Measuring UX + Getting Into UXSession 5 - May 1, 2014School of Visual Concepts - UX1

http://svc-ux1.leannagingras.com

Week 1: Introduction, process and interviewingwhat is UX? what does “doing UX” look like?

Week 2: Analysis and storyboardshow do we make sense of the bigger picture?

Week 3: User-centered design techniques + sketchinghow do we go from good concepts to good designs?

Week 4: Prototyping + guerrilla testing how do we work through, communicate and test designs?

Week 5: Measuring UX + getting into UXhow do we measure UX impact? how do we spread the UX way of thinking?

** tentative schedule. adjusted to taste

Agenda● Student presentations● Getting into UX● Success metrics● User research● Studio: Project next steps● Q&A

STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

STUDENT PRESENTATIONSMarina & Chuong:

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s42/sh/8ed31736-e92a-4545-84a5-cfe911b2cb91/16b3b34bf28a960a981a8d89a1853958

Selena: Saved locally

GETTING INTO UX

LEE’S PATH1994: Start playing with HTML2001: Side contracting as a front-end dev2007: Get BA in philosophy2008: Start masters in Human-Computer Interaction2008: Internship #1, student job2009: Internship #2, CHI student design competition2009: Completed master’s degree in HCI2010: Start at ITHAKA as ⅔ UX,, ⅓ front-end dev2010, later: UX Research Coordinator

OTHER PATHS, IN MY EXPERIENCE

project management, product management,

startups

support,anthropology

development, IT

NETWORKINGMeetups and groups

● Information Architecture meetup● UX Happy Hour● SIGCHI● http://ischool.uw.edu/current/student-groups

Conferences● Convey UX● IA Summit

LinkedIn connections● https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannagingras

WHAT ABOUT PORTFOLIOS?Let’s walk through mine: https://leanna-gingras.squarespace.com/

WHAT ARE PEOPLE LOOKING AT?

WHERE ARE THEY COMING FROM?

GETTING UX ADOPTEDLook for opportunities at your day job!

Pick high-value battles● Give value where your stakeholders need it now● Start small and go for small wins first. Build trust. ● Stakeholders are users too, design for them

Make the value of UX explicit● Be specific what you are trying to learn● Make it about the results, not about the activity● Make UX issues visible and relatable (example:

colleague and the 7-foot-long printed-out form)● Don’t just toss the problem in their lap - everything

should have an actionable next site● Tie it back to numbers - “we could save $XXX,

XXX in support calls” or “we will increase traffic by XX%”

GETTING UX ADOPTEDYou’re all on the same team

● Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate● Don’t wait to share data● Don’t wait to share ideas● Put up information radiators● Brown bags, lunch ‘n learn

Shown: This is an “information radiator”. I put together this poster summarizing a recent user test and then posted it up all over the company: all 300 people, whether they were UX people or not, learned about this and got a chance to participate in the dialogue around these features.

MEASURING SUCCESS

DISCUSSION: How do you like the SPL? Is it good design? Criticism points:

● The huge overhead space ... works against readers, who mostly crave private spaces for curling up with a book.

● If you're spending the day studying or reading on the 10th level, the nearest restroom is on the seventh.

● One of the library's most touted innovations was the spiral stacks spanning the sixth through ninth levels … but in practice the organic ribbon is no easier for the user to negotiate than discrete floors, and in some cases it may be harder.

● It's relentlessly monotonous and there are few attractive study niches.Something to consider: it’s gotten over 2x the foot traffic than was anticipated, and surrounding businesses have made $16 million...http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/article/On-Architecture-How-the-new-Central-Library-1232303.php?source=mypi#photo-674846

Wikipedia: Seattle Central Public Library

This pays with my expectations & delights

MEASURING SUCCESS EXAMPLESFrom Daria:

I'm a fan of the Fun Theory and gamification in real-life so that is my examples of how to measure success:

Piano Stairs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

The World’s Deepest Bin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbEKAwCoCKw

The Camera Speed Lottery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iynzHWwJXaA

MEASURING SUCCESS EXAMPLESFrom Marina:

www.socialblade.com They track data from youtube and other social media platforms (number of views, subscribers).

Here’s an example of their second-ranked you tube channel: http://www.socialblade.com/youtube/user/DisneyCollectorBR

Or this one: https://www.charitywater.org/blog/google-impact-award/ This organization is going to use remote sensor technology to see how much water is flowing through the water pipe systems that they set up in different areas of the world in real time. That way, they can see if it needs to be fixed.

MEASURING SUCCESS EXAMPLESFrom Bryan:

My example of measured success using UX principles is the iPad app Cook. Here is the link that showcases the app: http://www.thecookapp.com/

The team that developed the app selected a targeted audience, having a persona in mind, and actually visited people in their kitchens. Their goal was to create a way for people to save and share family recipes. To measure their success, they look past the number of downloads, and instead focus on engagement. To them, it is more important that people are spending time with the app (15-20 minutes) than that they are downloading it.

http://www.startupsmart.com.au/growth/start-up-profiles/how-this-app-creator-used-user-experience-design-to-cook-up-a-top-selling-app/2014040112013.html

Set success metrics at the beginning of a project.

Decide what “success” looks like for the project - e.g. “selling stuff”

And then decide how to measure that.

Google AnalyticsPlaceholder - Lee will open up Google Analytics and walk us through some stuff!

Including but not limited to:● Behavior > Top pages● Behavior > Top pages > Individual page > change over time● Audience > Behavior > Engagement

CrazyEgghttp://blog.asmartbear.com/heatmaps-from-clicks-how-crazyegg-improved-our-website-overnight.html

THIS IS WHY YOU CAN’T ONLY USE ANALYTICS AND METRICS.

SHOWN: WHATNOT SHOWN: WHY

USER RESEARCH

“UX design is the process of understanding user behavior in order to create the best possible experience for the user.”

-- Joseph Dickerson

CASE STUDY: USER RESEARCH IN THE WILD

User research worksbest when it’s iterative and triangulated with other data.

Circa early 2010. Analytics showed high bounce rates for unauthenticated users. At the same time, Support reported high #s of calls from academics who didn’t know why the whole article wasn’t showing.

In-person usability test helped us zoom in on the “Why” of the problem. People didn’t understand that they could get access through their university.

Usability test guide and excerpted test notes for a post-launch test of this page

their reaction “I don’t have an account so I don’t have to log in”

hard to get them to the login page the way the test was designed.

it wasn’t intuitive to go to the login page to try to get access to something.

actual institution finder form seemed pretty straightforward, they didn’t have any trouble using that. getting to it was more of an issue.

when (m) student was prompted to login, he kept looking for another way to get in.

Redesigned page: Better performance in testing! But now another problem surfaces: people aren’t picking the “correct” next step (here, “access options”)

We continued testing and iteratively tweaking the page: heatmap analytics, Google analytics, paper prototype testing with users, live A/B testing. Shown: How the unauthenticated article page looks today

We launched a project to improve the “next step” for the user by making high-level changes to how the login workflow was put together. We created an “institution finder” among other things.

Wireframe for a proposed re-design of the Login page. This launched pretty much as shown.

How the login page looks today

http://voiceandgesture.com/post/81405010752/ford-engineers-wear-virtual-reality-headsets-to

FIRST AND FOREMOST: DO WHAT ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION

User input reduces the cost of course correction and improvement.

It saves cold hard cash.

When you find UX problems at this stage: Revisit your problem statement and / or revisit your concept.

When you find UX problems at this stage: Figure out if it’s your concept or your design. Either way, redesign it

When you find UX problems at this stage: Figure out what the problem is: concept? design? bug? Re-design itRe-build all affected portions

When you find UX problems at this stage: Unhappy users and possible loss of revenue, traffic, users, etcThe problem could be anywhere in the pipeWill have fix problems, re-build, and re-launch the whole damn thing

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

GUERILLA USER RESEARCH

ETHNOGRAPHIC / FIELD STUDIES

LAB USABILITY STUDIESSTUDY GOAL: To observe how users interpret/explain the DRM associated with e-booksPARTICIPANTS: 7 students (3 freshmen/sophomores, 4 grad/doctoral)METHODOLOGY: Lab study performed with an e-book checked out from the library and opened on Adobe Digital EditionsEXAMPLE TASKS: please print this page. // you think your friend would really enjoy this book. how do you share it with him?

SYNTHESIZING: You can synthesize usability studies the same way we learned to synthesize interview data: create summaries of each user session (shown below) and perform some sort of affinity diagramming or other grouping technique to find patterns.

Shown at right: An affinity diagram in disguise. I compiled the notes into a spreadsheet, grouped them by task, and taped them up to a white-board wall.

http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/usability_test_plan_dashboard.html

Getting users to sort cards into categories can help you learn what categories and groupings their target users would use. (Caveat: Leanna personally isn’t super fond of card sorting as a methodology. Ask her why!)

CARD SORT STUDIES

REMOTE RESEARCH OPTIONSEthnioSkype/Google HangoutsGoToMeetingChalkmarksTreejackFiveSecondTestsUsabillaThere are dozens out therehttp://uxdesign.cc/ux-tools/

This form triggers an appropriate next step based on what you’ve chosen.But it’s also a very effective way of getting information about why users are deleting their site!

CAUTION: Self-report data is still what people say, not what they do.

SURVEYS

Studio: Next steps

We saw some student presentations today. Let’s get into groups and help them figure out their next steps!

Q&A WITH LEE

A WEEK IN THE LIFE