A Peek at Our Design Process

A quick peek at the evolution of Tupaia, a small internal roadmap planner we made to help with development on Ruzuku.

Step 1: Sketching out ideas for the main roadmap view. The inspiration came in large part from Story Mapping.

Step 2: Once we’d started to get some focus around the design and features of the app, I did some wireframes in Balsamiq. We don’t always use wireframes for projects—for Ruzuku we’ve done a lot of HTML prototyping instead—but it’s a nice tool when you aren’t really comfortable yet with translating the idea into code.

Step 3: The production of the design was a little tricky, since the main view had to scroll horizontally, and I wanted to include mousewheel support. The code wasn’t very complex, but it was definitely new to me.

jacksonfox  /  1 day ago  /  0 notes

UX 101 sneak peek #1: What is bad user experience?

Our goal with the upcoming User Experience 101 workshop is to help you start creating great user experiences.

And we can learn a lot about how to do that by reflecting on what makes for BAD user experiences.

“We must begin to think of the effect that software has on individuals, on their lives, and how they FEEL about themselves using the software, versus the functionality.” Lou Carbone

With that quote in mind, take a look at this 1-minute video clip from a recent usability study. Here’s what the participant in this usability test said:

I hate using the databases here, because it’s almost like they’re screwing with me… so I get to check the availability… JSTOR’s a different system than 360 Link which is different than NCSU Libraries… this is an availability page… so it feels like you’re screwing with me. I thought I had it over here—I might not have it. So now, what do I do? So, the first thing I’d be turned off by is clicking and not getting it. I don’t know which one I clicked on over here… I came over here. This is adding stuff still, I’m not ready for that…

So we’re thinking about how our software makes people FEEL. How does this person feel? Frustrated. Confused. Lost. “It’s almost like they’re screwing with me…”

That’s a bad user experience.

Here’s one more example. Go to Orbitz and search for flights from Raleigh-Durham to Los Angeles. A few things you might notice about the search results…

1. The page is complex, brightly colored, and difficult to scan. You have to really concentrate as you use it.
2. The most important information (such as the ticket price, and depart/arrive times) is buried amid lots of competing information.
3. You can only compare two flights on the first screen (of a 1600 pixel vertical resolution screen) — after that, it’s time to start scrolling.
4. If you want to limit your results to a specific airline (say, the one you have a lot of frequent flier miles with), Orbitz reloads the entire page.

Frustrating. Tiring. Time-consuming. Inefficient. That’s another bad user experience. (And if you think we’re just criticizing without offering any alternative, check out Kayak’s user interface, which solves all four of these problems).

We’re guessing you want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. So join us to learn more about how we can move from bad user experiences to excellent ones.

Discounted pricing expires on August 15th, so don’t wait!

Register online today at http://ux101.eventbrite.com/

In future sneak peeks, we’ll discuss three perspectives on user experience we’ve found helpful…

• Strategy is about FOCUS
• Research is about EMPATHY
• Design is about CLARITY

Stay tuned!

jacksonfox  /  5 days ago  /  0 notes