Story mapping is a way of organizing Agile user stories that communicate user experience. It allows us to build the collection of stories that become the backlog. Agile expert Jeff Patton will show you how story mapping gives you a tool: a tool to both quickly think through and simply describe the user experience. This strong technique helps you put the big picture of UX and the little pictures of Agile in one place, engaging the developers and stakeholders you’re working with.

Users will always have an experience with your product. Story mapping will pull your UX focus into your organization’s process and ensure that experience is a great one.

You’ll learn:

How to build a story map—something you already use—from scratch

You’ll learn to keep the focus on what people are doing, while decomposing into the things your organization designs, and how development happens.

• Bring user experience to the project early and often, while still letting the Agile folks move forward in their process of breaking everything down into little pieces
• Explore ways of describing user experience with Agile stories, and get involved with the “what to build” part

How to overcome the Agile dogma that often starts projects off on the wrong foot

You’ve heard stories and are suspicious, or maybe even had an experience of your own.

• Make sense and avoid trouble in your projects when talking about the user experience, something seemingly antithetical to the agile process
• Story mapping gives you an intermediate structure to represent both the big business “whys” and the specific development “whats” of what the user is trying to do

Why the story mapping vocabulary can alleviate the lack of common understanding that comes with tying Agile & UX together

Between project management, developers, and the UX contingent, you can get everyone on the same page with the terms you introduce and define.

• Use language that still helps you plan and track progress, but doesn’t lose the user experience
• Succeed in working with others on your team who may not be UX-literate, using story mapping as a conversation piece and a collaborative element

You can put this process in place for projects you’re working on right now

Regardless of how far along your team is on a project, it’s never too late to put this technique in play.

• Take control of current projects. Use story mapping to ensure the user experience is an integral part of the product you deliver.
• Reap the rewards of story mapping when you’re stuck, or unsure of next steps, even several iterations into a project

A team deep in the Agile process need things at a certain time, in a certain way. That’s foreign to the traditional UX effort. Story mapping is a way to merge these two worlds. Jeff will dig into why the two approaches are different, and what user experience professionals will do in this Agile environment.

Start story mapping in your agile environment and you’ll be tightly integrated as active team members in the whole development process, and not added as an afterthought. Others will see you as a critical contributor to the process of what to build, and in framing and delivering your product. Join us on September 1.

Get Jeff’s Agile Primer:

Register before August 25 and get complimentary access to Jeff’s 2009 virtual seminar: An Agile UX Primer. Agile refers to a class of processes, and Jeff’s the guy we turn to for this aspect of the design and development world. It’s not a prerequisite, but it’ll add to your takeaways from Jeff’s seminar on Sept. 1.

Patterns, textures, PSDs, printable sketch templates and more to help you save time and energy on your visual design.

• Premium Pixels
• Pixel Patterns
• Konigi Graph Paper PDF

HTML + CSS – Front-end development takes enough time as it is — save as much time as possible by using these tools, resources and reference materials.

• HTML5 Boilerplate
• Free, online book all about HTML5
• Modernizr
• Duet: Dan’s example of Modernizr usage and graceful degradation

Webfonts

• Create your own web fonts, including subsetting
• Font subsetting for performance and enhancement
• Typekit

JavaScript

• Raphaël, a JavaScript library for creating dynamic vector graphics
• Asteroids

Get $100 off the August 16 Web Design Masterclass in LA

If these resources piqued your interest, then you’ll definitely want to attend our final
Web Design Masterclass workshop in Los Angeles, August 16. Register by July 25 with the promotion code UIE, and you’ll get $100 off.

The Web Design Masterclass, taught by the brilliant minds of Dan Rubin, Steve Smith, Jonathan Snook, and Byran Veloso (Sidebar Creative) promise that you’ll learn how to:

• Take advantage of the coolest enhancements of HTML5 and CSS3 that will speed your production time and deliver stunning results.
• Wrangle powerful lesser-known and underutilized functions of tools like Photoshop and Fireworks.
• Learn new strategies for getting clients on the same page, plowing through projects faster, and producing awe-inspiring designs.
• Vanquish your coding fears by conquering JavaScript with jQuery along with a storehouse of easy-to-learn techniques.

Add to your resource list at the Web Design Masterclass. Learn more about this full-day workshop at Sidebarworkshops.com and be sure to register with the code UIE by July 25 to get the $100 off.

You’ll hear from top web app masters like Luke Wroblewski, Hagan Rivers, Bill Scott, Stephen Anderson, and Jared Spool. And you’ll get the details on Facebook, Twitter, 37signals, and Marriott Corporation’s design process.

How To Get the Free Recordings?

It’s easy. Just submit your email by March 14, 11:59 PM PT and you’ll get last year’s Web App Masters Tour talks and materials for free. No tricks, no quantity limits. We’ll send you an email with details on how to access this bundle of goodness.

Details on This Year’s Web App Masters Tour

After listening to last year’s talks, you’ll be itching join us this year in Philadelphia, Seattle, or Minneapolis.

More than half the conference focuses on mobile design, including Luke Wroblewski discussing mobile strategy, Josh Clark explaining the differences between mobile native apps and browser-based applications, and I’ll be looking at how mobile affects UX. And you’ll discover how emotionally connecting with your users and spending time with them can dramatically change how they use your applications. Plus you’ll hear case studies from Faceboook, PatientsLikeMe, SalesForce.com, AARP, and Netflix.

Get all the details on this year’s tour at UIETour.com. Use the promotion code RECORDINGS and pay just $795 when you register by March 24

Now hurry and get last year’s bundle of goodness before 11:59 pm on March 14.

This was news to her. But it wasn’t news to me. That’s because “getting the basics right” is a basic tenet (no pun intended) of the Kano Model. Had the product manager known about this model and how it works, she wouldn’t have been so surprised by her customer’s reactions to new features.

In this UIEtips, we’ll closely inspect the Kano Model and see what it can bring us.

Read the article: Understanding The Kano Model – A Tool for Sophisticated Designers

Does the Kano Model explain things you’ve learned about your designs and your users? We’d love to hear about your experiences. Share them with us below.

This is all very exciting. The first UIE Book Club is almost upon us. I’m so excited you’ll be part of it.

Join us today at 2pm Eastern, 1pm Central, and 11am Pacific. (If you’re in Mountain Time, you’re definitely clever enough to figure out the pattern. Except for Arizona. Those folks mess me up every time.)

Point your browser at http://live.5by5.tv.

That’s where you’ll find Kristina and me.

There’s two ways you can put your questions to Kristina. We’ll have an online chat room, where you can type in your question.

But even better is our dial-in lines. You can dial +1 407 278-4070 and talk directly to Kristina and me. (If you get a busy signal, it means we’ve filled up all the available lines. Just watch the show and we’ll tell you when the lines are free again.)

If everything goes as planned, we’ll record both the video and audio of the session, so you can pass it on to your colleagues at work (or catch it if you can’t join us).

See you there.

We had to provide more than just inspiration. We needed to make sure attendees left with new tools, ideas and processes they could immediately implement. We needed to make sure that the conference was going to impact their day to day work. Improve it, refine it, energize it.

As we put together the Masters, we realized we had something really special. A group of people you’re unlikely to see present ever again at one single event.

We knew we hit the mark when we received comments like this.

“Absolutely one of the BEST conferences I’ve been to. Each speaker brought valuable lessons we can take away with us.” Philadelphia attendee

“First conference I’ve been to in a while where I was very glad I attended every presentation. Content quality was excellent.” Philadelphia attendee

“A great 2 days. I could build the rest of my career on what I learned at this conference.” Stan C

Even though we broke up the band, you can still experience the Tour

With the Tour Proceedings, you can listen to over 13 hours of audio from 12 sessions, view all the PDFs of the presentations, hear interviews with many of the speakers, and get discounts to their books.

Order your proceedings by August 31, and you’ll pay just $249 – $50 off the regular price. You’ll immediately get access to the proceedings and make an impact on your web applications.

You’ll hear from these Masters

Luke Wroblewski, author of Web Form Designs. Luke masterfully blended entertainment and information in his presentation. He focused on ways to improve web forms, where they need to grow and change, and what to consider when designing for mobile applications.

Bill Scott, co-author of Designing Web Interfaces. Bill showed us rich interaction design principles in action on several web applications. He explained his concept of interesting moments — opportunities to engage with the user, and that these moments can actually be mapped out in a grid.

Doug Bowman, creative director, Twitter. Doug gave us a fascinating look at how Twitter helps new and one-time users become loyal repeaters. He discussed how users fall into 3 main groups – curious, casual, committed/core and how they track the users in these groups.

Ken Kellogg, director of user research, Marriott. Ken told us what it takes to redesign a web site with dozens of internal stakeholders involved. He discussed how negotiation was an important tactic during the redesign and the importance of never harming the corporate cash cow.

Jason Fried, co-founder, and Ryan Singer, lead designer, 37signals. Both Jason and Ryan talked about solving design problems. Ryan takes a more hands-on approach and shows you the methods 37signals uses for designing—from low fidelity sketches to using Photoshop. He emphasizes the lack of wireframes and detailed designs. Jason’s approach is more around the dynamics of the team—their communication around a design and how ownership of a design evolves.

Hagan Rivers, co-founder, Two Rivers Consulting. Hagan’s session covered several ways of tackling navigation in web applications. She carefully details the four types of navigation to consider: local navigation, global navigation, cross navigation, and dashboard navigation. Hagan’s session was very in-depth and detailed.

Christian Crumlish, co-author of Designing Social Interfaces. Christian lead us on a journey around social design principles and patterns. His talk covered five social principles: pave the cowpaths, talk like a person, embrace openness, learn from games, and respect the ethical dimension. He then continued on with five social pattern groups and five social anti-patterns.

Stephen Anderson, creator of the Mental Notes cards. Stephen explained how to use psychological concepts to motivate users. He engaged the audience with exercises on how to make mundane tasks fun and engaging.

Jared Spool, founder, User Interface Engineering. Jared delighted attendees with two presentations on current findings from UIE research. In his first presentation, Jared discussed the importance of vision, feedback, and culture. His second presentation looked at the importance of creating an experience vision.

Julie Zhuo, designer, Facebook. Julie gave us an inside look at how designers at Facebook work. She covered Facebook’s design strategy of designing for the system, not the individual, and how design decisions are data focused. It was fascinating to hear how a team of 35 design for over 400 million users.

Get all the details on each presentation.

So What Are You Waiting For?

You’ll want to order before August 31 to save $50 and pay just $249. Ready to order? You won’t regret it. As soon as we receive your order, you’ll get the information to immediately access this bundle of goodness.

Get $50 off the Tour Proceedings when you order by 8/31/10. Learn more about the proceedings

UIE Book Club: Kristina Halvorson’s Content Strategy
August 3, 2010 August 17, 2010
2pm ET / 1pm CT / 11am PT
Interested? Sign up here so we get a sense as to how many are joining us.
Note: Due to a conflict from an already planned engagement involving heavy narcotics, we had to change the date to 8/17/10. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been the type of person to learn new things from reading books. I’ve read hundreds of programming books, management books, and design books. It’s a great way to expand my ideas and thinking.

Right now, I’m reading Kristina Halvorson’s new Content Strategy book. It’s a fabulously detailed look at what a content strategy is all about and what we need to do to make it happen in our own organization. She’s got a fun writing style and it’s clear from her writing that she’s wicked smart.

As happens when I read a book like this, questions pop into my head. What’s the right size project to start a content strategy with? How would I convince the powers-that-be to let me do an audit? Who else should be part of the audit? What jobs to I assign them?

I’m only about a one-third of the way into the book and all these questions are floating around my brain. So, I thought, what if I called Kristina and asked her my questions? (Fortunately, she’s one of the experts speaking at our upcoming UI15 conference and also a friend, so I could get away with just bending her ear for an hour.)

My Eureka! Moment

But then a better thought occurred to me: What if we had a discussion with you too? I mean, if you were to read her book (or maybe you already have), you probably have great questions too. What if you joined my call with Kristina and we all talked about it.

That’s when I had my eureka! moment. We should host a talk show.

I called my friend Dan Benjamin who runs the 5by5 network. He’s got all these fancy gizmos that let us have a live, online talk show. Kristina and I will be live, with video. You can call in on Dan’s fancy phone system and we can all talk about the book.

The UIE Book Club: Kristina Halvorson’s Content Strategy

How cool does that sound? Awesomely cool is what I’m thinking. So, here’s how it’ll work.

Step #1: You need to get a copy of Kristina’s Content Strategy book. (Amazon has it for a great price. That’s where I got my copy.)

Step #2: You need read the book. (It’s an easy, fun read.) Write down questions as they occur to you.

Step #3: Join us on August 3 August 17 at 2pm ET / 1pm CT / 11am PT at 5by5.tv. (Watch this blog for instructions, sign up here, or follow me on the twitters at @jmspool.)

Step #4: Ask Kristina some brilliant questions. (She’s wicked smart and funny. It would be awesome to see if you could stump her. That would be a moment to treasure for a long time.)

That’s it!

How much does this cost? Other than buying the book and your time, NOTHING. It’s completely free.

This is a complete crazy experiment that we’re trying. (The UI15 conference is underwriting some of the costs and we’re looking for others to help sponsor it. Interested? Contact me.)

Mostly, I’m good with meeting deadlines and knowing that I have to read Kristina’s book by August 3 will push me to get it done. (Does that happen to you?) So, this is all a trick to make a hard-and-fast gotta be done book deadline.

So, mark your calendar:

UIE Book Club: Kristina Halvorson’s Content Strategy
August 3, 2010 August 17, 2010
2pm ET / 1pm CT / 11am PT
Interested? Sign up here so we get a sense as to how many are joining us.

See you there.

Subscribe to our podcast via

It is a good Friday indeed, because the Userability Podcast is back from hiatus! We have several all-new episodes in the pipeline that you’ll see in the coming weeks.

This week’s episode features guest Mohammed Alaa, calling in all the way from Cairo, Egypt. Mohammed is a UI designer who wants to expand his skills to include more from experience design. He asked two questions:

• I mostly work with business applications. I want to convince my manager and my client of how important it is to have a plan for usability testing, during the process of creating the project. How?
• My current position is as a user interface designer. And I would love to know if there is any specific course of study to become a user experience designer? And what’s the difference between a UI designer and a UX designer?

Two questions means twice the ridiculousness as Robert and Jared stall for time with their replies. Eventually, they arrive at useful advice for Mohammed (and perhaps you) even if there was a hike involved getting there.

Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show!

On January 7 Peter Morville will discuss Search Design Patterns, and in the same session, Mark Burrell will tell you how to then use them.

Later in the month, on January 28, Steve Portigal will present to you his thoughts on studying your users in their own context, Ethnography.

During last year’s UIE Roadshow, our audiences couldn’t get enough on the topic of personas. So, on February 18, we’ve asked Tamara Adlin to talk about The Power of Ad-hoc Personas. Personas can be your ticket to lasting organizational clarity… and it doesn’t take a ton of costly research.

With his book, Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide just hitting the bookstore shelves, Todd Zaki Warfel will help you flesh out your design ideas, test your assumptions, and gather real-time feedback from users on March 29.

In the Spring, look for Kristina Halvorson to help you with your content strategy and Louis Rosenfeld to dive deep on Search Analytics. And there is much more in the works.

Until December 3, you can still sign your team up for the UIE Virtual Seminar Subscription programs . Not only is it a tremendous savings, but you get the benefit of lifetime access to each recording and the ease of registering and paying just one time.

We also plan to unveil our plan for our User Experience Training Library. Believe it or not, there is a method to our madness.

Have you ever attended a UIE Virtual Seminar? What do you like best about them? How has your team maximized what it gets out of these learning events? Share your thoughts and experiences below.

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. Relax, you can do this. With a little guidance, and some
practice, you can master this art of interacting with you users and
get the results your organization needs.

Want to learn more, see Beth’s preview, or register?.

Beth will answer your questions and offer some strategies to
consider. Whether you’ve conducted hundreds of usability tests or
about to do your first one, this seminar is sure to give you
valuable tips to use right away. Sign up today, and learn from one
of the experts in moderating usability tests!

If you have yet to moderate a usability test, but will at some
point, what concerns do you have? If you’ve done them, what tricks
and tips do you have to pass along? Share your thoughts, questions,
and concerns below.

Subscribe to our podcast via

This week a question from one of the world’s most well-read cities fittingly enquires about the must-read books in design.

Damon Dimmock of Cambridge, MA, asked,

If you had to recommend just three books on user experience (classic, new, fundamental, etc.), which ones would they be?

How will Robert hold off from recommending his own books? You’ll have to tune in to see!

Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show!

Here are links to each of the books Robert and Jared recommended:

Robert:

• The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper
• A Project Guide to UX Design by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler
• Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug

Jared:

• Designing for People by Henry Dreyfuss
• Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge
• User and Task Analysis for Interface Design by JoAnn Hackos and Janice Redish

What are the most influential books you’ve read in the field? Share them with us in the comments!

Since it’s inception, we’ve answered questions ranging from design exploration, career changes from coding to interface design and usability, and the most common UIs that confuse or impede the average user.

Robert Hoekman and I use our wits, humor, and knowledge (it occasionally creeps in) to answer these vexing questions. I know when I get notified about an exciting new episode I want to immediately check it out, however I’m usually too busy to do it at that moment, and then it slips my mind.

I’ve always appreciated receiving a summary on episodes I may have missed, so I thought you might appreciate it too.

Our latest episodes, podcasts 5-8, cover these topics:

• The most important UX activity in a web project
• Why so many basic usability failures are still around
• How a consultant can woo over a design team
• How to deal with link treatments when content display varies

With each podcast there is a place to share your thoughts with us, or you can let us know what you think below.  

If you want to hear more of me, you can see me live in Seattle, Denver, or DC at the UIE Roadshow: Secrets Behind Designing Great User Experiences. Use the promotion code SHOW09 and get $75 off the registration price.

Enjoy the podcasts.

UIE Virtual Seminar
Web Anatomy: Effective Interaction Design with Frameworks
With Robert Hoekman, Jr.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 1:30pm ET
90-minute online presentation

In your project, you’ll need to ensure you’ve got all the essential features along with those new, super-cool, hip capabilities that will dazzle your users. By using these interaction design frameworks, you’ll have a ready kit of necessary components so you’ll create the best possible design.

To help us understand how interaction design frameworks help us think through our designs, we’ve invited Robert Hoekman, Jr to tell us how they work. Robert’s been thinking about Interaction Design Frameworks more than anyone we know. He’ll show you how frameworks fill in the gaps left by design standards, best practices, and libraries of individual patterns. You’ll see examples from major web sites, where the frameworks helped predict missing functionality and critical design elements. Avoid these costly mistakes, and you’ll deliver a top-notch experience for your users.

Robert put together a great preview for you, to help you understand what to expect out of this seminar.
Click here to visit the site page with the preview.

If your team needs to quickly come up with designs that are both creative and usable, Robert’s seminar is a must for you. You’ll want to watch this with your entire team, so they come away knowing how interaction design frameworks will dramatically simplify your organization’s design process. Reserve your spot today!

In this presentation, Jeff Patton will discuss the essentials of Agile Development, the distinct culture and value system that Agile brings, and the common Agile process you’re likely to see. You’ll hear about the myths of Agile and common pitfalls organizations tend to encounter. Armed with the foundations, you’ll explore some emerging UX practices and how to thrive within an agile process.

As an added incentive to attend, use the Promotion Code MYARCHIVE to receive free lifetime access to the recorded presentation. You or anyone in your organization can watch it whenever you want, as often as you want!

In advance of the presentation, we’d love to hear from you.  What are the scary stories you’ve heard about Agile?  Do you have success stories to tell about iterative development?  What hurdles would you face bringing such a discipline into the culture of your organization? Share your thoughts below.

Robert Hoekman, world famous author of Designing the Obvious and Designing the Moment, and I, Jared M. Spool, a person who co-authored a book in 1996 that you’ve probably never seen, are joining forces to do the unthinkable: We’re starting a new weekly podcast to answer any user experience or design questions you can come up with. We’re calling it Userability. Seriously.

Yup. You’ll give us a question and we’ll give you an answer. We’re not sure it’ll be a good answer, but we’re promising it’ll be an entertaining one.

(Actually, like all good user experience processes, it’s not that simple. You give us a question. We pick your question for the show. We tell you what time we’re recording and make sure you’re available. We call you while we’re recording and you get to ask us “on the air” and then we give you the answer. And we have a lot of fun while doing it.)

And here’s where you come in: We need your questions. Think of a great question. Something you’d love to find out the answer to. It can even be a serious question. Send it to userability@uie.com. Brian Christiansen, our producer, will pick the best ones and tell you how to be on the program.

Don’t worry. Once the first program is ready, we’ll be sure to let you know, even if you can’t come up with a good question..

Looking forward to your questions (and our answers),

Jared Spool & Robert Hoekman, Co-hosts of Userability
Brian Christiansen, Producer of Userability (forced into it — wasn’t his choice)

userability@uie.com

Yesterday I attended an outstanding seminar by Joshua Porter produced by those great folks at UIE (yep shameless Ak’ing there.):) The topic was Designing for Sign-up. What struck me the most about the presentation, as a UX geek, was that the issue was not about the mechanical process of making the sign-up easier, but around the socio-psychological issues of helping users make a commitment.

Read Deb’s entire post.

On January 23, the Boston CHI chapter will host six full-day seminars on a variety of great user experience topics. There sessions range from UI nuts & bolts to online health care to usability tools and techniques.

You can find out details here about the sessions, instructors, and the very reasonable price for access to all this great information. This is a great opportunity to really boost your UX knowledge and skills.

Boston CHI Workshops

Over at Semantic Foundry, designer extraordinaire, Will Evans, has a wonderful essay explaining how he uses wireframing as both a problem setting and a problem solving approach.

I pick my primary audience and the one activity which allows them to solve one goal quickly, effortlessly, elegantly. In this case, the primary audience wants to easily find the best cruise, at the right time, for the right price. I don’t even look at the requirements document or competitive analysis until after I have sketched a couple of ideas either on paper or using Omnigraffle, which explores the primary goal. I’m not looking for solutions at this point because the first round of wireframes provide a space to engage in a dialogue with other designers, stakeholders, and the wireframes themselves.

It’s a great description of how Will tackles a design and he’s provided his work products for you to download.

Read Will’s essay: Shades of Gray: Wireframes as Thinking Device