Pat’s Point of View

As per a user centred design ethic, we now care how users feel. Bugger that, what about how the machine feels?

This is how my wife recently described her iPod Shuffle (cigarette lighter not matchbox) after I suggested we upgrade its firmware:

“It’s temperamental, if you play it too much it gets upset.”

“It’s in a good place right now, where it’s happy. Just leave it alone.”

Have you considered the emotional state of the system you’re designing?

Popularity: 35% [?]

In addition to the comments I’ve received on my audience segmentation using EQ graphs post, I’ve also had some valuable feedback from a client I’m currently working with.

The project in question involves the redesign of a large information-rich website, using a collaborative approach whereby I am mentoring the client’s multidisciplinary team. I introduced them to the EQ graphs in order to help make sense of the qualitative research they had performed (in combination with a form of theme-based affinity diagramming) and to start to segment the website audience, with the goal of creating personas. They were interested in the technique, but it didn’t click with some of the team at first. After a bit of time to mull it over and talk about it among themselves, they got right into it and started tweaking the original idea.

Their tweaking included simplifying the number of attributes; our workshops came up with 15 attributes at first, which proved too many to deal with. Isolating six key attributes seemed to work the best. These were the attributes that really allowed the team to differentiate between the segments that were starting to appear, including “breadth of content required”, “level of scientific knowledge” and the ubiquitous “frequency of website visits”.

Another form of simplification came in the form of producing the graphs in Excel. At first the attributes were plotted on an electronic whiteboard which worked well in a group workshop environment. Doing this ensured plenty of discussion and debate, and once printed out, it was fairly easy to spread the pages over a large table and do some impromptu card sorting (a mini tip we discovered on the way is not to draw the vertical lines of the graph on the whiteboard—they’re a nightmare to ‘re-draw’ and make the graphs less legible). But during the whiteboard sessions, one team member had the bright idea of entering the attribute scores into Excel (sounds logical but I didn’t think of it!). This made the task of revising scores quite simple, not to mention the ability to generate nice neat graphs. The first generation of Excel graphs had the full compliment of attributes, but were soon simplified down to the six key attributes. Additionally a line of best fit was added (no it’s not mathematically correct since each attribute bears no relation to the next) as well as a moving average line, which in some cases helped us spot patterns.

I think the technique has worked well in this case because it catered for the mix of people involved. For those team members with a scientific brain (common place for this particular organisation), the graphs gave at least the illusion of science and hard analytical method, and they were happy with spotting trends and patterns as they would with scientific data. For team members who had a communications or marketing background, the graphs helped by adding to the general vibe (ala Dennis Denuto) they got from looking at the attributes and recalling the user research they were involved with.

One thing I have learnt from this application of the technique, is that it’s important to continue to main the mental link back to the users themselves. As with many analysis or ’sensemaking’ techniques, it is quite easy to focus on the graphs and forget about what (and who) they represent. My catch-phrase during this work, which I’m happy to report the team started using themselves, was “take a step back…does this make sense?…is this what they were really like?”.

We’re now in the transition between segmentation and fleshing out the personas. No doubt I will soon hear that tell-tale sentence “but Bob wouldn’t do that!”.

See what people are blogging about: user persona, website audience segmentation

Popularity: 46% [?]

I’m currently reading several books simultaneously, which is probably not the best method but I’ve been assured it’s quite normal. On the list are:

• Doing Visual Ethnography by Sarah Pink (2007) – quite an enlightening read, if a bit heavy going (although compared to most anthropology texts I’ve seen it’s pretty easy to read). I first picked it up because of the focus on using photography and video as part of field research, but covers many other topics too, including the generded nature of ethnographic research and the various theoretical stances underpinning this type of work. And I’m only part way through.
• Ethnographic Methods by Karen O’Reilly (2005) – which so far seems to be an excellent introduction to the topic. It has a less academic tone of voice and is thus easier to read than a lot of books on this subject (as I said above). Karen has included many excellent examples and anecdotes from real field research. Quite the practical reference book. Thanks to Stephen for the tip.
• Universal Principles of Design by Lidwell, Holden, Butler (2003) – an overview of 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design. I was browsing the bookshelf at work and thought I’d take a look, as I am quite interested in ‘little d’ design. I wasn’t terribly impressed; it’s embarrassingly brief and superficial in its discussion of these principles. It’s definitely written for visual designers and I don’t think it does any of the content much justice. As one of the reviewers on Amazon says: better for the coffee table than the design desk.

Sadly, there’s a much bigger pile of books for me to read next. It just never ends…

Popularity: 39% [?]

Whilst I’m not exactly sure how I came to be receiving their emails, I have discovered that Before & After Magazine is an excellent source of design goodness.

Their articles give good, practical advice on the effective design of websites, posters, business cards etc. The focus is on clear and effective design, and as you’d expect, the articles are quite well written (and have an excellent format for printing “2-up” to save paper). You do need to subscribe to get to their best stuff, but from what I’ve seen it is probably worth it.

Serendipity…gotta love it.

See what people are blogging about: Before &After, design

Popularity: 40% [?]

On the weekend, I took part in an age-old Australian tradition, a garage sale (see also ‘yard sale’ or ‘car boot sale’). The ringmaster of this sales spectacular was my father in law, but we had a total of four vendors vying for shopper’s attention: my wife and myself, my sister in law and her two kids, my brother in law and his two kids and of course the ‘godfather of the garage’ himself :)

As I quickly found out, a Fenech garage sale is like no other garage sale. Weeks, nay months, of preparation preceded the event, including an ad in the local paper and the production of several attention-grabbing signs for placement along key local traffic routes. Not to mention the furious activity at the home of each vendor, as anything not bolted down was considered for sale. I myself offered up a number of items, but as time would tell, they weren’t exactly hot items.

The actual day of the garage sale was absolutely military in its precision and execution; 6:00AM was the advertised start time, this was serious business! Unfortunately this required an excruciating 5:00AM start for us, on a night where temperatures reached zero in many parts of Sydney. Absurd I hear you say, who would rock up to a pre-dawn garage sale?! Well bugger me, people were lined up waiting when we arrived! It was still dark. But as I learnt, this is when the real professional shoppers arrive, to get the best bargains. Some of these early birds commented that they were surprised we didn’t get more the night before. Evidently, this is a key strategy employed by the most cut-throat of bargain hunters, to secure the best buys before the sale even opens….we only had one such person the night before.

We had quite a variety of ‘goods’ for sale, including kids clothes and toys, CDs, videos, shoes, tools, small appliances, computers, stereos, lounge suites, washings machines and a commercial fridge (see photo). But, as a relative newcomer to the world of garage sales (it was seldom practised by my family), what really struck me was the number and variety of people who showed up. There were locals who were responding to the splattering of hand-made signs mounted all over the front of the house, then there were those ‘doing the rounds’—apparently they went from garage sale to garage sale as a hobby. Of course we had the pros who appeared in a flash, assessed our collection for potential collectors’ items (”unopened boxes” are the key) and then disappeared as quickly as they had popped up. There were ‘drive bys’, most of whom did a double-take as they drove past and ended up reversing back down the street. We had shoppers who seemed to shop this way out of necessity rather than choice, and then there were people you would never expect to go to a garage sale; European-luxury-car-driving people.

Some had definite shopping objectives (”you got any mobile phones?”), but most would simply browse and discover. Some people came and went several times during the day (we were open for business for an exhausting 11 hours). Some haggled like their lives depended on it (if you fail to realise the value of 50 cents these days, drop in to a garage sale or local market) and others would happily pay the sticker price. Some people left with one item, others seemed determined to fill their car with stuff.

It was a long day with several quiet periods, so I took to making signs. Leveraging any scrap of marketing and psychology theory I could infuse into my signs was an enjoyable way to pass the time. One of my goals was to help clear the big ticket items (the actual underlying reason for the garage sale–clearing stuff out of the garage) by bringing them to shoppers’ attention and highlighting the phenomenal bargains on offer ($20 a piece for lounge chairs, $50 for the matching sofa!). Another goal was to point out that prices were negotiable, for the benefit of those people who didn’t try to haggle us down in 10 cent increments. There was much use of the phrases “make us an offer” and “everything must go” :)

Despite the fairly high foot traffic, we didn’t sell as much as we had hoped, but each vendor made over $150 each. Not bad for one Saturday. Or should I say, not bad for a pile of junk, which may be the more appropriate conclusion—you would not believe some of the things people actually paid money for. In terms of clearing out the big stuff, we didn’t do so well. The “Oasis” commercial refrigerator didn’t sell, so if you’re in the market for one, let me know. It’s in good working order and as big as a bus, even if it has seen better days. Same goes for a lovely two-seat sofa bed, which other than having changed hands more times than a rented pair of gloves, is in fairly good nick and a bargain at only $50 o.n.o. Make us an offer!

The funniest thing about the day would have to be watching two young entrepreneurs in the making; my two 11 year old nephews transformed from mere children into omnipresent salesmen that any used-car salesman would be proud of. There is nothing they wouldn’t try and sell, and if that failed they could always act cute and sucker the old ladies out of at least $5. But none of this is a surprise considering the example their grandfather was setting, never giving a second thought to selling a lump of wood for a dollar or selling a can of paint to someone who came in looking for a painting.

Would I ever throw a garage sale again? Well maybe, but I’d probably go to a car boot sale or street market. There’s something oddly attractive about selling stuff that you would otherwise probably have to spend money to dispose of. Will I go bargain hunting myself? I may do, I think it could be pretty interesting, even if the intention is never to buy a single thing.

See what people are blogging about: garage sale, yard sale, car boot sale, flea market

Popularity: 38% [?]

I will be giving a short presentation at the 7th annual Open Publish conference on the subject of Information Architecture Best Practice. The conference will be focusing on management and implementation issues relating to publishing technology based on open standards.

The conference is at the Rydges World Square Hotel, in Sydney, from August 1st to 3rd. My session will be on August 2nd at 4:45pm (awesome, last session of the day!). Here’s my blurb for the topic:

This presentation will examine the purpose and application of information architecture for the so-called ‘next generation’ of information tools, including blogs and wikis. We will introduce ‘needs based’ information architecture, the methodology used for organising and designing information-rich environments in a way that allows people to use them more easily. We will then look at how the best practice principles behind this approach apply equally well to emerging technologies.

There are at least five presentations with ‘2.0′ in the title, so I think there will be more than plenty of discussion regarding social tools and Rich Internet Applications. There are also at least three other presenters touching on IA or user experience design. So trying to find a unique perspective is going to be a challenge :)

Some of the other presenters I hope to see during the conference include Lisa Herrod, Russ Weakley and Ash Donaldson.

See what people are blogging about: Open Publish 2007, information architecture, open standards

Popularity: 36% [?]

Fresh off the press, my latest article is on the topic of recruiting users for user centred design.

Recruiting participants for website research can be difficult, but a few simple steps can help make the process go much more smoothly, without the need for expensive agency fees.

Ok, maybe less guerrilla and more ‘on the cheap’ :)

I’ve based this on my experiences in helping in-house teams through the process of doing user research. All the techniques and methodologies in the world can’t help you if you don’t have people to research and test with.

And for reader’s of my blog, you get an exclusive tip not included in the article: make sure you give yourself plenty of time. Time and time again I come across the situation where people are trying to recruit users (or for that matter doing surveys, designing IA etc) in a ridiculously tight time-frame…such as one week.

An old rule of thumb I used to use as a web development team leader, was to take the time estimates my developers would come up with then “double it and add half” (ie multiple the time by 3). It seems like it’s a similar situation for user recruitment.

Of course, there is no precise formula, but the point is to make sure you have plenty of time up your sleeve or the quality of your results will suffer, and your stress will increase!

See what people are blogging about: user research, UCD, recruiting users, Step Two Designs

Popularity: 4% [?]