Wait for it…

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So I can get a feel for my audience, how many of you have read Dan Roam’s book “The Back of the Napkin”? [image of book cover]

How many of you have read Luke Wroblewski’s book “Site-Seeing”? [image of book cover]

• How many of you have heard of this person? [picture of Christina Wallace]

• How many of you have heard of JSTOR? Ithaka?

? ? ?Christina Wallace

Usability and Content Coordinator, Ithaka

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June 10, 2009

Seeing the forest for the trees:

Visual problem solving as a design and usability tool

WARNING: this presentation is not accessible to the blind or visually impaired.

What’s this presentation about?

General MethodologySpecific tacticsProblem solving

Whether defining or designing the user experience, UX practitioners often come into contact with three groups of people…Client Groups

• Stakeholders

• Technologists

• End users

Client groups

&

• content

General MethodologyGeneral Methodology

Step 1: identify questions surrounding the problem

Who and what problems

relate to things, people, users, roles, etc.

How much problems

Involve measuring and counting

When problems

relate to scheduling and timing

Where problems

relate to direction and how things fit together

How problems

relate to how things influence one another

Why problems

relate to seeing the big picture

General Methodology

Step 2: identify visuals that demonstrate or elucidate the problem

Who and what problems

relate to things, people, users, roles, etc.

How much problems

Involve measuring and counting

When problems

relate to scheduling and timing

Where problems

relate to direction and how things fit together

How problems

relate to how things influence one another

Why problems

relate to seeing the big picture

Personas, target users, market segments

ROI, usage stats

Testing duration, up-front investment, time-to-market

Functionality, proximity, information architecture

Interoperability, work/user flows

Usability testing, impact analysis, gap analysis

Portrait

Chart

Timeline

Map

Flow chart

Plot

General Methodology

Step 2: identify visuals that demonstrate or elucidate the problem

Think about deliverables that these groups often create themselves. These will give clues as to the types of visualizations that will be effective.

Client Group

Traits Needs/WantsDeliverables/Tools that work well

StakeholderExamples: Business units, your boss, Legal, client, designers

- business-oriented- management, leadership- “big chunk” communicators (not detail-oriented)- goal-oriented- visionary- busy with other “primary” tasks

- high-level information - “big picture” understanding- cause and effect info- ROI/cost analysis

“At-a-glance”-charts-graphs-bullet points-executive summary

TechnologistExamples: Front & back end developers, operations, DBAs, IT

- detail-oriented- literal- minimal- concise

- efficiency- logic- semantics- formulas

“See, understand, show”-images-work/user/task flow charts-UML diagrams-White boards

End UserExamples: students, librarians

- result-oriented- task-oriented- practical- application

- clarity- concise information- predictability/patterns- to not be overwhelmed with detail

“Step-by-step”-ordered instructions-user stories-use cases-flow charts

General Methodology

Step 3: gather visuals and put them to work for us

Tactics

Shock and Awe • Wallpaper a room/hallway with everything

• Provide outlets for feedback

• Enable a free-form discovery period

• Watch who talks to whom – unique connections will be made

• Works with both introverts and extroverts, although separate mechanisms for feedback need to be in place for each group.

• After discovery period, engage participants – can be like a “show and tell” about what they learned, or more directed discussion.

Problem: engaging a diverse group of stakeholders that has minimal exposure to a project and limited time to devote to issues.

Tactics

Splashing the Pot• Throw everything related to the problem on a table and let it spread out everywhere

• Let people sift through and start “chunking”

• See where information ends up, see how people group it to understand it

• Come up with problem statements for each chunk

• Works best with groups that are somewhat familiar with the project/issue

•Does not work for “coasters” (people who like to sit back and watch others work)

•Works best for overwhelming problems

Problem: Redirecting a group or team that is trying to solve “how” before “what”.

Tactics

The Wicker Man • Creating a visual so that it can be “burned down” by others

• Purposely leaving something out or doing something wrong – something that can easily be detected

• Caveat: don’t make it seem like you’re an idiot

• You could also inform participants of what you’re doing

• Works well with individuals

Problem: engaging a group or individual with limited time or interest and eliciting the information you need.

Tactics

Where’s Waldo? • Creating a perfectly good visual and telling people that there is something wrong with it

• Relies on the fact that people will always find something wrong (see Waldo everywhere)

• Works well with early designs to get feedback or “test” a design direction

• Put wireframes/mockups up in a public place and leave sticky notes and markers or a “ballot box” for feedback

• Challenge people: find 5 things wrong with this design

• Good comparison across many answers

• Good for anonymous feedback

• Caveat: lots of feedback = time consuming to sort through “junk”

Problem: Getting enough/any feedback from client groups on a design.

Aftermath

Apply the same techniques you used to create the visuals to communicating the outcomes.

Teach your client groups what they can expect from you consistently.

Follow-through is important. I often create different “outcome” or summary deliverables for specific client groups. Rarely are these documents. Think visuals!

Want copies of this presentation?

Email me:christina.wallace@ithaka.org

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Give me your business card or email and I’ll send it to you.