introducing user experience design to mit students
DESCRIPTION
Guest-lecture for MIT class 21W785, "Communicating With Web-Based Media."TRANSCRIPT
Designing the user experience
Deborah A. Levinson
Discovery process – defining the problem
• What are your goals?
• Who will benefit from what you build?
• What does your site/application need to do?
What are your goals?
Sell productsCorporate/educational info
Aggregate info(portal, calendar)Build community
$$$ ?
MIT Housing website
MIT Division of Student Life website
old
new!
Who will benefit from what you build?
primary audience
secondary audience
Who will benefit from what you build?
• Adults
• Children
• Teenagers
• Students
• Faculty
• Employees
• Customers
• Investors
• All of the above?
Also consider …
• Age
• Gender
• Education level
• Profession or business sector
• Computer/web literacy
• Locale
What does your site/application need to do?
Talk to your audience! Find out what they need.
“Tell us about a time you used the site.”
“If you don’t use the site, where do you
find this information instead?”
“What brings you here the most?”
“Can you tell us about a time when …”
Audience needs/patterns of use drive the site design and features
What shouldn’t drive your design and feature set?
Technology (yours or someone else’s)
Fear and/or unwillingness to say “no”
cville.ownyourc.com
www.dpgraph.com
www.defense.gov
Uncovering what users want and need
surveysfocus groups
one-on-oneinterviews
competitive analysisobservation
anecdotal data
A B C
• Define key messages – elevator speech
Communicating with your audience – content and its organization
• Identify categories/subcategories of information
• Inventory available content
• Map content and categories into site structure
Information architecture examples
old undergraduatehousing page
csail.mit.edu www.apple.com
Good visual design isn't just decoration – it's a core element of yourorganization's brand.
• Describe your organization's key qualities and what makes you unique.
• Understand your audience's perception of you and whether it matches your vision of yourself. If it doesn't, why not?
Communicating with your audience – visual design
ExcellentConvenientAccessibleCaringfriendly
Faculty/staff perceptionof MIT Medical
AdequateInconvenientFar awaySlow
Student perceptionof MIT Medical
Translate your most important qualities into design and features.
Communicating with your audience – visual design
Tools & techniques – site maps
Tools & techniques – interviews with card-sorts and storytelling
5-12 participants < 30 cards ~ 4 questions
Interview results
quotes
stories
Specific issues
the current site is failing toprovide contact information formaking an appointment, which isthe number one reason peoplevisit the site
as soon as the “barrier” isbroken, students arehappy with the services
Perception gap: studentsperceive MIT Medical asslow, but it is fast andeffective
Content and UI: contactinformation must be readilyapparent – especially how tomake an appointment
Different audiences havedifferent perceptions:Medical needs to work toovercome studentperceptions, but faculty andstaff are content
students perceiveMIT Medical as slowto respond
Tools & techniques – usability testing, with or without user interviews
Tools & techniques – scenarios of use
Tools & techniques – schematics/wireframes and clickable prototypes
Tools & techniques – flowcharts
Downloadable resources at http://web.mit.edu/debby/www/21w785/
Thank you!
www.nimblepartners.com
Special thank-yous to Tania Schlatter for the hand-drawn illustrations, and to Leah Buley atAdaptive Path, who inspired parts of the presentation format.