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An introduction to User Experience

The term User Experience has received massive exposure in the industry over the last 5 years, the general understanding of this term seems to vary, and can be an ambiguous term. This introduction provides a working definition for the term and then explains the practice of User Experience Design and the role it has in creating digital media solutions.

Working definition for User Experience

User Experience (UX) is a term used in reference to a persons overarching experience as a result of interacting with a digital media product or service.

Whilst this definition is clear and simple it is important to expand it further to help us all have an aligned understanding of what is meant so that we can discuss how we go about designing the user experience.

Understanding the User

The term user, refers to the people that interact specifically with digital media. Understanding how users interact with digital media is key to designing effective software, for which there are many guiding principles, creating great user experiences requires us to remember that users are people and will have likes, dislikes, preferences as to how they’re communicated with as well differing; abilities, environments, motivations and reasons for engaging with digital media.

Key to User Experience Design is remembering that each user is different, whilst obvious is often ignored by the processes used to create software solutions – whether creating software for the general public or for specific groups or individuals it is imperative to understand them.

Understanding the Experience

What is experience? Experience is the immediate and recalled perception of stimuli caused by interaction with technology and digital media. An experience is also the result of influences of forces outside of the immediate interaction with technology and digital media such as; the users environment, people around them, the users state of being as well as the motivations and goals that drive them.

I am referencing digital media instead of software, or web site, as software tends to convey a sense of functionality, with content secondary, and whilst web sites may provide a better sense of balance, User Experience Design is not limited to web sites.

It is important to remember that the users perception of experience changes overtime. A first time experience is very different from the one that has been experienced many times before. Users that like to innovate will feel different from those that prefer to follow, but both may pull on experiences from other software or the real world to help them to understand what they are about to do.

The premise of technology

Technology and computing is here to empower people and to improve their lives through facilitating and enhancing; productivity, creativity, expression, communication of thoughts, as individuals, as groups and as a collective race.

Empowerment isn’t ultimately about how clever the technology is, it is about how clever we are in applying it to solve & fulfill users needs and goals. Continual innovation of technology and its application is key to developing the future.

User Experience Design as a practice

User Experience Design is a strategic software design practice that is focused on developing usable solutions that support users needs & goals as well as those of the stakeholders. Understanding users as people and the dynamics that influence and shape their experience with digital media is key to designing software to this design practice. To do this requires a holistic clarity of the domain.

cr_user_experience

UXD is a modern approach to User Centric Design and has combined skill sets and expertise from specialised software practices encompassing;

Information architecture
Interaction design
Usability
Visual design
Technical design

User Experience Strategy

Thinking about the big picture in regard to the user experience and being able to consider the things that influence and shape the experience outside of the immediate interaction is key to UXD. The following diagram provides a simple but holistic framework that can be used to consider the dynamics of user experience.

cr_user_experience

This framework can be used for all types of digital media. The labels used for each part can be refined to align with a specific situation, see below.

Stakeholders – Those that a have vested interest in a digital media solution.
Synonyms; a Business, an Organisation.
Users – People that are intended to use digital media.
Synonyms; person, person(s), group, community.
Digital media – Software, application, web site, mobile app, digital content.
Technology – Technology encompasses all aspects of the delivery platform i .e. internet, mobile network etc as well as the devices used to access these platforms, personal computer, Mouse, Monitor, Keyboard, mobile device.
Environment – Environment refers to the Business environment, Social environment, personal environment.
UX – The point of interaction between people, technology and digital media.

The real power of this framework is in helping us to consider the dynamics between each part. For example this just a quick set of questions looking at the User and Stakeholder parts;

What does the business provide? and to who?
What does the business want the user to do?
What does the user want from the business?
What are the user goals?
How important is the business or its services to the user?
What experiences / perceptions does the user have of the business or service?
How do both parties want to communicate, tone, language, frequency?
What is key to this communication, simplicity, details, trust, desire, minimal engagement?
What methods do they want to communicate with?
Do these methods change depending on the type activity?
How can we make this work effectively for both parties?

By considering, questioning, researching, and reviewing each part we can explore all aspects of the user experience and gain insights and definitions to create the user experience strategy. Typically activities in this phase are, stakeholder interviews, competitor and technology reviews, user interviews, web site / software reviews, and supporting metrics data.

Deliverables

The strategy is typically delivered as a presentation summarising the findings of the strategy work and articulates the opportunities, challenges and insights that will provide design direction for the digital media solutions. The strategy can also provide a test bed to review design decision against.

Reports covering each activity may also be delivered for for further reading.

User experience design

Before we start to designing the solution, it is important to remember that the user interacts with digital media through two points of interaction, the technology, i.e. internet, local computer, mobile device, and the associated input devices; mice, keyboards, keypads, touchpads, touchscreens, microphones, speakers, display etc (SUI – Solid User Interface), and the interface of the digital media (GUI – Graphical User Interfaces) which often has several layers i.e. Operating system, browser. Each technology has unique and common qualities, opportunities and constraints that will be used to deliver the digital media.

As we start exploring potential solutions we will consider the content and functional requirements to fulfill the strategy. This is a design process and looks at the flows and interactions that will define the underlying user experience. This design process often means visualising the solution at many levels of detail and requires considerable knowledge of software design in particular interaction design and information architecture;

Strategic direction
System as a whole
Section contents and process flows and cross flows
Screen level contents, layout
Specific user interface interactions

Through the design process we consider how our content and functions can be structured to assist users in using the solution and completing their goals within a positive user experience. A diagram outlining the facets of user experience was produced by Peter Morville a highly respected and published Information Architect to communicate key considerations for providing a quality user experience. Understanding these qualities helps add greater focus to our information architecture and interaction design practices.

Useful
Usable
Desirable
Findable
Accessible
Credible
Valuable

Creating solutions that users will be complete their goals whilst experiencing these qualities is a big challenge. Knowledge, experience and design skills are very important but there are no guaranteed magic answers, the strategic work provides valuable insights and direction that help us to achieve great results, but simple user testing at this stage is an important part of the design process and allows refinements to be made quickly and cheaply before incurring the costs of design & development. Trying to refine and change a solution once its built is always going to take longer, be more expensive and logistically more difficult.

Deliverables

The primary deliverable of User Experience Design is specifications detailing the digital media solution. The contents of the specification will vary from project to project, but for a typically web site can contain the following.

Technical environment – Defines the users intended technology for interacting with the solution, Operating System, Browsers, Plug-ins etc to provide a scope for the design and development.
Site map – providing a complete view of the site structure and its taxonomies.
Navigational schema – details the navigation systems and structures including searches.
Wireframes – Screen schematics that communicate page contents and layout hierarchy. Wireframes are annotated to provide interaction definitions to communicate screen behaviour.
Functional specifications – describing the expected system functionality, components, tools and flows with high level data and meta-data models.

In addition to the specification document, User Experience Design will also create a content plan to communicate content creation and migration requirements.

Usability and Accessibility guidelines may also be provided but it is important that this also point of communicating between UX and the design and development team to ensure the final execution is fit for purpose.

The purpose of the specification is to facilitate project team review, stakeholder sign off and to act as a living blue print through out the project lifecycle. The production of the specification can be iterative to support agile methodologies and can be delivered as a standalone document or as an interactive document using specialised collaborative systems and even wikis.

How User Experience Design fits with other practices

UXD fits along side all other practices from Strategy to Production, as many that have worked along side me will know we are often the glue between the stages of creating solutions and the practices that are involved in software development.

This is a topic I will be writing about soon to communicate the value user experience design as way to bring teams together to improve productivity and collaboration.

Benefits of User Experience Design

The value of UXD comes from our focus on the user and our application of User Centric Design and our understanding of the importance of each role and how each affects the user experience.

Gaining clarity and insights to users needs and goals and testing what works for them before design and development
Creating solutions that are specifically designed for to empower users
Avoiding creative and functional bloat caused by the lack of strategy and focus on what is needed
Communicating and documenting the solution to provide a blue print for design and development
Assisting design and development to deliver a fit for purpose execution