UX Methods
- 1. UX MethodsBy Maria Alejandra Marulanda
- 2. Planning UX Projects The important thing when planning a user experience project is to put the user front and center of your activities.
- 3. So, how do you plan a successful UX project? You need to include activities to answer each of the following questions: 1. What are the business requirements? 2. What are the user requirements? 3. What is the best design solution that meets both the business and user requirements?
- 4. What are the business requirements? What would make your client feel that the project is a success? Make sure you understand the reasoning behind the project’s existence by considering one or more of the following methods. 01
- 5. Project Brief Is there a formal project brief? If so, read it and ensure you understand it by asking questions if necessary. A good brief will clarify the reasons for the project and outline expected outcomes. Project brief template A useful brief will generally contain information on these subjects: 1. Description of the project 2. Business goals, objectives, and expected outcomes. 3. Target audience 4. Brand guidelines 5. Key stakeholders 6. Expected timings 7. Technological constraints 8. Related activities
- 6. Kick-Off Meetings Schedule a kick-off meeting to get the project started. This is your chance to make sure you’ve fully understood the brief. Team canvas template A kick-off meeting is the perfect time to discuss a project plan with main people involved (Product owner, Stakeholders) 1. Which activities will you be doing, when? 2. Can everyone make the required dates for delivery and feedback?
- 7. Requirements Workshops The purpose is: •Make the project team meet the stakeholders of the project. •Gather a comprehensive "wish list" from stakeholders of the project. •Prioritize the collected requirements based on stakeholders attending the workshop. Before the Workshop prepare an agenda: 1. On-Boarding – Welcome and introduction round (ice breaker) – Vision, goals – «Rules & behaviour» to be applied during the workshop 2. Key workshop topics – Listing of your main workshop topics 3. Off-Boarding – Recap of the workshop, goals and achievements – Definition of next steps and tasks – Reflection & feedback round and positive ending
- 9. Use ice breakers & energisers Ice breakers and energisers involve people and keep them in a good mood. This is especially beneficial if you are dealing with topics, not everyone is familiar with or if people need to get to know one another. There are countless ways to apply ice-breakers and energisers. Here: http://toolbox.hyperisland.com/
- 10. The 5 Whys
- 11. What are the user requirements? For great user experiences, understand your user’s needs before you design for them. Use a selection of the following techniques to understand user requirements. Try to ensure you use at least one technique that involves real users. 02
- 12. Competitor Benchmarking Competitor benchmarking allows you to understand the features that are present in competitor products. This is often a good way of understanding users’ expectations and needs. Benchmark example 1. Select 3 or more direct competitors. 2. Identify out of sector or indirect competitors to gain ideas from beyond sector. 3. Create a table or document comparing competitors based on criteria you select relevant to your business or assignment. Tools for comparing your visitor numbers against competitors: https://trends.google.com/trends/ http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/
- 13. Experience Maps Experience Map is an important design tool to understand your product/service interactions from users’ point of view. Experience Map method User journey Besides Experience Maps, different names are used to refer to similar representations, some of them are: Customer Journey, User Journey and Blueprint or Service Ecology.
- 15. Personas A persona is a short, vivid description of a fictional character that represents a group of the product’s users. It typically includes details such as: ·Age ·Sex ·Occupation ·Hobbies ·Likes/dislikes ·Expertise ·Must Does / Must Never ·Referents & Influences ·Devices & Platforms ·Used product/service ·Key Quotes ·Experience Goals ·Brand-Relationship
- 17. What is the best design solution? What is the best design solution that meets both the business and user requirements? To be sure about this, you need to evaluate. Both to know if it works correctly or not, if it meets expectations or not, or simply to know how a certain tool works. 03
- 18. Inquiry techniques: "Try, find out, search" They are research techniques that allow collecting information about user preferences, habits, behaviors, tastes and needs, for this reason it is recommended to be used in the stage of product design.
- 19. Inquiry techniques The types of inquiry evaluation are: The Usability Methods Toolbox •Contextual Inquiry •Ethnographic Study / Field •Observation •Interviews and Focus Groups •Surveys •Questionnaires •Journaled Sessions •Self-reporting Logs •Screen Snapshots
- 20. Inspection techniques: Usability inspection is the generic name for a set of methods that are all based on having evaluators inspect a user interface. Typically, usability inspection is aimed at finding usability problems in the design, though some methods also address issues like the severity of the usability problems and the overall usability of an entire system.
- 21. Inspection techniques Many inspection methods lend themselves to the inspection of user interface specifications that have not necessarily been implemented yet, meaning that inspection can be performed early in the usability engineering lifecycle. Summary of Usability Inspection Methods •Heuristic evaluation •Cognitive Walkthroughs •Formal Usability Inspections •Pluralistic Walkthroughs •Feature Inspection •Consistency Inspection •Standards Inspection here •Guideline checklists
- 22. Testing Usability testing refers to evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users. Typically, during a test, participants will try to complete typical tasks while observers watch, listen and takes notes.
- 23. Testing “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” - Margaret Meade Usability Testing Basics •Thinking Aloud protocol •Co-discovery method •Question asking protocol •Performance measurement
- 24. Related Techniques •Prototyping -Low-fidelity -High-fidelity -Horizontal -Vertical •Affinity Diagrams •Archetype Research •Card-Sorting… More information here