Steve Krug

http://bit.ly/krugkeynote

www.outsystems.com

Usability:

Just one more thing you

don’t have time for?

First, help me calibrate

Show of hands

Who has read Don’t Make Me Think?

© 2001 Steve Krug

Times have changed

© 2001 Steve Krug

0

50

100

150

200

250

1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Number of times per month you heard the words “user experience” or “UX” or “usability”

Think back

Was “Create great user experiences” a bullet item in the job ad you answered?

Nowadays everybody trolls for unicorns

Developers who can do UI design

Designers who can code

© 2001 Steve Krug

It’s now a job expectation because…

Your boss read a book

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

Sir Jonathan "Jony" Ive

Senior Vice President of

Industrial Design at Apple

Meanwhile…

© 2001 Steve Krug

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Number of hours officially added to your work-month to spend on creating improved user experience

Of course…

You could do it in your abundant spare time

And in the gaps when your projects get finished ahead of schedule

It’s no wonder we’re obsessed with time management

© 2001 Steve Krug

The good news

OutSystems has done a lot to help

I’m not easily impressed, but I like what they’ve done

I’m not going to spoil Paulo’s fun

© 2001 Steve Krug

But there will still be problems

Anything built by people to be used by people will have usability issues

Always a variety of users, tasks

People will always do things you’d NEVER expect

Inherent nature of programming (no time, design by committee, shifting priorities, constraints)

It’s just plain hard to get design right

More good news

There’s one thing you can do that will produce the greatest improvement in UX

© 2001 Steve Krug

What is a usability test?

Watching people try to use what you create

…while thinking out loud

© 2001 Steve Krug

Do-it-yourself usability testing

Almost anyone can do it

I couldn’t write an application

But you can do a valuable usability test

It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort

It always makes UX better

© 2001 Steve Krug

What I’d like to do today

Try to convince you

…that usability testing is the most valuable thing you can do to ensure that what you’re building is as good as it can be

…that it’s much easier than you think

…and that you can--and should--be doing it yourself

© 2001 Steve Krug

First, a live demonstration

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

A brave volunteer?

We’ll try an actual test

It’s painless

It’s brief

You’ll get a round of applause when we’re done

Qualifying criteria:

Have used a Web browser

English-speaking adult

A developer

Haven’t used Forge to share a component

Your task

You’ve created a component that lets you display a Google Map for a location in an application.

Use Forge to share the component.

It’s in an OutSystems Solution Pack file named GoogleMap.osp.

You created an “icon” for the component. It’s in GoogleMapIcon.png.

© 2001 Steve Krug

What I heard for years

Staggered sprints, leapfrogging, laying out track

Round peg in a square hole, not convincing, assumes dedicated UX person who protoypes well

UX person is required to create prototypes ahead of developers

Better: Test work in progress

Give feedback while most useful © 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug Carol Smith, Agile 2011

© 2001 Steve Krug

It’s a lot like therapy

© 2001 Steve Krug

I believe anyone can do it

...if they keep it simple enough

© 2001 Steve Krug

Most sites don’t get tested

$$$

Time

Lack of management buy-in

© 2001 Steve Krug

Traditional usability testing

Lab

Experienced professional

8 users, minimum

Big honkin’ report

Weeks of work, usually by an outsider

$5k - $10k

Happens rarely

Team not always convinced

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

Do-it-yourself usability testing

Three users per round

You’ll find more problems than you can fix

No lab or mirrors

Set up a monitor in another room so the development team can watch

Record with a screen recorder (Camtasia, Silverlight, etc.)

© 2001 Steve Krug

Do-it-yourself usability testing

No stats, no exit questions, no faux validity

No big report

Debrief over lunch

Report is a 1-2 page email, mostly bullet points

1. Start early

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

Start earlier than you think makes sense.

Incorrect thinking

© 2001 Steve Krug

application

Correct thinking

© 2001 Steve Krug

application

You can test…

Your existing app if redesigning

Competitors’ sites or apps

A sketch on a napkin

Wireframes

Prototypes (e.g. Balsamic, Axure)

Comps

Portions that have been built

Alpha, beta, etc.

© 2001 Steve Krug

2. Test on a regular schedule

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

A morning a month, that’s all we ask.

© 2001 Steve Krug

3. Test frequently, with few users

© 2001 Steve Krug

4. Focus on fixing the serious problems

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

Focus ruthlessly on a small number of the most important problems.

© 2001 Steve Krug

Problems you

can find with

just a few test

participants

Problems

you have the

resources to fix

Result:

The most serious problems often don’t get fixed

“We’ll fix that in the next major redesign”

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

Details! We want details!

Join me tomorrow at 2

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

www.outsystems.com/ux-for-it

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

© 2001 Steve Krug

Thanks for all the fish

Send any questions, feedback, gripes to

skrug@sensible.com

or @skrug on the Twitter

And come visit

www.sensible.com

© 2013 Steve Krug

http://bit.ly/krugkeynote

www.outsystems.com