User Interface Engineering

Treat your team to a conference-quality seminar right from your own office. Join us for the next UIE Virtual Seminar, The Power of Ad Hoc Personas: Truly Practical Methods to Get Your Organization On the Same Page, with Tamara Adlin, Thursday, February 18.

When you kick off a project right, everything is much easier. When that doesn’t happen, the team pays the price. We’ve all seen projects where, part way in, a well-intentioned executive derailed the team by changing the direction. To prevent this, we want to put everyone with the power to take the project off course, on to the same course.

Tamara Adlin has developed a great technique to make that alignment happen, which she calls Ad Hoc Personas. Her method, borrowed from research-based personas, creates characters out of information the organization already has at their fingertips. They’re inexpensive and easy to create, ensuring a customer focus from the very start of the project.

Register for this seminar before February 11, and we’ll automatically send you another great webinar recording, Making Personas Work for Your Web Site, with Steve Mulder. (Look for it in your confirmation email.)

Ever had a project de-railed after you’ve already started? How do you get everyone customer-focused and on the same page before you begin? Share you stories below.

Duration: 36m | 21 MB
Recorded: January, 2010
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
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Peter Morville is the co-presenter of one of our most popular UIE Virtual Seminars of all time, Leverage Search and Discovery Patterns. As is often the case, our audience came up with a heap of thoughtful questions, which we decided to break up into two podcasts. This is the first, and the second will feature Peter’s co-presenter Mark Burrell answering even more of your questions. Even if you did not attend, there’s a lot of great information in these podcasts.

In this episode, Jared Spool sits down with Peter to address many issues, including an interesting notion that Peter mentioned in the seminar;

“Browsing doesn’t scale.”

This came up in discussion about whether a site needs to be optimized towards search or towards browsing. Peter said that the two are all-but inseparable. The idea was that for very large sites, there comes a limit to how deep you can patiently navigate to reach the information you’re looking for. In these cases, many users would start their journey with a search, and then navigate from the results. An example of this use case can be seen with how many people use Amazon.com. Their visit to the immense site may start with a search for a particular product, author or artist, and then begin to navigate from their initial search results.

Best Result First Pattern

Another topic that proved popular was Peter’s Best Result First pattern. It may seem obvious that you want the best search result for a query to appear first in the results, but achieving that is not particularly easy. Peter suggests that it takes iterative tuning and testing while tweaking relevance algorithms, but then also pulling in other factors like popularity, date, and format data.

Advanced Search

Several attendees had questions about “advanced search.” Should it be built into sites to assist novice users sort through results better or to help sophisticated users dig more deeply? Others questioned if the notion of “advanced search” was dead altogether.

Peter replied that advanced search wasn’t dead, though many might wish it so. He observed that advanced search often causes confusion among users and many of these interfaces and options overwhelm them. He says you should design your search as if there would be no advanced search at all. One innovative way to give more control to searchers is to present search results with faceted navigation. This way advanced and novices users alike can have an understandable tool to filter through their results.

Faceted Navigation within Search Results

Not all sites work well with facets. If you have your doubts, you need to measure the use of the facets and see if they’re leading to success. However, it’s difficult to determine the success of the facets because trouble could mean either their implementation was done poorly, or that facets simply aren’t a good match for your site.

There was much more in this interview, and I invite you to tune in to get more great insight from Peter and Jared. And check back shortly for the second podcast interview for this seminar, with Mark Burrell. And don’t forget, you can still access the recording of the Leveraging Search & Discovery Patterns seminar if you haven’t yet seen it.

What challenges are you facing with search on your site?

It’s hard to have a conversation about great design without mentioning Apple. Usually, we’re talking about the design of the iPod, iPhone, or last week’s newly announced iPad.

However, those aren’t the only interesting challenges Apple’s talented designers have tackled. They’ve done an amazing job with something that wouldn’t get a lot of attention otherwise: the web site checkout forms.

In this issue of UIEtips, Luke Wroblewski dissects the newly redesigned Apple.com checkout process. As always, his critique is brilliant, providing a ton of great tips for anyone designing interactive forms. I know you’ll enjoy it.

Read the article – The Apple Store’s Checkout Form Redesign, Part 1

Luke is a Master of web forms and that is why we asked him to be part of the UIE Web App Masters Tour taking place in 4 different cities from March – July 2010. Luke will show you how to move beyond static web forms by leveraging the best of today’s technologies and capabilities. Learn more about the Tour, Luke’s topic, and the other Masters at http://www.UIETour.com.

What do you think of Apple’s redesign? Did they do it right or would you have changed it? We’d love to know your thoughts below.

Duration: 25m | 14 MB
Recorded: January, 2010
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
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We turn to Hagan Rivers for insight on designing challenging web applications year-after-year because she just keeps coming up with better and better ideas. When we were talking with her late last year, she mentioned she had another innovation in her web app design workflow, which sounded a bit strange at first blush: she designs the navigation as a separate application.

“How is that even possible?” we asked. Navigation is so central to the experience of the web that it frankly sounded like crazy talk. But we knew to hear Hagan out. Now we wonder how people do it any other way.

Recently, Jared sat down to talk with Hagan to discuss her somewhat radical notion, which she plans to discuss in detail at our upcoming Web App Masters Tour. Jared began by asking about the genesis of her application development strategy.

“I would be working on relatively complicated applications, and I found a lot of our design discussions would get really mired in the navigation. And the problem was, because we hadn’t fully worked out what was on each screen, we were kind of co-designing two things in parallel: how to get to the screens and what would be on the screens. And the two kind of affect one another, and so it was really hard to design these two similar objects at the same time.

And so what I started doing was just leaving this big, gray block at the top of the screen that says, “Navigation goes here. Let’s focus on the screen.” And once I did that, I found it got a lot easier to concentrate on what goes on each and every screen”

Of course, the primary application and the navigation are never truly separate apps. They’re always joined at the hip.

“They are obviously interweaved. […]you have to always design the navigation system with the rest of the screens deeply in mind, and you’re going to be inserting little bits and pieces here and there. But it’s still something you can design as its own freestanding thing.”

Hagan brought up the idea of momentum in design, where inspiration doesn’t just appear on demand, but when the ideas do start flowing you don’t want to hamper them. Navigation is often a decelerator of momentum. Leaving navigation until later in the process doesn’t just ease addressing the primary tasks of the application. There are other advantages to having many of the app’s screens complete, prior to having a navigation system. For example, during your usability testing of prototypes,

“Because you don’t have the navigation system in front of [your users], [they're] not being led by it. You’ve just got the raw screens. You know, sooner or later, to make a purchase order you have to collect certain information. No matter how the user got there, you know you have to collect. It’s a bunch of forms to fill in.

In what way does the user think about that? How do they get to those screens? What are they prepared with when they arrive there? What do they know? What don’t they know? Do they need to quit halfway through sometimes because they have to go look things up? All of those things will tell you what the navigation system needs to be.”

We feel that’s an powerful way to address the needs of your users with the navigation, gaining even more value from your research and testing efforts.

These are just a few tidbits from the interview. Be sure to listen to the interview to gain even more web app wisdom.

Obviously, we’re really excited that Hagan will be discussing this topic in depth at our Web App Masters Tour. Her “Escaping Navigation Hell” will be featured at all four stops on the tour, San Diego, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Seattle. You won’t want to miss it.

When do you address navigation when building complex web applications? Would Hagan’s idea help you in your situation? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Duration: 36m | 20MB
Recorded: January, 2010
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
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How can we design systems that encourage the behaviors we want?

One of the bleeding edge ideas we’ll be talking about at the UIE Web App Masters Tour is adding motivation to web applications. How do you encourage user behavior through the design of your web app? It may initially sound a bit far-fetched, but there’s an industry that’s been shaping its customers’ behavior since the beginning: the gaming industry.

Stephen Anderson

Stephen Anderson is a consultant and a thought leader on the idea of motivating user behavior through design. He and Jared Spool sat down sat down for a discussion as part of our series of interviews with the Web App Masters.

Stephen’s developing a deck of cards to aid designers in brainstorming their designs, with consideration to behavioral cues. He calls them Mental Notes Stephen says,

“We focus on things like visual design, usability, or the information architecture and we forget about, ‘Oh yeah, there was that thing about gifting or curiosity or the peak-end rule.’ This is really a way to apply intention, or a way to intentionally remind people to use some of these, or try to leverage these.

These are ideas about human behavior and how humans respond to different ideas or different stimulus. So my idea is why aren’t we applying these to web design? We’re applying them to marketing, to retail, to interpersonal relationships, and to dating.

A lot of these ideas are nothing new, but I think we’re just now reaching the point where we’re thinking more consciously about how can I apply something like recognition over recall to web design?”

Stephen also gets into how we can use these persuasive or seductive ideas into shaping the initial engagement a web app has with its user.

“Attention is so scarce today that people spend 30 seconds on something, and they might not see the value or see why it could be useful to them in those 30 seconds. So my focus started shifting from the product itself to that initial engagement, that initial interaction, and how do we make that first experience a lot more seductive, so people stick around long enough to see that you really do have something worthwhile here?

Going back to real world analogies, think about if you were doing those not with a system online, but with a human. The human could be very straightforward, very to-the-point, in asking the questions, or that human could be very personable, and maybe crack a joke, or ask you how you are doing, do these things to be more personable. …why can’t these systems adopt some of those similar ideas?”

Stephen mentioned an internal corporate knowledge-sharing web app that he was involved with. The company used a lot of game-type incentives to encourage employee participation, but many of the most successful attributes are some of the most counter-intuitive. For example, to add content to some pages, employees had to “pay”. And this encouraged participation. They paid with points they accumulated doing other tasks within the system, like answering co-workers’ questions. Employees would attempt to answer the questions first so they could gain points before someone else beat them to it.

“…they described, in very qualitative ways, how you earn karma (“points” in this example) and how you get better at this game or this system. But they were not explicit with what activities you do and how many points you get for each. And I think that was very smart.”

We appear to be at the very cusp of adding psychology and a touch of gaming into web apps. From the friendly copy tone on Flickr to the full-on game strategy employed in Stephen’s example, it’s clear there’s a lot of potential here. You’ll want to listen to the entire interview and of course, you’re not going to want to miss Stephen present his talk, The Art & Science of Seductive Interactions, at our UIE Web App Masters Tour. It’s going to be impressive.

Stephen Anderson is just one of the incredible speakers we’ll be hosting during the Web App Masters Tour. Learn more about our locations dates and speakers at UIETour.com.

Are you building your web apps with an eye towards motivating specific behaviors? Let us know in the comments!

Web-based applications are a different beast than other types of software or web sites. Web app designers not only have to take care of the users’ goals, but also ensure that the business needs are taken into account.

The business needs can be complex. They come from all over the enterprise, originating from initiatives (like marketing campaigns), infrastructure (like inventory constraints), and regulations (like export restrictions). Suddenly, a simple task, like paying for a product, becomes crazy-complicated.

In today’s UIEtips, I discuss how the best designers thrive within this world of wacky constraints, coming up with ingenious ways to meet the business requirements while producing a delightful user experience. If you design web apps, this should be interesting.

Read the article, Web Apps: Where Business Needs & User Needs Collide.

Web app design is at the forefront of our minds this month. That’s because we’ve just launched our 4-city UIE Web App Masters Tour. We’re wicked excited about the program and I’m betting you’ll be too as soon as you check it out. Go see it at www.UIETour.com.

Have you bumped into business constraints in your web app designs? Have you come up with a creative way to work around them? We’d love to hear your experiences. Leave your thoughts below.

Duration: 46m | 25MB
Recorded: November, 2009
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
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Our audience clearly embraced Fred Beecher’s recent Virtual Seminar on prototyping, The Whys, Whats and Hows of Prototyping, because we were nearly buried under all the thoughtful questions we received. It’s clear people are looking for more effective and efficient ways of working through their design ideas. Our Adam Churchill got together with Fred after the seminar to go through the pile and deliver more answers for you.

During the podcast, Adam asked Fred to explore these questions, and more:

• Can you tell us how design differs from prototyping, and where
  elements like visual design and wireframing fit in?
• Does prototyping require organizational change? Anything you
  recommend when working with others in the organization that aren’t
  members of the design team?
• What are the best methods and tools for online testing?
• What recommendations do you have for collaboration when working with
  people in different locations, and possibly at different skill levels?
• Which prototyping tools do you recommend, and how do they differ, from low fidelity to high fidelity?

I know you’re going to enjoy this episode because I couldn’t get through editing the audio without pausing to look up some of the resources Fred suggests.

Do you still have prototyping questions? Ask them in the comments below.

UIEtips 1/19/10: Interview-Based Tasks: Learning from Leonardo DiCaprio

When we do our jobs well, important decisions are made correctly. Designs are improved. Experiences transition from frustrating to delightful. Assuming we do our jobs well.

Doing our jobs well is very hard work. A thousand details need to line up just perfectly. If we don’t get things just right, important decisions are made wrong. Designs regress. Experiences frustrate even more.

As user experience professionals, it’s all about the assumptions we make. If we assume correctly, things go well. It’s when we make false assumptions that problems occur. How do we know when our assumptions are any good?

In this week’s article, we look back to an article originally published in 2006; Interview-Based Tasks: Learning from Leonardo DiCaprio. In the article, I address the assumption question head-on by looking at a testing technique known as interview-based tasks. This non-traditional approach to usability tests helps work around the assumptions built into standard task design, allowing teams more flexibility and insight into what users actually need from the design.

When using interview-based tasks, the art of asking the question is critical. How you prepare for the interview, build rapport with the interviewee, and how to work with varying levels of experience and expertise will determine how successful the interview-based task is completed.

That’s where Steve Portigal comes in. Our next UIE Virtual Seminar is on Deep Dive Interviewing Secrets: Making Sure You Don’t Leave Key Information Behind. This is a not-to-miss-seminar if you want to know more behind the art of the question.

Have you tried interview-based tasks? What insights did you gain from it? How else have you checked the assumptions that go into your work? Join the discussion by submitting a comment below.

Duration: 37m 40s | 22MB
Recorded: October, 2009
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
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Conducting a usability test can be stressful, but you know how important this effort is. Effectively moderating a usability test is a critical part of your user research. It can put the design team on the path to success or failure in the next steps of a product’s design. With a little guidance, and some practice, you can master this art of interacting with you users and get the results your organization needs.
 
Back in October, we asked usability testing expert Beth Loring to present a UIE Virtual Seminar on how to Effectively Moderate Usability Tests. In her presentation, she talks about how to interact with participants and finding that balance between helping them feel comfortable and being too friendly. Beth covers what to do when participants get stuck, or even fail a task. There’s quite a bit of good information that will help you moderate your next usability test. As is often the case, we got lots of great questions from the live audience, but just couldn’t get to them all. I got together with Beth to record this podcast and cover some of the remaining issues. If you find yourself wanting more afterward, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of Effectively Moderating Usability Tests.
 
During the podcast, I asked Beth to explore these questions, and more:

• What is the recommended pathway for learning how to moderate usability tests?
• How much subject matter expertise should a moderator have going into a usability test?
• What’s the impact of using a participant more than once?
• How do you respond to a participant when they’re looking for feedback on how they’re doing in the test?
• What’s the reasonable maximum amount of time for a user test session?

 
Tune in to hear more about designing for facets. Still have questions? Start the discussion in our comments, below

The topic of our next UIE Virtual Seminar is so important, and no one talks about it. On Thursday, January 28, Steve Portigal will deliver his talk: Deep Dive Interviewing Secrets: Making Sure You Don’t Leave Key Information Behind.

(Oh, and by the way, our last event sold out, so you’ll want to Register your team early!)

When you spend time with your customers, it’s an opportunity to learn how to move your design forward. You don’t want to leave important information “on the table”—information that can give you a more complete understanding of how to move your vision forward. You might act on incomplete detail that creates risk when it forces you to guess what the users need. Worse, the partial insight you have may take your design team in the wrong direction.

User research is an expensive endeavor. Make sure you’re prepared to get the most out of every minute that you’re with your users. Come home with a deep insight into their thinking, their lives, and how you can change their experience for the better.

Steve Portigal will show your team the art of asking the question. You might visit the user in their office or home, have them come to you for a usability test, or even have a chance encounter at a trade show or while waiting for an airplane. Do you know what to ask? Do you know what to listen for, to extract the critical detail of what they can tell you about your design?

Steve will help you prepare your team for any opportunity, be it formal user research or less structured, ad-hoc research. He’ll also give you tips on how to work with your stakeholders and executives, who may also be meeting potential customers and users, so they know what to ask and how to listen—integrating their efforts into the research team. (Wouldn’t it be great if they understood why you’re doing what you’re doing?)

Get your team asking good questions, the right questions, with this fantastic seminar. Honing this skill will be a great addition to their Toolbox. Register your team before January 19, with the promotion code TOOLBOX, and I’ll also send you the link to a fabulous webinar Kate Gomoll did for us, Field Studies: The Ultimate Tool in Your Usability Toolbox.

Are you prepared for meeting someone who could be using your next design? How do you make sure you get into their head, learn what their life is all about, and get the information you need to build something truly innovative and delightful? We’d love to hear your ideas and about your experiences below.