Thirteen Tenets Of User Experience

BY ROBERT HOEKMAN JR

https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/rethinking-ux/9783944540498/chapter-2.xhtml

In my career as a user experience professional, part of my purpose has always been to help push our profession forward. And I’ve had the great privilege of being able to do just that in a myriad of ways — by writing books and articles, speaking at conferences all over the world, delivering in-house training workshops at wonderful companies, and simply doing the work for a great many clients.

If I could be remembered for just one thing, I’d want it to be this, because this is what designers and companies need to know and understand about the nature of user experience as a profession, a goal, an idea. And it’s taken me 13 years to be able to say it in exactly this way.

Following is my list of 13 beliefs on the value of user experience strategy, design, and designers, one for every year I’d been in the Web industry at the time I wrote it in 2012:

TENET 1:

“User experience is the net sum of every interaction a person has with a company, be it marketing collateral, a customer service call, or the product or service itself. It is affected by the company’s vision and the beliefs it holds and its practices, as well as the service or product’s purpose and the value it holds in a person’s life.”

TENET 2:

“User experience is strategic. It begins with an idea to improve the lives of users, and continues through every moment of the customer lifecycle, from attention to abandonment and beyond. It is driven by a vision that guides and justifies every design decision.”

TENET 3:

“Every detail of a company and its product says something about it. User experience strategy and design ensures that these messages are put forth with intention and purpose. Design extends into each and every detail, and each and every detail can indeed be designed.”

TENET 4:

“User experience is a process of discovery, vision definition, strategy, planning, execution, measurement and iteration. It requires flexibility, and a willingness to be wrong until you are right.”

TENET 5:

“Great products and services require bravery. Design puts a shape to your courage.”

TENET 6:

“A great service or product is rarely the mere logical result of research. Most often, it is the result of a courageous belief that what you are doing will change the world, and a determination to do it well.”

TENET 7:

“The solvers of the world’s problems will be those who apply their skill, talent, knowledge and experience to design and redesign the world around us. Whether they call themselves designers or not, the creators of the future will be those who design (as in, on purpose, not by mere fact of being involved).”

TENET 8:

“The goal of a designer is to listen, observe, understand, sympathize, empathize, synthesize and glean insights that enable him or her to ‘make the invisible visible’ (as Hillman Curtis put it) — to pull treasure out of nothing, to pull value out of vapor.”

TENET 9:

“The job of a designer, just like that of a writer, is to twist and stretch and shape a conceptualized piece of work over and over again until it becomes the masterpiece the world needs it to be.”

TENET 10:

“Designers act not on opinion, but on insight. They do not mandate, but educate. While the best decision can often only be based on the best guess, designers inform their instincts every single day so that these guesses may be right.”

TENET 11:

“Designers enable companies to change the world, define the future, create value and make a ton of money, and the evidence of this is endless.”

TENET 12:

“A user’s experience belongs to the user. An experience cannot be designed. It can, however, be influenced. A designer’s job is to be the influencer.”

TENET 13:

“Designers do not manage. They lead.”

Improving Your Website Usability Tests

BY DAMIAN REES

https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/rethinking-ux/9783944540498/chapter-3.xhtml

In one of the first usability tests I ever did, I met a lovely old lady who could not use a mouse. She kept lifting it in the air and pointing at the screen, speaking words of encouragement to the cursor. At the end of the test I got absolutely nothing, but she did think I was a “lovely boy” who should meet her granddaughter. Very quickly I learned the value of setting very clear criteria for participant recruitment.

If you’ve ever run a usability test before, you’ll know that it’s not as easy as it looks. Although it’s not rocket science, there are some intricacies that can make a big difference. In this chapter I share some of the lessons I have learned which should help you avoid your user test turning into a frustrating experience for you or the test participant.

That first year of my career was the most valuable experience I could have had and while I believe that learning through your own mistakes is the best way to learn, we do not always have the luxury to do so. Here are some tips I have learned along the way which should help you quickly improve your usability testing skills and avoid some pitfalls.

Design your usability test script to answer specific research questions

When starting a new usability test, don’t assume that all you need to do is pick out the main areas of the website and ask users to complete those tasks. You may well find some useful insights with this approach but don’t be surprised if when you present back your findings you get bombarded with questions from the project stakeholders that you cannot answer.

Key takeaway

Talk to the people you’ll report back to and ask them what key questions they need the research to answer for them. If you end up with lots of questions, prioritize them and then work out a way to answer them as best as you can. If the question seems too vague or you’re unsure why they are asking it, get clarification. The more you understand the reasons behind the questions, the better equipped you are at answering them by adapting your tasks and questions mid-test.

Give participants the confidence to behave naturally

When participants turn up to a test, they’re usually not sure what to expect. They’re probably a bit nervous with a camera in their face and someone looking over their shoulder. Don’t be surprised if they look to you for guidance at the beginning. If you’re too controlling at the start of the test, you’ll reinforce to them that they need to get permission from you before they do anything.

Give participants the confidence to behave naturally.

Key takeaway

Encourage users to show you their natural behavior by starting off your test with a broad task to allow them to go off and explore in any direction they like. I use pre-test questions to uncover a real problem they face within the context of the test and then I let them off the leash to answer it as naturally as possible. For example, I wanted to test an online property law website, so in the first task I asked people to search for a house in the area in which they would like to buy, within a specific budget range. This allowed us to get a realistic view of how they use the Web, while also setting the context for the next tasks in the test.