uportal 3 user experience a designer’s perspective
TRANSCRIPT
uPortal 3 User Experience
A Designer’s Perspective
• Common understanding of design
• Design's role in the community
• Speak to uP3 work
• Action Items
Common understanding of design
• What is User Experience?
The sum experience of a user while interacting with the system or product
Common understanding of design
• What is Design?
The aim of design is to create good user experiences
Common understanding of design
• Designers think about:– People and their goals– How to adapt technology to people
• Attraction• Satisfaction• Representation• Adoption
Common understanding of design
• Art– Artificial– No Constraints– Expression
• Design– For use– Has Constraints– Science
Design, while exploratory and often visual, is a scientific process with a commercial goal where the end product is used.
Common understanding of design
• Design is science– Observation– Hypothesis– Test & Validate
Designers don't instinctively know the answer either - but we'll find out!
Design’s role in the community
• What should [a portal for Higher Ed] be?– Community
• How should it be used [by people]?– Designers
• How can it be done [with technology]?– Developers
Design’s role in the community
• Where is design in the uPortal community?
Design’s role in the community
• Until there is more designer involvement and emphasis on making the product desirable and usable, uPortal will not reach its full potential
• Significant barriers to entry for both product use and community contribution
Powerful, but unattractive functionality that is difficult to use
Design’s role in the community
Design’s role in the community
• Designers are not developers (usually)– Speak a different language– Have different goals– Follow a different core process– Use different tools– Produce different artifacts
Design’s role in the community
• Designers are scared away when:– Forced to learn and speak “tech talk”– Asked to design in a “dev environment”– Misunderstood as “skinners”– User Experience is not prioritized– Not given development support
Design’s role in the community
• It’s symbiotic– Developers need Designers to envision and
design a good user experience– Designers need Developers to build the
experience
uP3 User Experience
• A User-Centered Design (UCD) approach
The chief difference from other interface design philosophies is that user-centered design tries to optimize the user interface around how people can, want, or need to work, rather than forcing the users to change how they work to accommodate the system or function.
uP3 User Experience
• User Research• Analysis• Design Concepts• User/Usability Testing
Observation
Observation
Hypothesis
Test/Validate
• What does UCD do?
uP3 User Experience
• User Research
uP3 User Experience
• Personas
Fictitious characters that are created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product. Personas are given characteristics and are assumed to be in particular environments based on known users’ requirements so that these elements can be taken into consideration when creating scenarios for conceptualizing a site.
uP3 User Experience
• Comparative/ Competitive Analysis
uP3 User Experience
• Heuristic Analysis
Usability Heuristics are a set of industry-defined principles that govern good design. Since common usability heuristics evolved over time they are generally considered to be a standard in best practices for high-level usability evaluation.
uP3 User Experience
• UE Goals– Modernize the User Experience– Layout Customization– Improve Usability
Powerful and attractive functionality that is easy to use
uP3 User Experience
• Design Concepts
uP3 User Experience
• User Testing– Effectiveness– Efficiency– Satisfaction
Action Items
• Support good design in the uPortal community – Prioritize work that results in UE
improvements– Support UE improvements on the backend– Review design activity and give feedback– Get Designers and UE people at your
institution to participate
Action Items
• Incorporate design in your projects – Get users involved (you have direct access)– Submit design ideas– Do "Brick Wall" user testing of designs with
users at your institution and post the feedback– Sponsor "Compliant" user testing at your
institution