UX LX in short...

My notes from UXLX 2011

Sam Smith
User Experience Consultant
sam.smith@rma-consulting.com
+44 (0) 7980 563 908

What happens when you put 450 UX people from around
the world into one building and supply them with plenty of
coffee, booze and the chance to pitch their opinions against
like-minded souls? UX Lisbon.

Todd Zaki Warfel (prototyping with HTML5 and CSS3)

"CSS is totally the new photoshop" -
"It's all still theoretical design until you let
get it 90% there in Photoshop and
someone else play with it"
then get the designer and the
developer to sit together and tweak
the ﬁnal 10% using CSS.

3 Guiding Principles: High res versions:
- set expectations for what users will (and won't) see (left)
- the best tool to build a prototype with is the one that (right)
you know
- prototype only what you need

http://bit.ly/HTML5_prototype (downloadable kit to play and learn with)

(Andrew Watterson) skeumorphs

“Using cues from old technology in new technology to increase engagement and usability”

Takes advantage of nostalgia and
emotional response

Which one do you buy for grandma?
(know your audience)

Some examples take the metaphor
too far … does using skeuomorphs
mean you miss out on innovation?

High res version

Dan Brown (effective design documentation)

"Good documentation tells a story"

A document has to have a deﬁned and
understood purpose. Talk to the people
who are going to be using the document
(set expectations and show examples)

We're all short of time - we need to
understand when it's appropriate to create
documentation (and what type to create).

"It's our responsibility as designers/authors
to make our documents readable and
enjoyable"

High res version

Dan Brown (effective design documentation)

Be a journalist, not a comedian (don't bury the lead)

High res versions: (left) and (right)

Bill Hicks (via Ian Fenn)

"Strive for clarity but don't dumb it down" http://www.youtube.com/results?
search_query=bill+hicks&aq=f

"Don't kill yourself, but do knock over some tables"

Steve Mulder (personas)

"In order to convince, you need the tools with which to build the argument"

A persona is: the story of someone
realistic who is a unique part of the
audience

We're not designing for everyone…
personas help to identify who you are
designing for

Keep personas visible (and used)
throughout the project or they will die!

How will the persona impact on design
decisions/testing/validation? (if it
doesn't impact, it's not worth using)

High res version

Steve Mulder (personas)

High res versions: (left) and (right)

Kevin Cheng (communicating with comics)

"Comics are fun"

People are more
inclined to
engage with
comics than
(longer) text-only
based
communications

Using comics
(visualisation)
forces you to
strip out a lot of
the unnecessary
text and to Elements of a comic script:
communicate - Scene
concisely - Actors
- Action
- Dialogue
High res version
Good dialogue avoids you having to use (bad) captions as a crutch

Kevin Cheng (communicating with comics)

It's easy to learn the visual language
you need to communicate visually
(using comics) - you can do it with
very simple/basic shapes.

Comics allow you to get to a level
of abstraction that places the focus
on the detail that is important

Composition is much harder but is
a real differentiator

High res version

Lou Rosenfeld (going beyond user research)

"What would a user research set-up look like if it was designed rather than organic?"

Analytics = what
UX = why

Very powerful when combined but not
often considered together

Different silos (disciplines) look at
and question data in different ways
(multiple interpretations)

Get out of your silo (mentally as
well as physically) - make small but
meaningful connections with other
groups

High res version

Christian Crumlish (keynote)

"Design has never really meant controlling the entire experience"

(Kids do) but adults don't know how to play. Using
masks allows you to create an identity to hide
behind and frees you up to play.

Frameworks/controlled co-design (e.g. Facebook
proﬁle) are a mixture of deﬁned/controlled elements
and customisation

"Allowed chaos" lets the user create/have fun via
surprises

Competition is a great motivator but can also get in
the way of the experience - it's not the only way to
play (e.g games like Pandemic where you have to
work together)

"Tuning": within a framework
calibrate and curate your own High res version
experience (e.g. Twitter)

Nick Finck (keynote)

"Follow the whole experience, not just the digital interaction"

Observe how the other touchpoints impact on and
affect the experience and strive to create a hive
mentality (all working together holistically)

Cross-channel experiences are often not
continuous or a single set of touchpoints - how can
you make this a seamless experience
(e.g. Kindle and Netﬂix)

Attention to detail counts (observe in context and
look for 'hacks')

Tangible, ofﬂine and mobile are all key parts of the
experience that need to be thought of and
integrated

High res version

Kristina Halverson (keynote)

People don't visit your website for the design/experience- they come for the content

All too often no-one is talking/thinking about
who is creating the content and where it will
come from - content producers are being
brought into the process to late

Simplying your content strategy helps you
ﬁgure out how content will help you meet
your business objectives

High res version

Stephen Anderson (keynote)

"It's not about the tools it's about the thinking process that led to these tools"

Re-frame the problem to ensure you
solving the right problem

Change from a product/solution focus to an
experience focus ('design a better way to…)

Map the peaks and valleys of the user's
experience (these are the memorable parts)
- how can we make the valleys positively
memorable?
[See the Dominos Pizza Tracker]

'Z-shaped' thinkers:

Change direction
Explore many different perspectives
Synthesise info & embrace constraints
Challenge assumptions & appreciate details

High res version

Josh Clark (keynote)

"There is no single mobile culture (and there is room for more than one winner)"

Think small (SMS) - only 30-40% of adults
in the US have (and are using) apps on
their phone

Apps are better suited to 'doing'
(mobile) Web is better for reference activities

Apps make it easier to build the awesome
(but you MUST have a mobile-friendly website)

Don't confuse context with intent - just
because I'm on a smaller screen doesn't
mean I want to do or see less… I just want
to see it in a different way

Finding apps (via app store/word of
mouth) is an important criteria for success

High res version "Build once, deploy many is a pipedream"

Chris Fahey (keynote)

"Cognition is a limited resource - it's our job to allow the end user to 'spend' it wisely"

We're spending a lot of time and effort
doing things manually (e.g. tagging) when
technology could do it better and faster

We're creating interactions that are
unnecessary and have no real reward (e.g.
collecting badges and achievements in
games)

We waste a lot of the time and cognitive
energy that technology frees up doing
stuff like watching TV - what could we
achieve if we we to make better use of
this time?

High res version

Dario Buzzini (keynote)

Work smart: if something is 'good enough' use it and move on to the next challenge

We like complexity and sometimes we
create our own problems
(unnecessarily complex data porn)

Use a 'Parking Lot' to get the idea
out, park it and move on

Work with/alongside others to build
the right knowledge base and skill-
set (pairing)

High res version

Don Norman (keynote)

"Examining the obvious is where great insights come from ...”

“… don't start with the solution,
examine the question ﬁrst"

Marketing is about what people buy -
UX is about what people need (these
are not the same thing and should not
be confused or lumped together)

"Life is complex: our tools must match
life. We need to design to help us
understand and live with this
complexity"

High res version

Don Norman (keynote)

"Examining the obvious is where great insights come from ...”

Simplicity doesn't always result in
usability. The Google search page is
simple and highly usable if you want to
search, but if you want to do any of the
secondary tasks, the simplicity of the
interface makes these harder to initiate

We need to set the balance of
complexity right to avoid users getting
bored (too low) or frustrated (too high).
As users gain experience, they require
more complexity to achieve this balance.

System thinking design (looking at the
whole experience) can be the reason
for success failure: iPod vs. early mp3
players with no app store or interface /
Kindle (self contained system)

High res version

UX LX in short...

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