Pat’s Point of View

I recently blogged about facilitating a discussion session on the topic of “Documenting for Interactive Websites” as part of Ark Group’s two day conference on Enhancing Online User Experiences. The event was held last Friday (it took me a week to blog it?!) and it went very well. In order to document the session and allow further discussion I have blogged my thoughts over on the USiT blog. Feel free to leave feedback or continue the conversation.

The conference was quite enlightening, with a good mix of presentations on a variety of subjects. I was only able to attend the second day, but what I saw was good food for thought.

I particularly liked Rod Farmer’s presentation on managing a UX team. Very interesting stuff on choosing your team members, including looking beyond technical skills to personality types (please post your slides on SlideShare Rod!).

Jodie Moule had some great case studies of the use of personas for Telstra projects. Check out her slideshow.

James Breeze’s discussion on using social media for user research was also great. Wish I had had a wifi connection so I could have participated in his Twitter demo :)

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I was reading the Qantas in-flight magazine yesterday, and came across a review for the Olympus Tough Smart 1050SW which was claimed to be “astonishingly resilient to holiday rough and tumble”. And as a keen snowsports fan, it would seem to be a perfect camera for skiing. Not only is it sealed, waterproof and able to withstand freezing temperatures (which I can attest most electronic devices are not able to do) but the “entire camera body is touch-sensitive, making it easier to use [whilst wearing] gloves”.

All you need to do is touch the top of the camera to take a photo or you can select “play” mode by tapping the LCD screen. To browse to the next photo you just tilt the camera to the left or right. If only all products were this straightforward to use, and contextually respectful. I’ve not used one, so I don’t know how sophisticated it is at detecting these gestures, but it sounds perfect for snowsports. Apart from not wanting to take off your gloves because it’s cold, doing so takes precious time that might mean you miss that spectacular stack that you really want to capture forever.

This is excellent design for the context of use. There may be other cameras like this, but this is a great example of seeing the problems people have using technology, and then solving those problems in a suitable way. Well done.

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I’m a big fan of extracting lessons learnt from one field of expertise and applying them to another. I’ve written about this before, be it Gordon Ramsay, Trinny & Susannah, parent craft centres, shopping for furniture or super nanny. I’ve also talked about cross pollination before.

Why is this? I’m not sure. I find it frustrating when people run around in tiny circles trying to conjur a solution to something whilst wearing blinkers to other sectors, industries or fields or expertise that have already found a solution. A great case in point is the borrowing of psychology, anthropology and other scientific methods by those practising user experience and web design. It’s not new, but I find this stimulating, and I actively look for good sources of knowledge to cross-pollinate from one field to another.

So I’ve decided to collect references to this cross-pollination.

One I found today is Lessons for User Experience Consultants from Barack Obama:

That said, there are a few lessons from Barack Obama’s campaign that apply to our world of user experience consulting … Lesson 1: Use Clear Calls-to-Action … Lesson 2: Put a Priority on Creative … Lesson 3: Make Personal Connections (Or At Least Fake It) … Lesson 4: Don’t Let The Man Throw You Off Your Game … Lesson 5: Set Up Shop in Chicago … Lesson 6: Be Young, Charming, and Good Looking

(Can’t argue with lesson 2, by the way, the Obama brand was very well executed.)

Feel free to suggest more, leave a comment below.

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Fresh from my Twitter feed:

Case study: redesign of The Australian business section http://tinyurl.com/5z32lz 4:44 PM Nov 8th

@scenariogirl it’s hard to go back to Powerpoint after seeing that feature in Keynote, isn’t it? 3:40 PM Nov 8th

Just put in two more #iasummit submissions (thanks @rebeccarodgers for spurring me on) 3:20 PM Nov 8th

is doubtful Codral will clear his fuzzy head 2:58 PM Nov 8th

trying out ScribeFire for blogging http://www.scribefire.com/ 5:39 PM Nov 4th

Free to good home: one ticket to “Enhancing Online User Experience” next week in Melbourne http://tinyurl.com/5o9d88 11:08 PM Nov 3rd

RT @s2d_jamesr: RT @tobyward: 270 respondents now to the Intranet 2.0 study: but we need 300+ so plz promote: http://tinyurl.com/6qbu3l 11:02 PM Nov 3rd

@lachlanhardy ahhh yes, Melbourne Cup. I wondered why you were in a suit 4:53 PM Nov 3rd

was just compared to “Twiki” from Buck Rodgers 3:36 PM Nov 3rd

hates conference calls… 7:16 PM Nov 2nd

just realised I shaved off my mo just when Movember is kicking off! 5:01 PM Nov 2nd

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I have one guest pass for Enhancing Online User Experience in Melbourne on the 13th/14th of November (that’s next Thursday/Friday). If you’re interested, let me know. I’ll be there on Friday only, for my interactive discussion on “Documenting for interactive websites”.

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I’m really liking microblogging at the moment, there’s a freedom from having to write up one’s thoughts into a proper post, you can just blurt stuff out. For those of you that don’t follow me on Twitter, he are my tweets from the last week:

my baby just crawled for the first time! 3:55 PM Oct 31st

love the baby mop http://tinyurl.com/6mxnmk 12:01 PM Oct 31st

RT @trib: Agency people. Make your socmed strategists *and* your clients watch this! Today. http://is.gd/5hbM 11:00 AM Oct 31st

That’s no way to get a discount @docbaty ! :) 11:19 AM Oct 30th

running a small business? where do you learn how? 3:37 PM Oct 30th

@diversionary positivity is over-rated :) 2:28 PM Oct 30th

@AlHaigh born to roam….that’s some funny shit :) 1:32 PM Oct 30th

@trib sure but it was only ever a work-around and is no longer necessary…and it shits me :) 9:38 AM Oct 30th

has a pet hate of people who double space between sentences! 9:08 AM Oct 30th

@docbaty tweetdeck is a bit buggy but see how you go 8:39 AM Oct 30th

IA Summit submission done…. 11:52 AM Oct 29th

I’m not quite there yet @russmaxdesign , hearing my little one almost say “daddy” was pretty bloody great :) 10:08 AM Oct 29th

wish i could make $15k this easy http://tinyurl.com/5elev9 3:22 PM Oct 28th

great idea! “Ending the Conference Bag Arms Race” http://tinyurl.com/6dwv8j 5:24 PM Oct 27th

why do most people think “changing background colours” when they hear personalisation? 4:58 PM Oct 27th

News.com.au redesign launched http://tinyurl.com/5cndyn 2:20 PM Oct 27th

wonders how he can stop Confluence from sending the whole text of a page in its notification emails 1:55 PM Oct 27th

@jamesbreeze heaven help anyone on the receiving end of my posts before I’ve had my morning coffee :) 10:19 AM Oct 27th

are marketers trying to ‘game’ web 2.0? http://tinyurl.com/5cgkg8 10:03 AM Oct 27th

made evil eyes at the moron who sat at bus stop with lit cigarette, she wasn’t even smoking it but killing the rest of us with toxic fumes 9:38 AM Oct 27th

@gerrygaffney I think I’m with you re twitter :) 9:36 AM Oct 27th

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In November I’ll be appearing at the Ark Group conference Enhancing Online User Experience in Melbourne. My contribution will be an interactive discussion on “Documenting for interactive websites”.

Since it’s an interactive discussion, the most crucial part of the session will be input from the audience and the discussion that emerges. To that end I’ve launched a special forum to allow conference attendees (or anyone for that matter) to suggest the topics they would like discussed:

(If you can’t see the widget above, you can go to patrickkennedy.uservoice.com)

You can suggest a question, or vote for an existing question. I’ll try to cover as many as I can in the time available during the session.

I see two broad aspects to ‘documenting for interactive wesbites’, the first being design documentation and the second being project documentation. By design documentation I mean the sketches, wireframes, storyboards, flow charts or whatever other form of documentation that is used to document what is it that being developed. And by project documentation I mean those documents such as SOWs and project plans that assist with project management and logistics.

I’ll attempt to cover both aspects but ultimately the session will be run by audience participation, so get voting on the topics you want discussed!

The conference details are:

Enhancing Online User Experience

Developing and executing user experience strategies that will provide business benefits

• Date: 12 - 14 Nov 2008
• Location: Melbourne, Australia

More details on their website

My interactive discussion is on the last day, just after lunch.

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Having struggled to find the time to conduct an in-depth analysis of my IA for Agencies survey results, I have decided to do it in pieces. This instalment, of which many more will follow, I’ve charted the geographic location of survey respondents.

(Sample size is 206)

It was a surprise to see the US ranked number one on the list, I was expecting Australia to be the highest with possibly the UK as second runner up. Was probably my post to several US-centric mailing lists that produced this result.

By the way, I gave up on the rubbish charts created by Excel pretty quickly, and went looking for a better option. I’ve used Widgenie.com for this chart and it seems to meet my needs quite well. Although I’d prefer not have to insert script into my posts.

This is a mere snippet, I know. As and when I get the time to release a bit more I will do so.

UPDATE: the Widgenie charts use Javascript so if you’re reading this in an RSS reader, you’ll probably have to click through to my website to view it.

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Last week I went along to the Australian International Motor Show (formerly the Sydney International Motor Show) since I had a bit of spare time and a free ticket. Despite being an “automotive enthusiast” I usually find these shows dead boring (but that’s a whole other topic) so I tried to think of a way of making it more interesting.

I combined my career as a usability geek with my new role of daddy, and went in search of what might be our next family car. We’re not looking to buy one yet, but our ever-expanding family will necessitate an upgrade before too long. I visited every stand and examined what they had on offer for this market segment (wagons, SUVs and maybe some large sedans).

After a bit of snooping around, two things became obvious. Firstly the “booth bimbos”, female and male, had very little product knowledge. What’s the point? OK I know the point is to have a bit of totty that will attract people (mainly guys) to the stand. But if you’re seriously shopping for a car, you need to bypass the bimbos and find the actual sales staff. I can’t believe it, I’m stating a preference for car yard dealers!

(In this regard the highlight of the show would have to be the Subaru stand, which was staffed by knowledgeable sales people dedicated to each product line. It was one such lady who told me about the stand-out practical features of the Forrester and in essence started this little usability study.)

The other thing I found was that there are several key measures of usability for a vehicle intended for use by a young family. By that I mean two parents and two kids, one in a child’s car seat and the other in a baby capsule, who go on the occasional driving trip and need to take some luggage in addition to a pram and a stroller. And the mum is rather short :)

The emergent metrics were:

A. Size of boot. A fairly obvious metric. When you need to fit prams, strollers, bags of shopping and maybe some luggage, you need a decent sized boot. Most small SUVs fall down in this area, particularly if their child seat anchors are not well placed (see next point).
Particularly good: Subaru Liberty/Outback, Ford Territory
Particularly bad: Peugeot 308 Touring, Volvo V50, Holden Commodore Sportswagon (space is severely hampered by sloping rear hatch)

B. Location of child seat anchor points. Often overlooked, indeed most staff on the stands didn’t have a clue where they were located in their own vehicles. Quite often they are located on the back of the rear seats (which doesn’t seem like a good design to me) or in a spot in the boot where the car seat straps would decimate the luggage space. Also, in many cars it’s too easy to mistake the luggage net hooks or shopping bag hooks for the anchor points (yes there’s a huge difference, you idiot on one of the stands who suggested I just attach my baby to a plastic hook that wouldn’t take the weight of a half a flea’s butt!).
Particularly good: Subaru Forrester (mounted on roof)
Particularly bad: Skoda Octavia Scout, VW Passat Wagon (on both of which they were surprisingly difficult to find)

C. Opening of side doors. Trying to get a car seat or baby (or both) in through the door and onto the back seat is pretty difficult when the doors don’t open wide enough. Ideally, the doors open out to 90 degrees perpendicular to the vehicle.
Particularly good: Subaru Forrester

D. Height of seating position. With a car that is quite low to the ground, trying to get babies or bags into the back seat can be really difficult; you need to crouch and lean in. Not good for your back. Full size 4WDs have the opposite problem, especially for those who are “vertically challenged”. Most small SUVs are at about the right height, whilst most sedans and wagons are too low. Also related to this metric is the ease of entry and exit for the driver.

E. Height of boot “lip”. For similar reasons to above, the height of the lowest part of the rear door is crucial when it comes to lifting luggage or prams into the boot. If you have a flat lip and a low boot floor level, it’s much easier.
Particularly good: Mitsubishi Outlander (had a high lip but it folds down like a tailgate, very handy)

F. Opening of back door. The space needed to open the rear door of the vehicle to access the boot. Holden talk this up in their advertising for the Sportswagon, the fact that the hatch opens within the length of the vehicle. Some other models do a similar thing with their ‘lift up’ hatch, such that you require less space behind the vehicle and they open almost vertically so you get good access to the boot space.
Particularly bad: Suzuki Grand Vitara, Toyota RAV (both of which have a big ’swing open’ door instead of a ‘lift up’ hatch…very disappointing!)

Note: this list ignores the more common facets normally associated with vehicles—at least by me—such as price, engine size/power, performance, fuel economy. These would of course be important factors in choosing a vehicle, but in terms of usability they are not relevant.

Based on all these metrics, the front runners in my mind are the Subaru Forrester, Mitsubishi Outlander and Hyundai Santa Fe. Should we wish to go a bit bigger then we’d be looking at a Toyota Kluger, Ford Territory or Mazda CX-9 (though the Mazda doesn’t score that well in terms of practicality in my opinion).

Interestingly, there was no stand for Land Rover, Audi, BMW or Mercedes. All three of these manufacturers have vehicles that fit into my category, if not my price range, but I guess a motorshow in Sydney is not high on their priorities. Can you blame them when the majority of the local marketplace can’t see past Commodores and Falcons?

[Diagrams based on: http://www.brian894x4.com/LC62drawing.gif]

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I was watching Jamie’s Ministry of Food last night and thought that his “pass it on” model would be great for propagating user experience skills. We teach our colleagues—who work in other disciplines—some basic UX skills, then they teach others, and so on and so forth. Start with the basics, then work up to more advanced topics.

Before we know it we’ll have a whole bunch of people who not only appreciate the importance of usability (and related concepts) and give it the attention it deserves, but whom can also get on with some of the work themselves. Thus the exponential “trickle down” or “snowball” effect could alleviate the reliance on consultants, contractors and specialist practitioners, as well as putting the necessary skills right at the heart of the problem throughout the process (because essentially everyone would be the “UX guy”). It’d be a lot less expensive than formal training courses too.

This approach could be supported by mentoring and providing the equivalent of the “Food Centres” that Jamie uses. I imagine this could be in the form of a central, online resource with more information for both ‘teachers’ and ‘guests’ to refer to.

What do you think? Is this any different to teaching cooking skills?

[Diagram courtesy Misterteacher]

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