UX: Interaction Design

User Experience: Interaction Design June 2009 Angela Miller Senior Consultant

Contents Overview of interaction design How interaction design impacts clients Issues, Options, and Approaches Project roles Case studies

Elements of interaction design Motion – Without motion, there can be no interaction! Space – All interactions take place in a space Time – All interactions take time Appearance – How something looks can give clues on how to interact with it Texture – Not just appearance, how something feels Sound – Small but mighty! You don’t need sound but even a little can make a huge difference What it’s all about What is interaction design? Interaction design is the art of defining the behavior of products and systems that a user interacts with . It is about the way those products respond to their users . Interaction design is the art of facilitating interactions between humans through products and services. Why is it important? Interaction design is what makes products useful, usable, engaging , and even fun ! Good interaction design facilitates the interactions between people and products in richer, better, and deeper ways. Imagine the internet without web browsers – that would be the world without interaction design.

Impact on our clients and service offerings

For clients Create better , easier to use products Create more intuitive products; that reduces training time and increases efficiency of the product users – Less time wasted = Less money wasted Decrease user frustration ; great for our clients’ internal products! - That boosts morale for the users and just makes for a happier work environment Make engaging , comfortable , and even fun to use products; that will increase product use, invite new users, and entice existing users to keep returning Offerings Balance the business goals with the user needs Save time, retain customers, entice new customers, increase employee morale Work with clients, users, and team members every step in the project life cycle Enjoyable, memorable, and successful interactions that strengthen user loyalty Powerful experiences that surface new sales, service and collaboration opportunities Higher project success rates What’s the Use?

Issues, Options, and Approaches

The common hurdles Some common hurdles Interaction Designers (and all UX professionals) will face Developers’ seeing UX as an obstacle rather than seeing its benefits Enterprise solutions dictating the UX, giving little opportunity for improvements Increasing demand for UX in an organization that, while it understands the value of UX in general, allocates no additional budget to match the demand Not allowing enough time to include UX, because it “slows down the process” Having difficulty selling more advanced and expensive techniques when people expect usability to be fast and cheap Approval of UX tools or techniques too late in the development process to make a difference source: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2008/10/selling-ux.php The Google philosophy 1. Focus on the user and all else will follow . From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible. While many companies claim to put their customers first, few are able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder value. Google has steadfastly refused to make any change that does not offer a benefit to the users who come to the site: The interface is clear and simple. Pages load instantly. Placement in search results is never sold to anyone. Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a distraction. By always placing the interests of the user first, Google has built the most loyal audience on the web. And that growth has come not through TV ad campaigns, but through word of mouth from one satisfied user to another. source: http:// www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html

Why IT projects fail Forrester’s report (1999): Why Most B-To-B Sites Fail : Thirty B-to-B sites failed user experience tests. Sites broadly lacked value, ease, and reliability. Analysis Firms must start by correcting basic flaws. Firms must move to a design approach that focuses on specific users, their key goals, and the steps to those goals. What it means User experience is more important than time-to-market. Site functionality is the next patent war zone. The Standish Group: Why IT projects fail (2001 report): Project Success Factors : Executive Support User Involvement User Involvement: Lack of user involvement traditionally has been the number one reason for project failure . Conversely, the number one contributor to project success has been user involvement . Even when delivered on time and on budget, a project can fail if it does not meet users’ needs or expectations. However, this year it has moved to the number two position. It is not that user involvement is less important, but it is just that IT professionals have centered in on this and, in effect, solved this major problem. Source: http:// www.standishgroup.com/sample_research/index.php Source: http://www.forrester.com/ER/Research/Report/Summary/0,1338,8734,FF.html

Examples of GOOD interaction design The ATM – you can withdraw money with just a few simple touches of the screen Computer games – when you get completely engrossed in a computer game, that’s the result of good interaction design Your phone – you can talk to someone half way across the world just by pushing some numbers The Good vs the Bad Examples of BAD interaction design Your car - your car doesn’t tell you where the problem is when it breaks down Your alarm clock – you have to press the time button (which only goes forward by the minute) 1410 times to set the alarm back 30 minutes. Your oven – your oven doesn’t tell you how much time is left until it’s preheated Characteristics of GOOD interaction design Trustworthy – The user must trust that the tool they’re using can do the job Appropriate – Solutions needs to be appropriate to the culture, situation, and context Smart – Solutions need to prevent the users from making mistakes and working too hard Responsive – The user needs to know they have been heard and something is happening Clever – Predict user needs and their path Ludic – Make the user feel comfortable enough to “play” with the tool Pleasurable – If something isn’t “pleasing” to use, the user won’t use it unless necessary

A Different Way of Thinking Which of the following takes less time? Heating water in a microwave for one minute and ten seconds or heating it for one minute and eleven seconds? From the standpoint of the microwave, one minute and ten seconds is the obvious answer. From the standpoint of the user of the microwave, one minute and eleven seconds is faster. Why? Because in the first case, the user must press the one key twice, then visually locate the zero key, move the finger into place over it, and press it once. In the second case, the user just presses the same key–the one key–three times. It typically takes more than one second to acquire the zero key. Hence, the water is heated faster when it is 'cooked' longer. Seeking out a different key not only takes time, it requires a fairly high level of cognitive processing. While the processing is underway, the main task the user was involved with–cooking their meal–must be set aside. The longer it is set aside, the longer it will take to reacquire it. source: http:// www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html Think about the user’s productivity, not the computer’s Think beyond just the efficiency of the machine Think about increasing human productivity Give the users a clear cut path

When is a small problem really just a small problem? Often what seems simple at first glance really isn’t When a problem is a bigger problem Consider this example: There is an online form where users can’t find the Submit button at the form’s end. The obvious solutions Move the button to a better place Make the button more prominent using size, color, and/or shape The not so obvious Maybe the form is too long Maybe the users don’t understand the form Maybe it’s not that the users can’t find the button, but that they abandon the form part way through Maybe the users are afraid to click the Submit button because they don’t know what will happen next That being said… Sometimes a little problem really is a just little problem Don’t overcomplicate things for you and your team… pick your battles

Research & Planning The ultimate goal of interaction design is to balance the goals of the business with the needs, abilities, and goals of the users. Design & Validation Good interaction design makes products engaging and easy to use. This could mean saved time, retaining customers, attracting new customers, and even improving employee morale. All these things can be measured in dollars over time. Implementation Working every step of the way. Up front research and design, in development and during change requests, right down to usability testing. Interaction design takes a role in every part of the development lifecycle. Where Interaction Designers fit Technical Communicators Templates User guides Product documentation Online help CBT Standardization Users Interaction Designers Interaction design Visual design Branding design User Experience Architects User needs definition Interaction design Information design Usability evaluation and testing Web Developers Web technologies Web development RIA development

A Case Study A company recently made some simple changes to their site's checkout process with the intent to simplify the user's experience. Specifically, they shortened the number of steps by combining the shipping address, billing address, and payment information onto a single page. Since this was all the same information from the original design, they only expected an increase in the number of visitors who made purchases. What the team didn't realize was they had made a subtle change to the interaction with users. Unfortunately, this change caused sales to drop off sharply, and it took the team a bit of research to figure it out. In the old design, the site first asked for the shipping address, then, like many sites, required the user to press a continue button to proceed. That button produced a page that required the billing address, followed by another button. The final page inquired about the payment information. However, that page also reiterated the contents of the order and showed the total price, including the shipping costs and taxes. It turns out, in the old design, the user entered their payment information after they learned what the total cost would be. In the new design, they still reported the total cost. However, because of the consolidation of pages, that information now appeared on the page after the request for payment information. The team hadn't realized how important it was for users to find out their costs before they entered their credit card. Every checkout process is a conversation with elements that need to happen in a specific sequence. When the team unknowingly changed the sequence of conversation elements, they accidentally “broke” the site and lost the user’s trust. source: http:// www.uie.com/articles/subtle_interaction_design /

References Designing for Interaction – Dan Safer (ISBN 0-321-43206-1) uie.com : http://www.uie.com/articles/subtle_interaction_design/ askTog.com : http:// www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html UXMatters : http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2008/10/selling-ux.php Google : http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html The Standish Group: http:// www.standishgroup.com/sample_research/index.php Forrester: http://www.forrester.com/ER/Research/Report/Summary/0,1338,8734,FF.html

Thank You! Angela Miller http://www.angelaportfolio.com

UX: Interaction Design

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