Speakers: Anthony Franco (EffectiveUI), Michael Clark (Photobucket)
http://www.web2expo.com/webexsf2009/public/schedule/detail/8823
UX = User Experience
RIA = Rich Internet Applications
Make applications that build happy faces!!
User Experience (8 Criteria)
- Accomplish Goals
- Ensure Performance
- Be Trustworthy
- Provide Feedback
- Be Consistent
- Become Familiar
- Be Efficient
- Engage your Audience
Create experiences with criteria as “senses”
/* Interject a demo of Random Houses book widget compared to Barnes and Noble and Amazon’s. Seriously, check it out. What they did for Random House blows away the other two interfaces! */
Create perception that differentiates you from the rest of your vertical
The better the user experience, the more business value is created
Business Value comes from employee satisfaction through ease of use
70% of projects fail because of bad user experience
/* attendee mentioned they found every step in a checkout process led to 5% drop off from the site */
IBM “Every $1 spent on UI returns $10 – $100”
Step 1 – Understand the End User
- Companies tend to build for themselves, not for actual users of the product
Step 2 – Do Not Hope for Silver Bullet Design
- The big idea is important, but should be driven by end user
- Strong opinions weakly held
- $300 Million Button
- Trust your users
- Add “Empathy” to job description and/or title
- Be willing to throw out ideas based on user feedback
- Don’t take feedback too literally, the customer might have an issue but there might be a better way to deal with it. ex: Asking for refresh button when auto-refresh really improves the experience
- Embed user feedback process in the launch
- Use analytics and data to track usage/feedback with changes
Step 3 – Do Not Hope Developers Will Make Good Design
- http://www.buigallery.com/ visit and learn!
- Don’t let politics get int he way of great software
- Communicate between Design and Development often
- Share technical issues and develop new paths
- When in doubt, ASK YOUR USERS!
- Remove the word “I” and replace with “Our Customers” to get buy-in from other departments
Step 4 – Do Not Build For Everyone
- The iPhone Curse
- Apple had HUGE budgets for design
- Full control over integration
- Market budget for familiarity
- If you build for everybody, you end up building for nobody
- Define value for 3 personas and delve deeply
- Think about their circumstances, contexts, and how they will use it
Step 5 – Plan for Imperfection
- Cone of uncertainty
http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/ggagne/spring2009/322/chapters/cohn/chapter1/index.html
- Great software requires iteration (often) and flexible processes
Step 6 – Value Product Over Process
- There is no scheduling innovation
- Planning only accounts for 20% of end product, change happens!