Observation: The Key to a Great User Experience

BW8 ConcurrentSession11/11/152:45pm

“Observation: The Key to a Great User Experience”

Presented by:

Geri Winters

Wyyzzk, Inc.

Broughttoyouby:

340CorporateWay,Suite300,OrangePark,FL32073888-268-8770·904-278-0524·[email protected]·www.techwell.com

Geri Winters Wyyzzk, Inc.

Geri Winters, author of Why Agile is Failing at Large Companies, has a special gift for making sense of large and complex initiatives. Past successes include working for the United Nations in Africa to bring a failing multinational scientific software project to successful conclusion, creating the business architecture and redesigning the management approach to a HIPAA 5010 update program at a major US insurance company, designing a more lean approach for the IT department of a Fortune 200 multinational beverage company, and leading a multi-year corporate-wide agile initiative for a Fortune 50 insurance company. Reach Geri at wyyzzk.com.

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Effective ObservationsThe Key to a Great User Experience

Speaker Info

• Geri Schneider Winters• [email protected]

• @geriwinters

• LinkedIn, Blab

• Founder Wyyzzk, Inc. (1997)

• I like variety and to work with interesting people

• Solution Anthropology since 2007

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Why Observations

• Get information about the environment where the user is using your product

• Environment not always important, but ….• Interacting with mobile device in a noisy environment

• Reading a mobile device in bright sunlight

• Etc.

This is Why we do it

• Play video: Menlo Innovations High-Tech Anthropology

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How it works

• The brand agency happydog says:• Once the research brief has been agreed upon with a client, they spend time

writing detailed portraits of the people or families they would like to observe, then they recruit subjects to fit the portraits.

• The ethnographers (usually anthropology doctoral students) then move in.

• Our ethnographers spend 3 to 4 days living with people. They observe, interact and ask questions.

• They are more aware of picking up contextual clues. They pick things up that are unarticulated attitudes that you wouldn't get if you sat around in a focus group.

Taking a Closer Look at Your Customers, Edwin Colyer, http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=167 accessed 13 January 2015.

Know who the user is

• Before you do an observation, you need to know who to observe

• For example, who might need access to a bank account?

• …

• Of all those people who is the primary user for the product you are working on? That is probably the person you need to observe.

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Be specific

• When considering users such as customers, be specific• A homeschooling parent

• A civil engineering manager

• A college student

• A business checking customer

• An emergency room patient

• A retail salesperson

Bullseye Chart

College Student

High School Student

Homeschooling Parent

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Example Persona

SPIKE

Male21SingleCollege StudentLives with parentsConstantly connected with smart phoneLoves his iPadFoosball champion

Observation

• Observation is at the heart of anthropology, observing people in their native environment• As Solution Anthropologists, we go to where the user uses our product

• We use different observations for different purposes

• We may observe more than once for different reasons

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Have a Purpose

• Are you observing to:• Collect a lot of information to see where you can provide products or services

to make the user’s life somehow better• Determine if there is something preventing the user from making the best use

of your current product• Look for productivity issues in a workflow• Find out how someone is doing something• Get the requirements for the next update to a product• Determine unexpressed problems, desires, or needs• Determine the interrelationships that may be making a team perform well or

poorly

• Our purpose today is to do observation to learn to do observation

Select an Observation Type that Matches Your Purpose• In this class, we are going to practice a number of different kinds of

observations

• Make notes about where you could see yourself using each kind of observation, the kind of information it seems best suited to collect• Observing the Environment

• Silent Observation

• Cognitive Walkthroughs

• Observe while doing

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Observing the Environment: What it is

• This is paying attention to the physical environment where you user is using your product. • What do you see around you that relates to or impacts your product?

• What sounds relate to or impact your product?

• Does temperature or air movement relate to or impact your product?

• Does the user use your product in more than one environment?

• Does that change how they use your product?

• Is the person calm or stressed when using your product? Does that matter?*

Observing the Environment: Why We Do It

• The environment where your product is used may make it too difficult (or impossible) to use your product.

• If your product is the one that works in the user’s environment, and others do not, which do you think they will buy?

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Observing the Environment: When We Do It

• Observe the environment when you have reason to think it may be different from where the product is developed.

• Products are typically developed in office environments.

• If they are being used somewhere else, it may be very worthwhile to observe that other environment before development begins to drive out assumptions based on environment.

• Sure we can do beta programs, but why wait that long to find you have some real problems.*

Exercise: Observing the Environment

• 3 minutes

• Work alone

• Observe the room we are in and take notes• You may walk around or stay in your seat

• Look, Listen, Smell, Feel (especially temperature & air movement)• What do you notice about the room you are in? Hot, cold, loud, quiet,

crowded, spacious? What do you see on the walls, ceiling, floor? How do you feel in the room: comfortable, protective, uneasy, open? How do the other people in the room appear to be: comfortable, protective, uneasy, open?

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Results

• 3 minutes

• Call out some things you observed• Notice for yourself: What did others observe that you did not notice?

• How can you become better at observing?

Silent Observation: What it is

• This is watching someone do something without talking to them at all.

• Sometimes this is from a distance, sometimes it is from nearby.

• Your goal is to collect as much information as you can.

• Sometimes it is broad, you want to know all about the environment, what is on the walls, who else is around, what the person is doing throughout the day, and so on.

• Other times you are looking for more specific information such as how does the person do a specific process.

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Silent Observation: Why We Do It

• People are often uncomfortable being observed, but if you stay quietly in the background, they will soon forget you are there.

• That is when you get the most information.*

Silent Observation: When We Do It

• I like to start with silent observation then do some kind of interactive observation later after I have the basic information.

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Exercise: Silently Observing the Use of Devices• 3 minutes

• Work in groups of 2

• Pretend it is an emergency situation. One person figure out how to make a 911 call while the other watches (do not actually call)

• Look, Listen, Take Notes• Notice what the person is doing

• Is it easy or hard for them? (hint: watch their body language)

• What is making it easy or hard?

• Is it something in the environment, something about the device, something about the person?

Exercise: Silently Observing the Use of Devices• 3 minutes

• Switch partners

• Send a text message while the other watches

• Look, Listen, Take Notes• Notice what the person is doing

• Is it easy or hard for them? (hint: watch their body language)

• What is making it easy or hard?

• Is it something in the environment, something about the device, something about the person?

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Results

• 3 minutes

• Call out what you observed:• What were the results?

• Did being under stress make the task harder?

• Are you already thinking of ways to fix any problems you observed?

• Did you find something really well designed?

• Can the goodness about it be applied to other less well designed things?

Cognitive Walkthroughs: What it is

• This is a kind of interactive observation using mockups.

• You give someone the mockups and ask them to use the mockups to complete a task such as buy a product, find some information, or register for an account.

• While they are doing the task, they should verbalize what they are thinking.

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Cognitive Walkthroughs: Why We Do It

• You will get immediate feedback on what is confusing, what works, and what does not.

• You did not have to write code or create a physical prototype to get this information

Cognitive Walkthroughs: When We Do It

• After creating a mockup

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Exercise: Do a Cognitive Walkthrough

• 7 minutes (2 minutes each)

• Work in groups of 3 – one do a task, 2 observe

• Use the mockups you are given – when someone “clicks” a link, hand them the correct next page

• Each person find the answer to one question from this list• Are there sweaters for dogs?• Do you have an opera cape and can I ship it overnight within the US?• I found a coat I like. Can I call support to find out if you have it in another

color?

• Switch roles and repeat until everyone has been the consumer and everyone has been an observer

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Outerwear

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Capes/Cloaks


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Coats



Sweaters


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How to Contact Us


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Telephone 1.800.555.1212

Email [email protected]

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Results

• 3 minutes

• What did you observe?• Was anything missing?

• Why did I ask 2 people to observe?

Observe While Doing

• What: This is where you observe as a participant

• Why: Sometimes the best way to get information is by being a member of the community you are observing

• When: Anytime people will be more comfortable when there are no outsiders present

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Exercise

• 3 minutes• Work alone• As you are working, pay attention to what you are doing

• What was your first thought about how to do the task? • Did that work?• Was there another way to complete the task?• Was that harder or easier?• Do you think you completed the task the way Google intended?• Was there anything that makes it harder or easier to complete the task – the device

you used, the site itself?• What else did you think?

• On any device, browse to www.google.com• Find the Adwords home page

Results

• 3 minutes

• Is it harder or easier to observe yourself compared to observing others?

• What might get in your way of getting information through self-observation?

http://www.google.com/

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Solution Anthropology Cheatsheet

Workflow

• Determine if Solution Anthropology is needed

• Determine who the user is• Determine where the user is using or

will use your product

• Determine what you want to get out of the observation

• Set up time to do observations and/or interviews of a number of users in those environments

• Use the information discovered to create mockups and identify constraints

Techniques

• Surveys

• Interviews

• Careful Listening

• Observing the Environment

• Silent Observation

• Interactive Observation

• Mockups and Cognitive Walkthroughs

• Participant Observer

Where to Get More

• Wyyzzk, Inc. (1997)

• Making Sense of the Complex• Design Thinking for Business and Products

• www.WritingUseCases.com

• www.SmallBitesTraining.com

• www.wyyzzk.com

http://www.smallbitestraining.com/

http://www.wyyzzk.com/

Observation: The Key to a Great User Experience

Software

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