Articles by Category: Usability & user-centered design

Intranet (re)design wrap-up

So you're sitting at your desk and you have to redesign your intranet (or design one from scratch). Where on earth do you start?

By any measure, this is no easy task. The multitude of factors that need to be taken into account can be overwhelming.

Over the years, we have published a vast amount of information on intranets, offering the benefits of our experience and giving practical advice on intranet management, information architecture and content management.

In this article, we attempt to wrap up all the activities that form part of an intranet (re)design into one concise checklist.

Along the way, references will be given to our most popular articles, giving you more detail on particular topics. The goal is to give you an excellent starting point for undertaking an intranet (re)design and also to provide support throughout the process.

User-centred design methodology

As a basic framework for this article, a simplified intranet (re)design process has been devised, illustrated in Figure 1.

Before going through each of the steps in order, it's important to point out that best practice for designing interactive information systems -- such as intranets and websites -- involves using a user-centred design (UCD) methodology.

This simply means that input from the people who will actually use the intranet is given equal weighting with the business objectives and the information (aka content).

[May KM Column written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 08:00 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets, Usability & user-centered design

User interface implementations of faceted browsing

Mike Padilla has written an article on the design of faceted browsing. To quote:

Just as it is important to choose the proper knife when slicing-n-dicing vegetables, it is critical to prescribe a suitable user interface to support faceted filtering. Faceted filtering allows you to narrow down a large list of objects to a manageable size by applying flexible combinations of attribute filters in any order. Rather than forcing you down fixed paths within a website’s information architecture, faceted filtering allows you to multi-dimensionally slice-n-dice the information in a manner that best accommodates your specific needs. A user interface that optimally supports faceted filtering must expose its robust functionality in a way that expresses affordances, controls complexity, and follows existing standards that have been pre-established across the web.

Posted by jamesr at 12:13 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Search tools, Usability & user-centered design

Designing ethical experiences: some practical suggestions

Joe Lamantia has written an article on ethical approaches to design, as a way of resolving conflicts between stakeholders and users. To quote:

In the future, designers will lead the creation of increasingly multilateral, multidimensional, and co-created experiences. Such integrated experiences could introduce substantial, new potential sources of conflict—thanks to their greater interconnectedness and complexity. Therefore, I suggested this clear imperative in response to this potentially conflicted future: Design must find effective ways of managing conflict, encourage the creation of ethical experiences, and avoid ethically unsatisfactory compromises.

Posted by jamesr at 12:51 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Using cultural probes for intranet user research

Often it's difficult to tell exactly who is using an intranet, and how they are using it. Obviously, some research is required to help answer these questions, but what technique can capture the tacit knowledge without shadowing users in an uncomfortable and expensive way?

A relatively recent research technique that can be very useful in this situation is known as a 'cultural probe'. In essence, the technique involves getting users to give you information without you actually being there. Often this means giving them a diary to write things down in, but the technique can make use of all manner of objects.

The name of the technique usually raises some eyebrows, but it is also known by other names, such as: 'diary study', 'cognitive probe', 'reality research' and 'multimedia study'.

In a departure from the typical KM column format, this article follows an interview with well-known proponent of probes, Gerry Gaffney, founder of Melbourne-based user experience consultancy Information and Design.

Step Two Designs recently talked with Gerry about his experience in using cultural probes, in particular for intranet design research.

S2D: What are cultural probes?

GG: First of all, I don't like the term probes. It's not a very client friendly term. To me, it's a bit like saying 'heuristic evaluation' -- while practitioners might have some idea what we mean by those terms, and even that in my experience is not a given -- clients certainly don't know what we mean by it.

Having said that, 'cultural probe' is actually a very good description of what these things are about. If you think about a probe as something you send off into the unknown -- typically I use the analogy of a space probe like Voyager -- it's something that goes somewhere where we can't go ourselves and transmits back data. So 'probe' is a very appropriate word.

And 'cultural' is a very appropriate word too, because it is looking at culture in terms of the way people act, behave and what their beliefs are.

But while it's a very accurate name, it's still rather obscuring. I would typically use the term 'diary study' when talking to a client because people will know what you mean, which is you give people a diary and ask them to fill it in every day, or whatever.

That's essentially what a cultural probe is about, you give people the materials to enable them to self-report and send information back to you.

[April KM Column written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 12:04 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, Usability & user-centered design

Think like a user

Ann Rockley has written an article on thinking like a user when designing documentation. To quote:

When assembling a document (or creating the required information the first time), it’s important to ask not ‘what do I need to see here?’, but ‘what does the user need to see here?’. The differences may be small, but they are often important.

Posted by jamesr at 09:09 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Usability & user-centered design

Your intranet app

Anu Gupta has reposted a funny cartoon on enterprise application usability. To quote:

Having spent a fair amount of time consulting on intranets and internal applications, as well as being on the receiving end as a user, one thing that's *almost* invariably true is the following...

Posted by jamesr at 09:25 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Warning: third-party application usability is bad for your health

Frank Spillers has written an article on the usability of third-party applications. To quote:

What many companies are doing is writing usability guarantees into the contracts so that vendors are forced to adhere to your standards before they win the contract. This is the most direct and legally binding way to leverage usability in the vendor relationship and with the solution they deliver. Sound drastic? Many of our clients are doing this, having been burned by third party usability issues year after year.

An excellent piece, full of very important points that would have huge impact on organisations if implemented. All too often we have seen applications with horrendous usability issued rolled out across organisations, with the expected (inevitable) outcome.

Posted by jamesr at 08:15 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Resist redesign

Gerry McGovern has written an article on resisting redesigns. To quote:

Your website is working. But it's four years old. What should you do? Leave it alone. Or focus on making it work even better. But let me tell you this, making it work better has rarely anything to do with its graphical design.

Posted by jamesr at 08:10 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Bridging the designer–user gap

Jakob Nielsen writes about bridging the designer–user gap. To quote:

The wider the gap between your situation and the users, their tasks, and their context, the more you need a systematic usability process to inform and adjust your design. In most design projects, the gap is wide indeed and you usually need more usability activities than you suspect. Even when you're a member of the target audience, the design should reach wider than just your corner of the group. To achieve that, you still need usability. Just not as much.

Posted by jamesr at 10:26 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Audience personas for the Macquarie University Library website

Macquarie University is an innovative university located on a single campus in Sydney, Australia. Macquarie was founded in 1964 as a second-generation Australian university with a focus on interdisciplinary research and teaching in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

In line with Macquarie's reputation as one of Australia's most innovative institutions, the Macquarie University Library (MUL) plays a key role in providing information resources to the University community.

Delivery of electronic services has been a growing focus of all libraries over the last ten to fifteen years, and recently there has been a sharp increase in the priority given to online services. The core element in this strategy for MUL is its website, which allows authorised users to access most of the material in the Library's collections.

The website consists not only of a public brochureware site, but also the 'business end' information portal; a powerful set of tools that allow users to search out and retrieve books, academic journals and other material.

However, there was a general recognition throughout MUL that the website needed improvement, both in its appearance and usability, but also in its usefulness for the intended audience.

MUL also recognised that it needed to understand its audience better, so it could deliver appropriate targeted services both online and in person.

MUL sought the assistance of Step Two Designs to begin the process of evaluating and redesigning the website. This case study aims to give an overview of the process undertaken and the key outcomes.

Project goals

Library staff had seen the website through several previous redesigns, so they had a good understanding of what is involved in designing and maintaining a website, but they needed some assistance in specific areas.

In particular, we helped with user research, information architecture and general web design and usability expertise.

The goal was to review the website in preparation for a major redesign. This required substantial user research, and it was decided to undertake this more broadly, because gaining a clear picture of MUL clients and their needs would also be useful for the website.

It was also necessary to gain an understanding of the organisation itself, how it functioned and how this affects the delivery of services to Library clients.

[Case study written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 02:53 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Closing the communication loop

Steve Baty has written an article on closing the communication loop, in the context of usability activities. To quote:

Call centers, in particular, provide us with a real-time snapshot of our customer’s needs. Incorporating issue logs into our project research allows us to react to those needs on a regular basis, minimizing or eliminating potential pain points before they get out of hand. Online channels can be similarly useful when undertaking a review of a Web site.

Posted by jamesr at 12:55 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Presentation: Understanding staff needs and how to meet them

| View

These are the slides from my keynote presentation at the IntraTeam conference in Copenhagen today. 200+ intranet folks made for a great event, with some good questions and discussions. Jane McConnell's presentation was also a highlight.

Posted by jamesr at 02:41 AM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations, Intranets, Usability & user-centered design

Personas and the role of design documentation

Andrew Hinton has written an article on personas and design documentation. To quote:

In User Experience Design circles, personas have become part of our established orthodoxy. And, as with anything orthodox, some people disagree on what personas are and the value they bring to design, and some reject the doctrine entirely.

Posted by jamesr at 08:00 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

What’s my scene -- user roles and needs in social computing

Matthew Hodgson has written an article on user roles in social computing. To quote:

Do you allow people to comment, review, rate and ask questions on your website's articles? If you do, you'll be enjoying the fact that your own users are helping others know what information is valuable on your website. It's also valuable feedback because it helps you improve the quality of your information. Over the last month, I've been working on a strategy for a client to help them introduce this sort of user-to-user and business-to-user interaction. My client though, has until recently, thought of their users in the same way they do their print magazine.

Posted by jamesr at 09:02 AM | Permalink
Categories: Collaboration, Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Search behavior patterns

John Ferrara has written an article on search behaviour patterns. To quote:

Search behavior varies with domain expertise and technical knowledge, cognitive style, goal, and mode of seeking. All of these factors will interact in complex ways to influence a user’s actions. Even then, behaviors will vary depending upon whether at that moment the user is under pressure, in a good mood, or any number of other idiosyncrasies.

Posted by jamesr at 05:03 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Search tools, Usability & user-centered design

Information Architecture Essentials (Sydney, Brisbane)

We've started our event calendar for the year with a new round of our ever-popular Information Architecture Essentials workshops:

• Sydney: 9 April 2008
• Brisbane: 18 June 2008

In this one-day workshop, Patrick Kennedy will present the fundamentals of information architecture (IA), the core methodology for organising and designing websites and intranets. Key skills such as card sorting will be taught, and this workshop is designed to build in-house information architecture skills. A must for all web or intranet teams.

During the workshop, you will learn:

• the importance of balancing the requirements of users and business
• techniques to gather information about the needs of your audience
• the meaning behind commonly used IA jargon
• ways that information can be organised
• how to create a taxonomy for your site
• the importance of good labelling to help people find what they need
• how to design navigation methods and page layouts
• processes to follow for IA projects

[Workshop brochure & registration form] (296k PDF)

Posted by jamesr at 03:04 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations, Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Account sign-in: 8 design mistakes to avoid

Jared Spool has written an article on designing account sign-in. To quote:

Designing an account registration and sign-in process that doesn't frustrate users turns out to be very difficult to achieve. It looks easy at the outset, but a pile of subtleties can sneak up on your experience, making something that should be simple become stressful for the users.

Posted by jamesr at 09:40 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Sketchboards: discover better + faster UX solutions

Brandon Schauer has written an article on "sketchboards" as a design technique. To quote:

The sketchboard is a low-fi technique that makes it possible for designers to explore and evaluate a range of interaction concepts while involving both business and technology partners. Unlike the process that results from wireframe-based design, the sketchboard quickly performs iterations on many possible solutions and then singles out the best user experience to document and build upon.

Posted by jamesr at 07:16 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

The many faces of information architecture

A lot of confusion and misunderstanding surrounds the term 'information architecture'. The multitude of activities that can be labelled with these two words span a vast variety of people, skills and situations.

If you ask for an information architecture, what exactly are you going to receive in return?

Similarly, if someone tells you they are going to provide you with an information architecture, for a website or intranet for example, what exactly does that mean?

A primer, not a dictionary

This paper aims to explain the many faces of information architecture.

A precise definition of each term would be difficult, as there is still much debate even among the professionals who practice in this field, and that is not the objective here.

What is needed is a primer to help ordinary humans weave their way through the various labels that might be used to describe work related to information architecture.

To engage consultants or contractors, it is useful to understand the variety of terminology and be able to identify the area (or areas) in which you need assistance.

Similarly, consultants should find it helpful to be able to express, with a fair degree of certainty and precision, what area (or areas) they are able to provide services in.

[December KM Column written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 01:24 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Usability is not a verb

Scott Berkun has written that usability is not a verb. To quote:

I started my career in usability, but switched within a year for a management role on the same project. Why? I realized that usability is not a verb. For all the data and advice I gave my smart team, I was dependent on them to make decisions. I realized my effectiveness in the cause of ease of use would improve dramatically by taking a management role on the development team, rather than an advisory one.

Posted by jamesr at 07:03 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

The five competencies of user experience design

Steve Psomas has listed five competencies of user experience design. To quote:

This framework comprises the competencies a UX professional or team requires. The following sections describe these five competencies, outline some questions each competency must answer, and show the groundwork and deliverables for which each competency is responsible.

Posted by jamesr at 07:16 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

It's nice to have friends

It's nice to have friends. Over the years, we've met a lot of people at conferences and events, and have steady readers of the articles we publish. We've also worked with a lot of organisations, or have had conversations via emails.

The connections we build at conferences, however, can be lost at the end of the events. While many teams read our articles, this readership is largely invisible and unconnected.

So we've created a Friends of Step Two Facebook group. Everyone is welcome, and this is for those interested in intranets, information management, usability or information architecture.

We'll publish links to our regularly monthly articles, and well as cool stuff like the upcoming video interviews of the Intranet Innovation Awards winners.

Beyond that, the group is entirely open. Everyone is welcome to post links, photos and videos. Let's start a conversation, we're all friendly people...

Posted by jamesr at 10:28 AM | Permalink
Categories: Collaboration, Conferences & presentations, Information architecture, Information management, Intranets, Usability & user-centered design

So what makes up a good search on an intranet?

Helen Day lists some questions to ask when assessing how good search is on your intranet. To quote:

• Is a people search available from every page?
• Is content search available on every page?
• Does people and content search each have its own search box?
• Is it in the same place on every page?
• Is the search field on results page ready for the next search?

(This is something that we've written a lot on, and our best practices are contained in the Improving Intranet Search report.)

Posted by jamesr at 03:10 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, Search tools, Usability & user-centered design

Designing for nonprofits

Olga Sanchez-Howard has written an article on designing for nonprofits. To quote:

The most important difference between nonprofits and commercial or government entities is how they do business. This trickles down to every aspect of working with nonprofits and will ultimately affect anyone’s decisions to work or not work with them. The following are some of the challenges I faced in my two-year commitment to only work with nonprofits.

Posted by jamesr at 11:40 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Crappy personas vs. robust personas

Jared Spool responds to recent criticisms of personas. To quote:

Some products, like the tools built by 37Signals, don't need personas. Not because the folks at 37Signals have any special powers, but because they themselves are the personas they want to build for. They build tools they like to use themselves. For them, that will work great.

Not all teams have that luxury. A hospital IT team, building software systems used by critical care nurses in the hospital's pediatric intensitve care unit, are not building tools they will use themselves. They are building tools used by others whose education, experience, goals, contexts, and tasks are extremely different.

Posted by jamesr at 10:20 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Building a data-backed persona

Andrea Wiggins has written an article on building a data-backed persona. To quote:

Incorporating the voice of the user into user experience design by using personas in the design process is no longer the latest and greatest new practice. Everyone is doing it these days, and with good reason. Using personas in the design process helps focus the design team's attention and efforts on the needs and challenges of realistic users, which in turn helps the team develop a more usable finished design. While completely imaginary personas will do, it seems only logical that personas based upon real user data will do better. Web analytics can provide a helpful starting point to generate data-backed personas; this article presents an informal 5-step process for building a "persona of the people."

Posted by jamesr at 10:05 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Design of a healthcare form

Jessica Enders has written an article on usability problems with healthcare questionnares. To quote:

Reviewing the 60 randomly selected forms this way, we were surprised to discover that every single form contained at least one error. Half of the patients made between 1 and 5 errors on their form, with the other half making 6 or more errors. The maximum number of errors made on a single form was 11.

Posted by jamesr at 05:15 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

The limitations of server log files for usability analysis

Karl Groves has written an article on using server log files for usability analysis. To quote:

One of the challenges faced most often by those of us in the field of usability is finding good data about user behavior quickly, accurately, and, in most cases, cheaply. In an environment where many stakeholders question the return on investment in usability, some in the industry have developed interesting ideas aimed at gathering user data. One such idea is the analysis of server log files to gather information about user behavior. On the surface, it is easy to understand the gravitation towards server logs: They're supposedly a data source which portrays what people are doing on a site. Server logs supposedly show what people click on, which pages they view, and how they get from page to page.

Posted by jamesr at 10:33 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Usability tools podcast: are there users who always search?

Jared Spool and Christine Perfetti have published a podcast on the question: are there users who always search? To quote:

In the design world, there's always been an assumption that some users demonstrate "search-dominant" tendencies by going right to the search engine when they first visit a web site looking for content. But back in 2000, UIE made a groundbreaking claim that blew away the web design world. From our research, we concluded that users aren't search dominant. A few years back, I wrote the article, Are There Users Who Always Search?, and have received tons of questions about the findings ever since.

Posted by jamesr at 06:34 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Intranet usability shows huge advances

Jakob Nielsen has written an update on intranet usability, based on his research. To quote:

Our simplest usability metric is success rate, which measures whether users can complete their tasks with the user interface. In the first study, the average success rate was 74%; in the second study, it was 80%. An increase from 74% to 80% might not seem very big, but that's because the first study's success rate was already fairly high, and thus it was hard to increase it further.

Posted by jamesr at 08:10 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, Usability & user-centered design

Intranet redesign for Canon Australia

Over a number of years, Canon Australia developed an extensive portal-based intranet, known as iCON, for use by staff throughout the organisation. This included several phases of intensive redevelopment, in parallel with changes to the underlying technology platform.

The intranet continued to grow and expand, eventually being given the mandate to deliver to a diverse range of audiences, including both internal and external users (effectively creating an extranet).

This widening of the audience prompted a re-evaluation of the intranet, with the goal of ensuring that the site is effective in meeting the needs of current and future users.

In mid-2006, Canon sought the assistance of Step Two Designs to begin the process of evaluating and redesigning iCON. This case study aims to give an overview of the process undertaken, as well as the initial outcomes.

Project goals

The Canon intranet team had seen iCON through two previous redesigns, so there was a good understanding of what is involved in designing and maintaining an intranet.

As outlined above, the widening of the intended audience for iCON sparked off the latest project. Our first goal was to understand the organisation's needs and suitably prepare for this expansion of the intranet's role.

Leading up to this project, the intranet team was well aware of a number of inadequacies with iCON. In order to properly understand these issues and sketch a picture of how the organisation worked, steps were taken to review business objectives and gather the input of staff across the organisation.

This provided a clear direction for the intranet redesign, as well as identifying opportunities for new intranet capabilities and content.

[Case study written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 08:50 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets, Usability & user-centered design

Use a sliding scale of expertise

Dan Willis has written an excellent post on using a "sliding scale of expertise" to resolve design debates. To quote:

If you're in a room full of 20 people arguing about what shade of blue to use, at least you know what your biggest problem is. To get the most out of your organization, expertise needs to be protected throughout the development process. I like to use a sliding scale of expertise to do that.

PS. gotta love the cartoons as well, which are one of Dan's other great talents, beyond being a tremendously experienced UX lead.

Posted by jamesr at 09:42 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Usability tests with 30 observers (cont)

Jared Spool first published an article on conducting usability tests with 30 observers. To quote:

Because there's a large number of design agents and stake holders involved and often a small number of available tests to observe, we can find ourselves in a situation where we need to have many observers in one session. It's not unusual to have 30 or more observers sitting in a single usability test. Here's how we pull it off.

He then followed this up with another post answering some questions:

The last time I did this was for a top-10 e-commerce site (who averages approximately $1.2 billion in sales each year). We observed 24 users this way, collecting the data from each one. Each session was filled with 30 folks (we had to put together an elaborate signup and waiting-list system to handle it), often with senior executives -- directors, VPs, and even the CEO. Most observers came to more than one session and would cancel other meetings to attend.

Posted by jamesr at 05:51 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Demystifying data analysis

Rachel Hinman has written an article on data analysis, in the context of user-centred design. To quote:

I always get a little miffed when I hear user-experience folk describe their data analysis process as looking for "a-ha moments." It seems like an evasive answer to a simple process question. But more importantly, it leaves one with the impression that coming up with research insights is an experience of epiphany, like Newton sitting under the apple tree discovering gravity.

Posted by jamesr at 06:39 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Conducting successful interviews with project stakeholders

Steve Baty has written an article on conducting stakeholder interviews. To quote:

A simple, semi-structured, one-on-one interview can provide a very rich source of insights. Interviews work very well for gaining insights from both internal and external stakeholders, as well as from actual users of a system under consideration. Though, in this column, I'll focus on stakeholder interviews rather than user interviews. (And I'll come back to that word, insights, a little later on, because it's important.)

Posted by jamesr at 12:53 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Why staff visit the intranet

Organisations often envisage their intranets as integral to the way staff do their jobs. Staff are expected to visit the intranet daily. While this is an admirable goal, it doesn't necessarily match the reality of most intranets today. There are clear reasons for staff to use the intranet, but these are not always well understood.

In practice, there are two key reasons for a staff member to come to the intranet: to find a specific piece of information, or to complete a specific task. Recognising this, intranet designers can ensure that intranet resources are targeted in ways that will have the greatest impact.

This briefing explores these two key reasons for intranet usage, and discusses their impact on intranet strategies and approaches.

Two reasons for visiting the intranet

There are two fundamental reasons why staff visit the corporate intranet:

• Finding a specific piece of information

  The staff member is looking for a specific fact, detail or figure (such as how much leave they have left to take this year).

• Completing a specific task

  The staff member has a particular activity to do, which the intranet can help with (such as booking travel).

Note that in both cases, the staff member is not looking for the HR manual, a procedure, or some other general resource. Instead, they are seeking something very specific to meet an immediate need.

[CM Briefing 2007-15, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 02:05 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets, James' articles, Usability & user-centered design

7 components for a successful web site redesign

Jared Spool has written an article on the 7 components for a successful web site redesign. To quote:

We've spent the last five years studying teams involved in major redesign efforts. Some teams regularly produce innovative, user-satisfying enhancements to their sites. Other teams work hard, but their efforts result in expensive changes that, after all is said and done, don't really enhance the user's experience or help the business.

As we analyze the difference between these two types of teams, we've noticed a pattern: teams who focus on the long term are far more likely to create designs that really pay off for the organization. Short-term thinking gets the design done, but the team ends up doing it all over again months down the road. Long-term thinking deals with the inevitability of changes and turns the site in a living, breathing entity that grows with the organization's needs.

Posted by jamesr at 10:15 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Resolving group name differences in a KJ analysis

Jared Spool has written an article about running KJ analysis sessions, and overcoming common issues. To quote:

We're big fans of the KJ Technique, a method that helps teams rank the important issues for a focus question, such as "What are the most important usability problems we need to fix in this version of the design?" or "Which user populations are most important to our business?"

In the method, teams brainstorm on potential answers to the focus question, group the answers, name each group, then vote on the group names that best answer the question. The method, in less than 45-minutes, allows teams to come to a democratic consensus on an answer, avoiding endless discussion for elements that turn out to be unimportant.

Posted by jamesr at 05:09 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Banner blindness: old and new findings

Jakob Nielsen has written an article on banner blindness. To quote:

At all levels of user engagement, the finding is the same regarding banners (outlined with green boxes in the above illustration): almost no fixations within advertisements. If users are looking for a quick fact, they want to get done and aren't diverted by banners; and if users are engrossed in a story, they're not going to look away from the content.

The heatmaps also show how users don't fixate within design elements that resemble ads, even if they aren't ads (and thus aren't shown within green boxes above).

Posted by jamesr at 04:13 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

An introduction to Split A/B testing

Lisa Halabi has written a brief introduction to A/B testing. To quote:

Following on from any website usability study a number of usability problems are usually found. There can often be debate within any organisation as to the best solution for each problem, with no one really knowing the optimal solution. Rather than letting the person that shouts the loudest get his or her own way, a better solution can be to test two solutions in a live environment. Whichever performs the best is clearly the superior solution. Welcome to split A/B testing!

Posted by jamesr at 04:05 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

UCD blogging in Australia?

Something struck me today about the prevalence of blogging amongst the user-centred design community in Australia.

Now, I've been blogging for a touch over five years. I find it an invaluable mechanism for sharing my thoughts, the articles that I'm reading, and the articles I'm writing. From the feedback I receive, I believe that this is an extremely worthwhile way of spending some of my time.

In the US, there is very strong blogging within the UCD community, with many of the most experienced experts and consultants regularly posting their thoughts. Individuals in my blog feed include Lou Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, Joe Lamantia, Jeff Veen; company blogs include Adaptive Path, UIE and Blue Flavor.

While there are a number of excellent Australian-produced UCD blogs, these are primarily by individuals, with very few companies (or individuals representing companies). Very few of these blogs are by the "thought leaders" in our industry. While I follow many of these blogs, the most insightful posts still seem to be coming from overseas.

Am I right on this? Is the UCD community within Australia backwards when it comes to using this now-standard communications channel? Or have I missed many of the best blogs in my own backyard?

As they say, answers on the back of a postcard please...

Posted by jamesr at 01:10 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

UCD in Australia: demand exceeds supply

I find it remarkable that I've seen nothing written about the current state of the usability and IA industries in Australia. This is the busiest that the industry has ever been, driven by the slow but inevitable acceptance of the need for user-centred design (UCD) as part of web and intranet projects.

To say things are busy is an understatement. Every consulting firm is busy, every freelancer is occupied, and every contractor working on client premises. To state this most clearly:

At present, demand for UCD services far exceeds supply.

Even with all hands on deck, it isn't possible to meet all the needs of clients within Australia at present. And this isn't going to change anytime in a hurry.

There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, organisations have quietly taken heed of the importance of UCD and have, without anyone really noticing, started incorporating these activities into many of their web projects. Making matters dramatically worse are a few of the big media companies building huge UCD teams to support their strategic projects.

Thats the demand side of things. On the supply side, there haven't been a lot of new specialists coming onto the market over the last 5 years. With few (if any) formal ways of learning these skills, UCD specialists are grown, not educated. It's also a much smaller market than the US or UK.

So, what does this mean in practice? A few things:

• For clients, it's become very hard to get hold of good UCD specialists, particularly for mid-term contract roles.
• There's also going to have to be a shift in the way that UCD services are obtained. In the past, organisations could put out a small RFP for a usability consultancy, with the expectation that the winning firm could start "right away". Now, every firm is booked up for at least the next month or two, so clients are going to have to be more patient.
• The lack of experience UCD specialists is driving more work to less experienced staff. Anecdotally, this is impacting the quality of a lot of the work being done at present.
• It's virtually impossible for consulting firms to grow in this space, due to the shortage of new staff. This is now a strategic consideration, and firms such as ours are taking serious steps to attract the best talent. (In our case, this involves offering an unique consulting model, and the opportunity to write articles and reports, present at conferences and run workshops.)
• The market value of experienced UCD specialists is growing very rapidly, and salaries are rising quickly.
• This is putting a big squeeze on consulting firms, who are seeing their costs enormously. With many firms competing on price, this is impacting on many companies profitability, and something will have to give. (We are taking a different route on this issue.)
• Ultimately, the basics of marketplace economics suggest that the costs will ultimately have to be passed on to clients, although this is always a difficult and uncertain process.

Anyway, that's my view of the world, and there's no doubt it's an interesting time at the moment. Apologies again for the lack of comments (must upgrade my blogging software!), but feel free to email me your observations and thoughts. I'll then collect these together and blog a summary...

Posted by jamesr at 05:16 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Using research to end visual design debates

Nick Myers has written an article on research underpinning good design. To quote:

If you've ever had to present visual design to a group, you probably have your own collection of similar horror stories. But why is it that a group of otherwise level-headed adults can't seem to have a productive meeting about visual design? The short answer is that in the absence of clear context about what they are evaluating, most people don't know how to objectively evaluate visual design, so they rely instead on subjective intuition.

Posted by jamesr at 05:27 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

User assistance walkthroughs: helping best practices emerge

Mike Hughes has written an article on conducting user assistance walkthroughs. To quote:

In my previous job as a UX designer, I learned the value of collaborative design walkthroughs. During walkthroughs, the UX designer would step through a user scenario -- using the wireframes or mid-fidelity prototypes -- with a cross-disciplinary team comprising product management, other UX designers, business analysts, developers, product testers, and technical communicators. The motivation for doing these walkthroughs was to reduce the amount of churn around product requirements that was occurring during coding and testing. No matter how well-written a requirement or use case was, it wasn't until stakeholders could interact with a design within a tangible context that the full implications of a requirement or its lack of sufficient specificity became evident.

Posted by jamesr at 02:54 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Introduction to the building blocks

Joe Lamantia continues his series on the building blocks methodology for designing portals. To quote:

Part 1 of this series "The Challenge of Dashboards and Portals" discussed the difficulties of creating effective information architectures for portals, dashboards, and tile-based information environments using only flat portlets, and introduced the idea of a system of standardized building blocks that can effectively support growth in content, functionality, and users over time. In enterprise and other large scale social settings, using standardized components allows for the creation of a library of tiles that can be shared across communities of users.

Part two now outlines the design principles underlying the building block system, and the simple guidelines for combining blocks together to create any type of tile-based environment.

Posted by jamesr at 12:59 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Blasting the myth of the fold

Milissa Tarquini has written an article that debunks the myth of the fold. To quote:

We are all well aware that web design is not an easy task. There are many variables to consider, some of them technical, some of them human. The technical considerations of designing for the web can (and do) change quite regularly, but the human variables change at a slower rate. Sometimes the human variables change at such a slow rate that we have a hard time believing that it happens.

This is happening right now in web design. There is an astonishing amount of disbelief that the users of web pages have learned to scroll and that they do so regularly. Holding on to this disbelief -- this myth that users won't scroll to see anything below the fold -- is doing everyone a great disservice, most of all our users.

Posted by jamesr at 12:45 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Comparing UXD Business Models

Jim Nieters and Garett Dworman have written an article on business models for in-house usability teams. To quote:

We presented these four organizational models as examples of business models that we could analyze during the SIG. We then opened the discussion for ten minutes to allow a free exchange about which models people had experienced or would like to know more about. Following this discussion, SIG participants chose the following three business models on which to perform SWOT analyses...

Posted by jamesr at 10:24 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

In-house recruitment of users for research

Getting participants for website research can be difficult, but a few simple steps can help make the process go much more smoothly.

This article outlines steps modelled on the approach taken to recruiting users for a recent website redevelopment project for a tertiary education institution. The research activities included interviews, focus groups and usability testing.

Gather available information

As outlined in the previous article Start user research by talking with staff, an ideal place to start is with a series of staff interviews. These can provide an excellent initial picture of website users and some of the relevant issues. Staff are also able to suggest users who might participate (in our case, students).

Your marketing or customer service department may very well have lists of clients (and other groups of users) that you can make use of. For instance, there may be a regular newsletter on which you can piggyback a message.

There may also be less well known channels to your audience, for example through student clubs, industry associations or partnerships.

[CM Briefing 2007-11 written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 03:22 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Web application form design

Luke Wroblewski has written an article on web application form design. To quote:

Quite rare is the Web application that doesn't make extensive use of forms for data input and configuration. But not all Web applications use forms consistently. Variations in the alignment of input fields, their respective labels, calls to action, and their surrounding visual elements can support or impair different aspects of user behavior.

Posted by jamesr at 01:38 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Start user research by talking with staff

We all know we should involve users when redesigning a website, but where do you start? There are various methods of 'cold calling' end-users to involve them in research activities (eg interviews, focus groups and usability testing) but there is a valuable source of information you might want to consult first.

By talking with staff in your own organisation, you can leverage the vast body of knowledge on customers (aka clients, students, associates etc) who probably make up a large proportion of your website audience. This is an excellent way to not only gain an initial picture of your audience, but also to establish who has contact with clients, to be used later when recruiting users for direct research.

Who is your audience?

Your organisation may well posses a great deal of intelligence about customers and other users of your website. In this case, your task is relatively straightforward, although you may need to work a bit harder to reach all audience groups.

However, this is often not the case, and the task of getting in touch with website users to do research can be quite frustrating. This is where talking to key staff can help.

[CMb 2007-09, written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 09:15 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Squiggles help find personas

Patrick Kennedy has written an article on illustrating persona concepts, as part of their development. To quote:

First, an idea to help illustrate the concept of taking explicit user research and shaping this into discrete personas. Most people I have mentored find that the most difficult step is going from research into producing the draft personas. My idea is to use Venn diagrams to show how you take the information you find out about each individual you research (through interviews, focus groups, contextual enquiry, customer data etc) and come up with an archetypal description of them all. Remember, the key is for the resulting persona to have attributes that are a common subset of the attributes possessed by all the users it represents, whilst still being accurate for each of them. So in effect you need to 'knock the corners' off the data and look at the overlap, to make something that fits all users in the group.

Posted by jamesr at 05:13 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Presenting findings about emotional responses

Iain Barker has written a post on presenting findings about emotional responses. To quote:

I like to experiment with different ways to present the findings from design research so they are engaging for my clients. I would be interested to get your thoughts on my recent experiment of combining Microsoft's Product Reaction Cards with tag clouds.

Posted by jamesr at 05:12 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Walking through your product design with stakeholders

Daniel Szuc has written a very thorough article on walking through product design with stakeholders. To quote:

You are the lead designer -- or perhaps even the sole designer on a product team. You have just completed your product design, and it’s time to walk through your design approach with the project stakeholders, including management, developers, and users. What do you need to do to prepare for your presentation? This article provides some basic tips to help you better prepare to walk through your product designs with stakeholders.

Posted by jamesr at 03:38 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Expensive things must look advanced

Oscar Berg has written an item commenting that expensive things must look advanced. To quote:

I know this by now - simplicity does not sell. Of course, most users like simple and easy to use applications once they start using them. But before they start using it, someone probably has to pay a lot for it. And it needs to be advanced (complex) if that someone is going to buy it. It is as simple as that.

Posted by jamesr at 03:27 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Four factors of agile UX

Luca Mascaro has written an article on what he calls agile UX, that is, applying UX techniques in highly-constrained projects. To quote:

The site was online after three weeks. Though the project was not perfect, it turned out well. How did we manage this, considering that we followed all of the usual design phases? Our success was primarily the result of four factors that we were able to exploit and manage during the design project, which enabled us to make design decisions quickly and move on with great agility.

Posted by jamesr at 03:20 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Usability testing is really design research

Iain Barker has written an entry suggesting that usability testing is really design research. To quote:

If I could do a bit of time travel I'd go back and change the term "usability testing". Although the title is quite descriptive, it is ultimately too close to "user acceptance testing". And the use of the testing word is definitely a problem.

Posted by jamesr at 07:13 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Web developers have the power

Patrick Kennedy has written a post highlighting that web developers have the power, and should act accordingly. To quote:

At the end of the day, creating and maintaining websites and intranets is about communication, not technology. In order to succeed, and to have yourself heard, you need to be open to discussions with your fellow team members. You need to share the wealth of your expertise and you need to interface with all the different parts of the business.

Posted by jamesr at 10:35 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design, Web development

Three important benefits of personas

Jared Spool has written an article on the benefits of personas. To quote:

Personas are model users that the team creates to help understand the goals, motivations, and behaviors of the people who will use the interface. The persona represents behavior patterns, helping the designer understand the flow of the user's day and how the interface will fit into it.

The teams we interviewed used personas as a way to avoid the grounding problem. Instead of asking, "How would I use this system?" they asked, "How would Mary use the system?" They found their persona's (Mary) initial reference point instead of their own, making judgments about the design from the persona's point of view.

Posted by jamesr at 08:08 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

The anatomy of a help file: an iterative approach

Mike Hughes has written an article on creating online help. To quote:

This article presents an approach to Help file design that focuses on creating a task-centered user experience and accommodates an iterative development strategy. This methodology allows the introduction of user assistance into early test phases --- not only getting earlier validation for its accuracy, but also supporting quality assurance testing by serving as the test scripts for interactions with the user interface. This approach can also be a self-contained strategy --- that is, one that allows an iterative approach to user assistance development even if the rest of product development operates on a waterfall model.

Posted by jamesr at 10:58 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Usability & user-centered design

Dynamic help in web forms

Luke Wroblewski has written an article on dynamic help in web forms. To quote:

Each of these dynamic Help systems for Web forms has its distinct advantages and disadvantages. As with all design decisions, an understanding of user needs and business goals should inform which of these dynamic Help systems is right for your Web forms. If you've used other types of dynamic Help on Web forms, please let me know, so we can extend this list of options.

Posted by jamesr at 02:40 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design, Web development

Comics: Not just for laughs!

Rebekah Sedaca has written an article on using comics as part of internal communication and change management. To quote:

The presentation successfully communicated how users would engage with the site in addition to how it would look. Audience members commented on the use of comics as "a really cool way to demonstrate functionality." While the team also got a few "how did they do that?" responses, others mentioned how easy it was to understand the process with comics. Using comics, we were able to quickly communicate complex concepts to a large, diverse audience. The comic medium also allowed us to illustrate answers to many of the audience’s questions before getting to the Q&A session.

Posted by jamesr at 10:14 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, Usability & user-centered design

Usability of content management systems is discussed on multiple continents

Rahel Bailey has posted a discussion on CMS usability, as a followup to my recent article. To quote:

James Robertson of Step Two Designs just published an article on the 11 usability principles for CMS products. As usual, James has said what needs to be said about the topic, simply and eloquently. He has hit all the major points. But one of the pieces that I don't think gets hammered home often enough is the connection between patterning and usability, and I would like to elaborate on that a bit, as I've been talking about it in my conference presentations lately.

Posted by jamesr at 11:16 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Usability & user-centered design

When ROI isn't enough: making persuasive cases for user-centered design

Colleen Jones has written an article on making persuasive cases for user-centered design. To quote:

Making the case for user-centered design (UCD) is a topic of recurring discussion for UX professionals. Much of the discussion has centered on strictly objective approaches such as cost-benefit or return-on-investment (ROI) analysis. However, recent commentary suggests proving ROI is not always enough. For example, Dray, Karat, Rosenberg, Siegel, and Wixon have raised concerns about significant weaknesses of the ROI argument, including their concern it ties UCD to tactical, not strategic initiatives.

Posted by jamesr at 09:19 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

11 usability principles for CMS products

The functionality of the content management system (CMS) is obviously a key deciding factor when purchasing a new product. Equally important is the usability of the CMS. If staff, particularly authors, cannot easily make use of the CMS, then the system will never be a success, regardless of how powerful it may be.

The overall usability of CMS products, and their suitability for their intended users, is therefore increasingly closely scrutinised during the evaluation and selection process. One key challenge remains, however, which is how best to define (and ultimately evaluate) the 'usability' of a content management system.

While there are no simple answers to this question, this article is intended to provide some starting points for organisations looking to select a CMS.

The article focuses on exploring a number of key principles that can be used to guide the evaluation of CMS usability. These principles can be used when constructing scenarios for use in the vendor demonstration, as well as when documenting the CMS requirements.

It is hoped that this article will promote further discussion among the CMS industry on how best to design and deliver usable products. Vendors are also encouraged to consider these principles when planning upgrades to their products, to help ensure that usability is not sacrificed in the name of added functionality.

[May KM Column, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 03:15 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, James' articles, Usability & user-centered design

Five techniques for getting buy-in for usability testing

Christine Perfetti has written an article outlining tips for getting buy-in for usability testing. To quote:

For more than seven years, I've been teaching and coaching design teams on how to conduct usability tests and gather user feedback early on in the development process. One of the questions that comes up time and time again from clients is, "How can we get buy-in for usability tests from management and other team members?"

Through our own research at UIE, and in our ongoing discussions with expert usability practitioners, we've identified several proven techniques for getting stakeholders onboard.

Posted by jamesr at 04:28 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

When observing users is not enough: 10 guidelines for getting more out of users’ verbal comments

Isabelle Peyrichoux has written an article on effective questioning of users, beyond just observing them during usability testing. To quote:

While some usability professionals might claim that you cannot rely on what users say -- and there are some risks in relying on users' comments -- there are means of avoiding or minimizing those risks. To understand these means, we must leave the realm of objective science and enter the realm of human relationships and empathy.

(Note that this article is written to target narrow usability testing professionals. For the rest of us, we're probably already using most if not all of the questioning techniques as part of standard practice.)

Posted by jamesr at 01:09 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Search help and usability

Lynda Moulton has written a post on search usability. To quote:

Two results remain consistent: less than 1% of the searchers place a phrase inside quotations, even when there are multiple words; word are often truncated but do not include a truncation symbol (usually an asterisk, “*”). Both reveal a probable lack of search conventions understanding, a search literacy problem. Here are a couple of possible solutions.

(The design of search is something that I've written a fair bit about, including a previous article and a full report.)

Posted by jamesr at 12:02 PM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools, Usability & user-centered design

Setting up business stakeholder interviews (part 2)

Michael Beavers has delivered the second part of an article on stakeholder interviews. To quote:

Whatever the problem, you can often identify key breaking points: where do your stakeholders have deliverables that contribute to or influence the user experience? This can include people who review work at different stages, create content, measure user response, or hit the "publish" button on a web page content management system.

Posted by jamesr at 10:17 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Setting up business stakeholder interviews

Michael Beavers has written an article on setting up stakeholder interviews. To quote:

Interviewing is both art and science, and it is something that any UE practitioner with a little additional time and moderation skills can employ to extract clear business requirements. Without this foundation, business requirements can be unclear and deadlines for launching new sites, features, and content can be unrealistic. Worse, companies may launch features that users do not really want. Early and effectively gathered stakeholder input is also valuable for determining directions for user research during new site and product design.

Posted by jamesr at 06:20 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Design Comics Templates 1.0: Meet AnaLi

The Sun.com team have published another set of design comics templates. To quote:

You can use these characters and scenes in storyboards, presentations and brainstorming during product development; they're free for you to use under a Creative Commons Public Domain license. We do ask that you include a short credit in your finished work (see the slides), but other than that we encourage you to get creative and use them however you like as a base for graphic storytelling in your company or organization. If you enjoy them or have additional ideas, please post a comment to this blog.

Posted by jamesr at 04:31 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Improving the user experience with in-page navigation

Maish Nichani has written an article on designing in-page navigation. To quote:

In-page navigation techniques are used to layout web content on a page. When used properly they improve the user experience. But when misused they just add to the anxiety. This article chalks out the different in-page navigation options available to us and offers some tips on using them effectively.

Posted by jamesr at 08:44 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Intranet benchmarking for free

It can often be hard to assess where your own intranet is up to. By definition, other organisations" intranets cannot be seen, and there are few absolute measures to assess intranets against.

A strong desire remains, however, to clearly assess the intranet"s strengths and weaknesses, and to gain some insight into how the site is progressing against general "best practice". To help meet these needs, this briefing will explore the Intranet Review Toolkit, a free way of benchmarking intranets against commonly accepted standards.

Intranet Review Toolkit

The Intranet Review Toolkit provides intranet managers and designers with an easy-to-use method of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their intranet. It contains a substantial set of heuristics (guidelines or criteria), allowing a detailed intranet review to be conducted that focuses on a wide range of functionality, design and strategy.

While there are a number of published heuristics for reviewing public websites, up to now there has been no equivalent set for corporate intranets. Initially supported by an IA Institute Progress Grant, the Intranet Review Toolkit was drawn from experiences running expert reviews in many different organisations.

The Toolkit was then developed and published as a comprehensive set of intranet heuristics. It has been published under a Creative Commons license, allowing it to be freely downloaded and used (as long as certain conditions are met).

[CM Briefing 2007-04, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 01:42 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets, James' articles, Usability & user-centered design

Usability testing. Oh, the things you can learn.

Jared Spool has written an article on applying usability testing in real-life projects. To quote:

If you trace any usability problem to its inception -- the point where the problem was introduced into the design -- you'll find the same underlying cause: someone on the design team didn't have a key piece of information. Had they had that information, they would've made a different design decision. That design decision would, subsequently, have resulted in a different design -- one without the usability problem.

The most successful teams have learned that the best way to produce a usable product is to make informed decisions from the outset. They don't look at usability testing as a final validation tool. Instead, they see the technique as a method to learn the necessary information to create great designs in the first place.

Posted by jamesr at 04:23 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design