Five Dramatic UX Tips

Brenda Laurel, PhD

Adjunct Professor, Computer Science

Affiliated Faculty, Games & Playable Media, Digital Arts & New

Media

University of California, Santa Cruz

www.tauzero.com

blaurel@tauzero.com

blaurel@soe.ucsc.edu

with illustrations by Verna Bhargava

from Computers as Theatre, 2nd Edition

Consistent representations of action

are superior to interface metaphors.

Focus on designing the action—

the design of objects, environments and

characters must all serve this

grand strategic goal.

GRAND STRATEGY

STRATEGY STRATEGYSTRATEGY

action:

to present five serious UI “tips”

in a light-hearted way

character environment object (content)

friendly face

TACTIC TACTICTACTIC TACTIC TACTICTACTIC

TACTIC TACTIC TACTIC

clear speech

gentle colors smooth

transitions

Comic Sans logical progression

readable

images

dense bulleted

lists

UX is experience.

Design choices that set up

the probability for dramatic action.

Human-centered design research

informs your intuition.

Design Research appropriates some methods

from Market Research…

demographics

great big data

focus groups

surveys

home visits

observations interviews

…but uses them for a different purpose.

who will buy it?

how can we sell it?

what should we design?

some people have an allergy to design research.

“Ack! I have to give up my

creativity and obey my

research!”

The hula hoop is a lesson in

informed creativity.

Hang your values at the door.

You will revisit them later.

Meet people where they are.

Your “ideal” player, reader, user does not exist.

To touch people you must meet them where they are.

To change people you must gain their confidence by showing respect.

Your values come back into play

when you have analyzed your data

and are ready to synthesize it with your design creativity.

You can change lives

by meeting people where they are.

QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU.