you don’t have to use mouse and/or keyboard, but your own delicate (and of course clean) fingers or any other object at hand. You and your friends can touch the screen at the same time and it will react to all the commands.

There are some features in the Microsoft surface that make me pleased as interaction designer, mainly the gestural commands and the object recognition system.

The gestural commands put the user definitively on control of the machine. Gestures (and no more in between devices) are responsible for the interaction with the system. This makes me remember my grandma holding a mouse for the first time and asking why she had to use such thing if it was much easier to touch the screen, like on the ATM machines.

The object recognition system makes possible a great integration with portable devices such as: digital cameras, cell phones, smart phones and PDAs. You just have to put them on the table to access their content.

Watch the video below to get an idea what the future (and Microsoft) promises.

You watched it and now you’re there completely excited, aren’t you? Well, forget it for now. This toy will only be available in the winter 2007, just for Microsoft partners as hotels, casinos and restaurants for the delightful price of 10 thousand bucks. Drool at will!

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Google has just launched a new tool which puts you in the seat of a car driving through the 5 biggest cities in America (San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, New York and Miami). Using Google Maps set to “Street View” you can “walk” freely on the streets, enjoying 360°vision, together with instant feedback on the addresses and their exact position on the map. Think about the work to shoot all of those images!

Talking about Google Earth, they are going in the same direction. Amsterdam is the first European city available in 3D, rendered in the current grey building standard with photorealistic landmarks.

Before Google, Microsoft tried to launch a version of this service: Windows Live Street View, that puts you literally on the driver’s seat. This metaphore just made this application more confused and what was to be a “funny” mapping service, became a kind of boring and hard to use game. Again, Microsoft and their sins…

If we think about the development of the web, starting with steady images and going to video, the next step is probably the replacement of those images, with cams and broadcast live what is going on, on the streets. Then we enter in a polemic subject: the citizen’s privacy. This is a topic for another post.

Whether your organization conducts its own usability research or an outside agency handles it, each key person should be concerned with the process of conducting usability research.

Although we cannot exhaust the subject of usability research or testing here, this article offers up some topics of consideration and steps to follow when conducting usability research. You can make the following assumptions when reading this article:

• The particular focus of usability is on that of the user interface or design of a web site or software application.
• Our style of usability testing is qualitative in nature, gathering data from actual users though successive, in-person, one-on-one interviews.

Part I: Planning your usability test Step 1. Start thinking about usability testing.
Usability testing should be a part of product development. Adding usability testing to the development process at the beginning of development will aid in the execution of usability testing. Devote ample time to determining a product’s usability before you release it to the world. The expectations of usability testing should be determined in the process plan. Set the expectations of the product’s usability ahead of time, involve key players and bring in the decision makers. Finally, set a schedule for each step in each iteration of user testing (see a sample schedule of one iteration).

Step 2. Define the audience and the goals of usability testing.
Once the usability testing phase of product development begins, you’ll need to define or redefine the audience demographics. Determine who will use your product, what their specific demographic characteristics are and how best to approach the testable individuals. Ideally, every product has a viable and definable target audience (why wouldn’t it?), so that product should be made usable for the intended audience. The goals of usability testing should therefore be focused on determining whether this interface is usable and whether the intended audience, and anyone else who might come in contact with it, can use it. The needs and desires of the intended audience often drive the goals of usability research.Defining the goals of usability testing isn’t always as simple as addressing the most obvious things, such as “can they use it?” or “do they like the colors?” Other goals often address perceived usability problems for existing products, such as installation instructions, site drop-offs or customer complaints. For online stores, most existing site stakeholders are concerned with users dropping off at certain points in the shopping or checkout process.

Develop your goals for the usability testing project by asking these questions:

• What should the intended audience be able to get out of the product?
• What do you want to know about your product?
• What do you already know about the usability of your product?
• Where are the known problems, issues and bugs? In particular, are there any issues that won’t be resolved before you launch?

(A more extensive list of questions appears here.)

Perhaps this is the first question you should ask:

• Explain why the participant is there.
• Recap what the non-disclosure agreement means.

The script should ask participants questions about themselves to make them feel comfortable and help set the tone for the interview. Using questions where the answers are already known—such as “How long have you been using the Internet?” or “What kind of computer do you have?”—will help users through the remainder of the session. Questions about the product’s usability should not be a series of yes/no questions, nor should they be interrogative in nature. If they are, you won’t get any good data because users will feel uncomfortable.

The format of the test script should include qualitative questions and directed tasks regarding the product. Give users tasks to complete and ask them questions about what they’re seeing. Here are some examples:

• Do you like the colors?
• Can you read the text?
• Where would you click to get information on the company?
• You’re being shown a list of steps to complete the installation of the product. Could you read that list and tell me if the instructions are clear? Do they make sense? Do you know what you’re supposed to do next?
• Why are you being asked to register?
• Could you please show me how you would buy [name of product]?
• How did you feel about that order process? Was it easy? Hard? Did it take too long?

The final step in the test script development should include a test drive that’s conducted with the most key player in the organization concerned with the product’s usability. This could be the information architect, designer, developer or marketing manager. The test drive helps determine the organization of the test script, length of the test, flow of the questions and scope of the usability research.

In addition to writing a test script that works well for the participant, please keep in mind that participating in a usability test can be a nerve-wracking experience. Participants arrive at a place they’ve probably never been to, they’re asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, they’re brought into a somewhat sterile environment and then they’re sat down with a camera pointed at them. They usually figure out they’re being watched, too.

Step 4. Recruit your users.
This phase of usability testing can be conducted in conjunction with your script development. Look at your intended audience and fine-tune it based on the logistics and practicality of the usability testing. For example, if user testing takes place in San Francisco, you’ll probably only want to recruit participants in the San Francisco Bay Area.Figure out also how many participants to interview. Although this topic is often debated in usability circles, we recommend no fewer than eight for any usability testing project. Five users help develop trends in a product’s general usability as reported by the participants, and three more help qualify those findings. So eight is the bare minimum.

Develop a screener that helps you find the participants you want. If you make it broad or too vague, you’ll end up spending more time weeding out inappropriate respondents. Use the screener as an e-mail message or phone script. Examples of screener information/questions include the following:

• Name
• Phone number
• E-mail address
• Age (or age range)
• Income level (or range)
• Do you use a PC or a Macintosh?
• What is your connection speed?
• Job title or occupation
• Do you use [name of product] for your job?
• How long have you been using [name of product]?
• Have you used other similar products? If so, which ones?

Recruit users far enough ahead of time to allow for cancellations, schedule reorganizations and for any focus changes. Allow enough time to get at least three times the number required for your usability testing project. By doing so, you’ll weed out many respondents. Receiving a good number of responses gives you the luxury of picking and choosing appropriate participants for your study.

Part II: Conducting your interviewsNow that you’ve finished your goals, test script, test drive and recruiting, it’s time to test. The moderator should be comfortable, healthy, focused and mentally ready for a day or two of usability testing sessions. Things to keep in mind when moderating and gathering data include the following:

• Set up and conduct interviews in a comfortable space. Make sure the room is quiet and private. Provide snacks and beverages. You may want to use contextual spaces such as an office environment.
• Set up the video equipment correctly. The user should not be staring down the camera’s lens. The video camera should not be pointed at the screen, either. Use an angle that incorporates the screen and some part of the user. You may wish to consider picture-in-picture videotaping.
• Be aware of the time. Interviews should last their intended time and not much longer. If the session lasts too long, the user will be become agitated or bored.
• Stay flexible. Don’t go into “clinician” mode. Users are unique and the moderator should do his or her best to be comfortable so that the comfort level and ease are conveyed to the participant.
• Don’t place any importance on one user. One participant may present the most compelling data about your product. However, one user’s comments will not solve a product’s usability. As exciting as the user’s comments may be, stay focused on each user’s comments.
• Be opportunistic. If a participant says something interesting or compelling, ask them to clarify it. For example, if a participant says “I didn’t see that. Why is it over there?” when probing the interface, ask where they think it should be. Seek help from their expectations of the interface. Similarly, if a user hesitates it often means that something is confusing or unclear (unless they’re reading!). Follow up on these hesitations by asking if the information makes sense or if they know what they’re supposed to do next.
• Take notes. For many user testing projects, employ a separate note taker to observe the user testing sessions. We recommend that the moderator be the primary note taker. The moderator is the person who interacts directly with users. The data that the moderator gathers is possibly more valuable than other data (such as a note taker one step removed from the interview or the videotape itself).
• Be attuned to observation bias. Users are being tested and want to give the “right answer.” Let users structure tasks whenever possible. Encourage participants to talk freely.
• Respect participants. Be patient and considerate. Keep in mind their confidentiality as well as the product’s. Makes sure users know that the information they provide is confidential. Make sure they know that their information will not be provided for any further purpose beyond the session. Remember to thank them for their participation.

Between sessions, take time to think about the data that the user provided. Organize your observations toward an analysis of the results. Remember to get all the data from the participants before making any final determinations.

Part III: Organizing data, analyzing data and presenting your findingsAfter completing the sessions, review the data and make a list of the top issues you discovered. From there, start flushing out the usability concerns and the recommendations for improvement.When analyzing your results, keep the users’ comments at the front of the analysis. It’s too easy to incorporate your own biases and expectations here. Try not to do so. Marry the users’ comments with the analysis. To illustrate:

As you’ve probably figured out by now, conducting usability tests takes time. Executing a well conceived and well though-out project will help you get great data and hopefully improve the product’s usability. Careful considerations towards a product’s goals and the intended audience(s) need to be made before designing and planning usability testing. Comments and feedback provided by user testing participants can really make the difference in a product’s usability. There really is no substitute for direct user feedback.

Here’s a typical story.

A project is in its final phases when it gets to the part of the Gant chart that says ‘usability testing’, and so they do.

People come in and are asked to perform tasks, and so they do, with greater or lesser degrees of difficulty. And yet, something else is wrong.

It’s not so much that they *can’t* use your website, it’s just that they don’t want to.

People ask me all kinds of questions about usability. What are the most common usability problems? What’s the best way to make sure our site/application/system is usable? That kind of thing.

It’s pretty clear when they ask these questions that they’re thinking on the presentation layer. Is that button in the right place? Is it big enough? Has it got the right label?

Now, don’t get me wrong, the presentation layer is important, but it’s not the biggest usability problem I see in my work. The biggest problem is that you’re designing something that people don’t care about. You’ve got your proposition wrong.

What’s your proposition? Well, basically it’s the value you’re offering to your customer. Are you offering something they want? Are you solving *real* problems for them? You’d be amazed how often this is not the case, and how often people don’t know about this until they’re about to launch their product or, worse still, once it has launched and is failing.

The diagram above is one that I pull out fairly often these days (it’s another one I’ve borrowed from Flow). It talks about how you need to design from the proposition down. You need to get the value offering right, then look at the model for delivering that value to clients at a conceptual level, then start looking more at what elements go on a page, what functionality is included, how it is structured and ordered. Unless you have all of these in order, it doesn’t really matter where your buttons go or what they’re labeled. Appearance level usability is the most superficial, easily remedied and perhaps even least important of all of the levels of design.

If you’ve got a flaw in your thinking at the top of the chain, then no amount of surface usability is going to save your product.

So, how do you approach this kind of Proposition design and usability? It’s pretty simple really, you test your proposition. This kind of testing (or really, research) is more about talking than tasks, and it’s about understanding your customers better and checking whether you are conceptually on the same page as they are.

I’ve been involved in several projects just in the past twelve months where doing this kind of research has saved companies tens of thousands of pounds (double that if you’re talking dollars) in *not* designing and developing functionality that either was unwanted by their customers or was designed to solve the wrong problems.

Working this out when you have a few pencil sketches or a couple of visio wireframes with a few days invested is an awful lot better than working it out when you get to the ‘usability testing’ line in your Gant chart.

So, if you really want my advice about usability, it’s that it starts right at the very beginning. Before a line (or a box) has been drawn. If you’re not designing the *right thing* then no amount of design expertise is going to get you a really usable product.

Talk to the people you’re designing for.

You’ll save lots of time and money and look really smart. 

Amen.

Even the smartest people make faults. This is particularly true for project teams. As a project advances,   assumptions and well-meant but poor decisions build up, turning hours of effort into a poor user experience. Intelligent teams reduce their faults by means of a procedure called UI prototyping. Combined with usability tests, prototypes help teams to keep on the right track.

There are quite a few expertises and tools which can be used for creating prototypes. Think on the kind of design you’re wanting to make a prototype of and the objectives of your prototyping work as you choose what for expertise or tool is good for you considering their advantages and disadvantages. 

Paper is often used in rapid assessments and the quickest way to prototype a design proposal. Using a  drawing tablet, Photoshop or any tool you are comfortable with, produce screens that express the design, and print them out on paper. You can simulated walkthroughs If you make enough screens, verifying if  users make the right decisions concerning the navigation flow and experience the design. Though, for prototypes of reasonable intricacy, producing paper prototypes can be awkward. Projects which involves a high level of interactivity as chat rooms or games are not suitable to be reproduced on paper. 

Paper prototyping is the perfect method for recognize common complex problems that can ruin websites. It takes only 5-8 possible users to identify mistakes and prevent more than 80% of them to happen:

Layout
Hand-drawn prototypes let users give a broad range of responses. They can help you conclude if pages have too little or too much content, and if the common layout of the page is efficient.

Navigation flow
It is a good way for testing a website’s navigation flow. Users can help you decide whether the website’s structure is intuitive and whether the terms used in the navigation is logic.

Interactivity 
By offering users mock-ups of your website’s interactivity, you can see if the planned functionality will be exploited and appreciated by users.
For example, it can assist in verifying if a determined tool will be used successfully by users.

Content
Paper prototypes are an ideal technique to check the efficiency of your website’s content. You can discover if the content and writing style is suitable for the intended users. Users normaly help finding out if there is content missing, imprecise, or pointless.

When to prototype?
Depending on the range of the prototype and the level of necessary details, prototypes can be made at any time throughout the project. Normaly prototypes are developed in the beginning of the project, in the specification phase, before developers produce any code. That is the phase when investigation is necessary and when the time investiment is still plausible.