I was talking to the local UPA Perth chapter (in formation) about aspects of UX visualisation.  It was an interesting topic that brought up a good number of discussion points.

One point was on the design process. The way we design.  The way that we just don’t allow ourselves time to fail at the design.  Or if we do, it is hidden in the back room so we can appear to be “magical design wizards” that produce the perfect product, interface design, IA or the like.

Great!  Nice idea if you want to really keep this air of the designer being someone “mysterious and magical”.   Someone that can just disappear for a few hours and suddenly they have the final product.

Stop the Myth

We really have to stop this process.

You know how no-one understands design.  They don’t value design. They just don’t get how long it takes to design something.  They just don’t get the process. They just don’t understand the principles of the design.

Well we are to blame!  We are the problem.   We have build the wall between ourselves and our clients.   We have build the prissy pedestal that we are standing on.

For to long we have been taking the design process and putting it behind closed doors where only a few audience members, team members and select client liaisons get to see behind the “Wizard of Oz” curtain from time to time.

We should go beyond just explaining the design process to the client, and flashing around a few final concepts when we need signoff.  We should  involve them. Even if it’s just in a small way. If we did this some of the issues we have would start to disappear.

Education is Important

It’s all about education. Educating the client’s decision makers, and even your team.

It’s about taking down the wall and showing your process.  Discussing and explaining with your client the design process as you step through it.  Not just showing the final stages of each process either, the steps along the way, warts and all.

Yes, that’s right,  show them the rough sketches, the wireframes that have failed, the concept storyboards and mockup concepts that you have rejected.   It’s simple, explain why these designs have failed and been rejected.   Involve the client in the process.

Become human, not a design mage or a mindless web design monkey.

You may say, “but the client doesn’t want to see all the design process” .

Are you really sure. Most people, I find, are even just a little bit  envious of us.  They would love to help out in the design process.  They want to be us.

Key is to just be patient with them, your clients are a design newbie, be understanding but firm, after all they are paying your because you are “the designer”.  It’s a balancing act, don’t pester them with details all the time. Still in your progress meetings, show the design output. Show the progression towards the final concept.

Stop Perfection, Make Mistakes

If you are looking at me strangely by now, then I can tell that you tend not to really design in the traditional way, with multiple iterations of a design leading to the final outcome.

Whether it be sketching with pencil and paper, in a wireframing application or just using Photoshop, you should be cycling through a series of design concepts before you decide on the final product.

Yes you could say that there is all this user research that we have and it’s all you need to build the design.   Well I agree, but I also disagree.

Granted you do have an outline a specification framework, restrictions on the design from the user research. Still there will often be hundreds of ways you can approach the issues and develop the design.

Even with applying the standard design principles on top of the user research findings, you should still have a good deal of approaches you can take.

If can only see one approach, maybe you need to take a fresh look at the problem, from a different view point.

Protosketch it

Like a good product design, there will be failures in a UX design.

However these failures are important. They give us ideas, they allow us to get frustrated, to look beyond the everyday and find that special design the client is really looking for.

Failure in designing allows you to iterate the design.  They allow us to discount designs and to get inspired with new alternatives  from the failures. Gradually over time, you will get less and less new concepts and start to discount more and more.  Resulting in the final concept.

It’s a simple process.  Just sketch out a concept, get others feedback, throw around some ideas.   It’s like you are prototyping the base concept sketch. Iterate it, adding and removing concepts.

Maybe  we should call it protosketching.

Involve the client, involve your peers, friends, team colleagues or maybe do a peer review.

Just work down that process of refinement to the final design.  Now I’m not talking an agile process here, I’m talking about something that happens the first moment you put pencil to paper in the sketching process be it analogue or digital.

Remember design is not a robotic process, it’s a creative process.

I often find my best designs are the ones I don’t think about, the ones I mull over for days looking for inspiration from things all around me.  Doing a little sketching, drawing, letting my mind wander.  In case you ask, I only work with clients that know they will get a good result if they don’t push the process, sure this helps as well.

Fail or Don’t Design

Now in my mind if you are not failing at your design, well you are not designing.   You are just processing an analysis, and producing one possible outcome.  Maybe you should stop and think.   Are you doing the right thing by your client.   Does your client really just want a second rate concept.

If you like producing second rate designs, do us all a favour, stop.  Just stop designing, the world has enough crap designs.

If you are failing.  Well that’s great, design and fail away.  God speed to you.

I have been involved with many user surveys over the years. Some have gone well. Some have been a complete waste of time and effort. The main distinction between them is the surveys that were professionally developed and pretested would succeed. The ones that had been knocked together by a well meaning manager were often destined to failure.

It comes down to this – unless you have experience designing surveys, then it’s best to either hire someone who has had experience and training, or find another way to collect the same information.

Proceeding with a flawed survey will just produce results that are tainted with bias and other data warping horrors. Not something you want in your user research, eh.

Survey Design Tips

Now I know some of you are going to be forced into running surveys despite my advice.   That’s okay, business is like that, sometimes you have to compromise.

Better that you at least know the pitfalls and can correct them as need be. So here is a list of tips for online survey design that you may find invaluable:

• Survey Objective

  This may sound really silly, but you have to know what the survey is for and what it needs to achieve before you start. Otherwise you will get side tracked asking meaningless questions. For example you may want to find out about the user demographics, their preferences, and the users needs and wants.

• Keep it Short

  There is nothing worse than an online survey that seems to go on forever. Asking page after page of questions. When you are putting together questions. Stop and think. Can I get that information elsewhere.  If you can scrap the question. Similarly if the question is not directly related to the goal of the survey.

  The point is to design a short sharp survey someone can complete in under 5 minutes. I don’t know how many online surveys I just abandoned after about 5 minutes, it must be in the hundreds.

• Tell Me How Many Pages

  Your respondent’s time is valuable, they are doing you a huge favour filling in your survey. Respect that. Just like you minimise the number of questions in the survey, it is also a good idea to let people know how many pages they have to complete. The best way to do this is to  display an indicator of their progress.  This will have a negative impact if your survey is too long. However  it will have positive one if the survey is short.

• Let’s go Back

  Again this is a simple issue, let respondents navigate forward and backward (not via the back button) in the survey and review their answers, if they so desire. Remember the respondent is doing you a favour, don’t make it hard for them.

• Its About the Design

  At the end of the day all the information you’re gathering about the users will be applied to the design of the web site. Be that on a visual, informational or interactive functionality level.  It follows that when you include a question you should ask yourself – “Is the data collected going to influence the design of the site.”   If the answer is – No; then remove the question. Now it’s not a hard and fast rule, but still one you should consider.

• Say No to Checkboxes

  I know you might love them, but a checkbox is just a bipolar field, yes or no, on or off.   You will get a higher response rate if you present a checkbox as a series of radio buttons with a yes or no response.   It’s instantly clear to the user what response is required. Also you have the advantage of taking up more visual space and hence avoiding the question being missed.

• Say No to Select Lists

  This is interesting, as I have discussed earlier, certain demographics have an issue with realising that they can scroll down the list and pick the unseen items on a single line select list. A good way to avoid this issue is to use radio buttons with a multiple choice layout.

• Add Some Other

  When you put an alternative list of multiple choice items in a survey, how can you really be sure you have all the possible choices. I have always found it’s a good idea to allow for an “Other” field and have space for the respondent to fill in their alternative.  You usually discover you have missed a few alternatives I find.

• No Response

  It’s a simple thing, but it’s a good idea to have the default setting for any multiple choice items to be “no response” that is when all the fields are not selected.  I would also consider adding a “not applicable” or the like,  response as well. Mainly because there can be cases when the respondent has no experience with what you are asking.

• Getting Likert Scales Right

  Likert Scales are those multiple choice responses that go “Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Agree” . Now these are very good at gathering information where there is going to be a distinct difference of option. However the result of a Likert scale question is not a series of interval measurements. But in fact it is just a scalar representation of extremes from agreement to disagreement (in this case).  When using a Likert scale it’s a good idea to have a mid point (odd number of values) to allow the measurement of the common mid point.

  ALso if you are measuring a very subjective issue.  It’s  a good idea to label all the scale with the equivalent labels to help remove any bias or misinterpretation.

• Pretest the Questions

  Writing survey question is something you have to do carefully. Respondents will attempt to interpret your questions. And subsequently provide you with the information they think you are expecting to get. Also they will try and determine how you are going to use their answer and respond appropriately. This leads to bias in the results.

  The way to avoid this is to pretest your questions. A pretest will tell you the questions that are always going to be skipped, give similar answers, and questions that are just confusing or misleading. Just like we user test, so we also need to user test the survey as well. Ironic really.

• Stop Question Skipping

  It’s simple your respondents will skip a question if they don’t understand it, are confused or just plain bored with a your too long questionnaire. The solution is keep it short and on topic and ensure the questions are not confusing.

• Multiple Choice Order

  Ordering the multiple choice responses is very important.  However if you put the responses in their natural order (high to low) or just listing them as you think of them is dangerous. This presents bias to the respondent. Who will select that response that looks like it is the one you want.

  What you need to do is scramble the responses. Still,  expect some respondents to lean towards selecting the first or last items as they see these as the important ones.

• Duplicate Answers

  The arrangement of your questions can have a great influence on the responses.  If you put too many questions that have a similar response or layout together (especially multiple choice). You will get a leaning toward the same response for all the questions. You have to vary the responses and keep the respondent on their toes. However you don’t want to confuse them. So mix it up a little.

• Leading Questions

  This is something you would think wouldn’t be happening in surveys, but it still does. The use of leading question is still an issue.  Ensure the words you use don’t imply any unwanted  response.   and that they don’t point the respondent to any sort after response. I have always found that open ended questions like those in an interview are the only way to go here.

• Ambiguous Questions

  Supplied responses to questions need to have no ambiguity in them at all. Remember what you interpret as meaning one thing, someone else will see if as completely different. It’s recommend that you ensure that all supplied responses are 100% rock solid in what you want them to mean. Use the contemporary language and terms of your audience, also avoid verbs that have a double meaning.

• Negative Questions

  The use of negative terms in a question is not a the best solution. In a lot of cases people will mis-read the question as an implied positive. Which will give you a completely skewed dataset. The simple solution is just to present all the questions as a positive outcome.

  If you really have to use a negative, a way around this is to highlight a simple negative  like for example – NOT. Just bold and capitalise it.

• Getting Ranges Right

  When you ask about a range or the like, don’t imply a level of use for a response. As the respondent will just assume you are looking for answer within this level of the range.

  For example. “How many times do you visit our site a week:” this is bad, it implies you must visit at least once a week. Where as “How often to you visit our site:” is a better alternative as it leaves the value ranges to the supplied responses.

  Pre-testing on the supplied responses will also give you a realistic response range as well.

Now this list is by no means complete, what additional pointers would you include as UX professionals?

The other day I was chatting away with a potential client, I asked for their phone number, as you do. They replied with 1800 GETT AWEB (no that’s not real) . I asked what that was a real number, there was silence for a moment, then “I have no idea,” was the honest reply.

It’s not that phone names are anything new, but it did get me thinking.

The use of the phrase (name) as a number was all well and good if I wanted to remember the number. It’s well know that people remember words and phrases better in general than they do strings or numbers.  Clearly why phone number names are so popular.

However in this situation I just wanted the contact details so I could transcribe them into my client contact record. So a string of numbers would have been fine.

Phrase verses Numbers

Instead, getting the phone number as a phrase meant I had to translate this back into the real number. Which involved finding a phone with an alpha-numeric keypad. Not a really hard call in our geeky household. Then you have to stare at the phone and  letter by letter translate the name. Laborious at best.

Sure I could leave the number as is and just do the translation each time I dialed it. Again it’s really just a pain when all I want to do is plug in the phone number and ring the person.

I have done a little  biased unscientific research on twitter on this topic, to reveal that most people feel the same.

A phone name is great to remember when you are at a set of traffic lights, reading the side of a bus,  billboard or if you are just trying to recall the phone number.

However it’s a real frustration if you have to dial the number off the phone name alone.

Presenting the Contact Details

It just  comes down to the presentation of contact phone number or phone name.

Sure presenting a call to action phone number as a phone name will help the users remember the number. But this will fail if they are visiting the web site in order to ring you. Remember people are often just looking up websites now for contact details as well now.

The solution is simple, present both formats, together.  Most savvy web sites do this, but a lot don’t.

Having the real number on another page or somewhere else on the page – that is not near the phone name, is also a bad idea.  It is  just as likely to result in the user going elsewhere, if they can’t find the real number quickly enough.   Yes, as a user, we are all lazy, we don’t want to have to translate your phone name.

It’s a simple thing, just remember a user experience is a contextual thing; mainly relating to the environment and context in which the experience is presented.  And that people are lazy.

You have built the perfect web site, the colours invoke the right emotional response, the visual imagery leads customers to the relevant information while allowing the audience to personally relate to the site. The content is ideal for the web, not to much but enough to convince people of the service. The major call to actions are in the right locations, and easy to find. Everything is set, the web site is ready to take on the world!

Still no matter how perfect your site is, if the  last step, when they encounter the web form, isn’t streamlined and usable, the rest is a waste of time.

The other day I ran across a web form that was failing, it was suffering from a series of issues that would basically make most users stop in their tracks.

With any identifying markers removed, I would like to share with you some of the issues of this form, and a few simple steps to fix them.

The Form in Question.

The form was being used for membership of a professional organisation, it is broken down into three sections (fieldsets in this case) The Personal Details, the Payment Options and the Acceptance of Conditions, these are presented here, for clarity I have separated them, but normally they appear on one long form.

There are a good number of issues with this form, I’m not going to cover all of them, but here are a few of the common issues:

• Number of Fields  - Only What You Require

  I have a major beef with forms that are just way too long. You know the ones with an endless list of fields.  Clearly this one falls into that category –  when you first encounter it you are filled with dread at having to fill it out.

  You should consider every field that you put in a form to be a major stumbling block for anyone completing it. Research has indicated that people naturally hate forms and the like, as they slow them down to getting to their goal on the web. When you designing a form this long (with 38 fields) you are not really respecting your users time.

  Consideration needs to be given to what is the bare minimum to identify the person joining. Everything else should be removed. If you really want the extra informaiton there are ways of encourging people to complete their online profiles later on.

  Trying to capture all the information for a person at sign up in the worst possible time. People are hesitant, and still deciding on the your website.  A long form is just going to convince them you are a little bureaucratic .

• The Need Print out of the Form

  I do know that in some cases long forms like this are developed so people can complete them, print them off and fax, not ideal, but people do it. What needs to be provided is a fax back PDF form or the like. This should be presented on the same page as the online form –  preferably at the top of the page.

• Fieldsets and Grouping

  Yes the form is broken down into three sections. Sections 2 and 3 are reasonable, it’s just the first one that is a little long. This can be improved if it had been segmented into personal details, work details and joining information.

• Help

  With this example there is very little inline contextual help. In today’s interactive web, people are starting to expect to see contextual help boxes appear when they tab or focus on a field. These can be alternatively just be accessed by clicking on an appropriate  help icon (a question mark maybe). Semantically of course you place this information between the  fields and the associated label.

• Encouragement Along the Way

  Currently there is no inline encouragement on the form at all.

  This is a simple thing to put in place; for example every time a user completes a field or an information block (like the BSB / Account Number pair) they get an acknowledgment for their actions that appears inline on the screen. This could be a small tick, thumbs up or the like – appearing near the relevant field.

  Using this type of positive feedback adds a degree of trust that the organisation cares about the information it is collecting, as well as a sense of achievement and sense of completion for the user.

  Use of this technique can also be extended to inline validation of the form, hence providing instant feedback for any error as well.

• Create Steps

  Even if we removed all the redundant fields  we still have a form that is visually way to long.  In this case we are better of presenting the fields  in distinct groups of related information, one at a time.

  You would present it as two step process –  step one personal details and step two the payments, with the terms and conditions confirmation tacked onto the final section. Of course you would have an indicator showing the users progress through the various steps.

  As the user processes the form the indicator would show where they were up to in the process.  This step wise process allows one to segment a long process into several short chunks that users are more likely to undertake as they are progressing towards their final goal in manageable steps.

• Date of Birth

  There are different ways to ask for the date of birth, different  layouts was work for differently user audiences. It has been shown that it can be easier for some users to select a date of birth from three drop down lists than type it in the format you require.

• Clear Labels

  The labels on a form have to convey  instant meaning for the user, and yet still remain personal so they can relate to them.  The order and grouping of the fields should also follow a logical sequence  (as recommend above).  Labels such as “Optional” mean nothing to a user.  With a field like this, people may not even complete it, after all it’s optional.

• Add White Space

  From a design view point all the yellow fields do wash into one large yellow mass, they would be a lot clearer and easier to read if there was a some white space between the fields. It’s a simple thing, but cramming all the fields up together doesn’t help, if anything it makes the appearance of the form even more intimidating.   Remember white space is your friend.

• Avoid Multiple Columns

  This is one that has been debated quite a bit – should you use multiple column layouts on forms.

  Research has indicated that users really like to just run down the page filling out blocks of information as fast as they can. The don’t like shooting across a page to complete a postcode, like in this case.  However having blocks of fields like the BSB and Account Number field close together is acceptable as these are taken visually as one block of input.

• Terms and Conditions

  Use of a check box to confirm agreement is really redundant if you think about it.  Often these checkboxes are put in place to keep legal teams happy,  teams that usually don’t want the form on the web in the first place.   The checkbox sometimes is also seen as a substitute for a signature.   Still there are improved ways to approach this requirement.   If the agreement is required what can the user do,  join and not agree.  No.   The user has no choice – they have to agree or leave not completing the form.

  Sure the statement can remain, however a better approach would be to have the join button saying “Agree and Join”. That way if you don’t agree it is very clear that you can’t join.

  Using a required checkbox field just forces the issue, frustrates the user, and makes them feel a little like they are being railroaded into agreement.

  Also what if my browser produces a cross not a tick  in the checkbox,  labels like “Tick to accept terms” should be more generic.

• Final Submit Button

  The final submit button, should be easy to find visually and  be in line vertically with the input fields.   This allows for an easier path to completion.

  However on this form it is like it has been tuck in the corner, with a little reminder that seems like an apology. It’s almost like the form is saying – “Sorry to pester you, but if you just click you can join”.

  This doesn’t really fill you with confidence that your membership application is going to be taken seriously.  The submit button should be a big bold statement.  After all you want people to join.

• Processing the Form

  When I tested this form it was something of a shock.

  I just wanted to see what the validation and error handing was like on the form, so I submitted a blank form, expecting to get a screen filled with error messages. That’s not what happened. I was returned with a list of processed fields, which is fine if you have completed to form, which I clearly hadn’t.

  It is really important to validate the required fields at least, check for bad email addresses and the like, and return an error message, preferably near the relevant field. Ideally you should validate inline as the form is being completed and recheck server side when the submit button is pressed.

Accessibility issues

A quick review of the accessibility on the form indicates that it’s no that bad, fieldsets and labels are correctly used, tab order seems fine. However a few sticky points are present:

• Requirement Indicator. The indicator for the field requirement is presented after the field, this will be an issue for some people as they will not be aware of the requirement of the field till after they have moved past it. This should have been placed semantically between the label and the input field. Presentation wise it could remain after the field.

• Data Formatting – The use of data types formatting and hints in the input fields themselves can be an issue, especially if the JavaScript does not clear them.

  After all the user may not have JavaScript turned on.

  It is better practice to present these hints semantically before the input field but after the relevant label.

  Also consider from a usability view, when a user has moved into a field the context of the requirement is lost and can’t be referenced.  This information should be presented anywhere on the form  as long as it’s in close association with the relevant field, and not in the field itself.

• Field Labels – All fields should have labels, even if you don’t want to display the label. There are ways to hide them, but from an accessibility view point they are very important.

Something to consider

Now I have no idea if this has been done with this form or not, still I recommend with a form like this that  you:

• Produce Prototypes

  Using Prototypes would have allowed a development team to work with an interaction designer to produce a form that was within budget and still easy to use.  Any prototypes could have been tested and fine tuned with the respective audience to determine the best completion and conversion rate for a relatively low cost.

• Some User Testing

  Finally user test on a iterative developmental proccess with the final form to produce the best outcome could have been conducted on all of the above points.

Remember

A badly designed web form is like putting a roadblock in the way of your users  - this is something you really want to avoid.

I know there can be internal issues from legal departments, IT, reduced budgets and the like. Still consider if the form isn’t that usable, less people are going to complete it.  Sometimes having a bad form design can be worse than no form at all.

The more friendly and easier to use a form  is the greater conversion and completion you going to get.  Simple really.

Just think about these points next time you’re designing a form.

Listening is one of those skills that no one really talks about, and yet listening is critical to User Research and general business as well.

You have to understand, and in some cases even become emotive, with the users you are listening to.  Yes we can all listen to some degree, but the reality is this will not be that thorough, there will be gaps, major things that you will miss or just did not understand completely.

It follows in the field of user experience listening is critical. Without it you just aren’t going to a able to understand the issues your users are telling you, or worse you will miss important information.

Hearing on the other hand is something we do all the time, it’s something that we frankly can’t turn off.  However listening is very different.  Listening is hearing with the processing of the information added in, this  takes a reasonably conscious intent.

This is demonstrated by the moment, we have all had, when we are not really paying attention and  stop listening to a conversation and are subsequently are lost as we try and tune back in again.

It’s Hard to Listen

Years ago I learnt the basic rules of listening, techniques  that can help you improve and assist you  with becoming aware of your environment when listening to people.  It’s amazing skills learn 25 years ago are still relevant today.

One thing stands out however -  listening is really hard work.  It doesn’t come naturally.   You have to train yourself to really listen and observe. Like any skill it also needs to be practiced or you will loose it.

Unfortunately we are not programmed  to be good listeners.

This is because our mind will wander off onto another topic, after it has processed about a 7 to 17 second sound bite of information.  During this processing period, your mind is already lining up all the mental, and sensory stimulus or distractions around you, just so it can tempt  you with something more interesting.  On a side note you also process and will form an option on what you are listening to in this 7-17 second time period as well.

Improving Your Listening Skill

What you need to do is train yourself to listen. To overcome this 17 second sound bite limitation.  That’s where these tips can help:

1. Focus.

   Give the user 100% attention – remind yourself what you are there to do, to focused on the user.

2. Remove Distraction.

   Remove all distractions, this includes phones, emails,  background noise, make the user the focus of your attention. Put a do not disturb sign on the door, and ensure your mobile is on silent mode.

3. Take notes.

   You will be doing this anyway, or should be.   Taking notes is a great reminder,  it gets you to automatically focus on the person, and distill what they are saying into key thematic elements.  Note taking is also great for sequential information collection and reinforcement as it forces you into a routine, that breaks the 17 second processing loop as  you are  filling it with the over lapping note taking processing.

4. Shut Up.

   You are listening, so you shouldn’t be  talking that much.  No interruptions, the user is telling the story not you.  Your only conversation should be with questions to clarify or investigate.   No options, no stories and definitely no soapbox rants.

5. Questioning is Good.

   We all know that it’s important to ask the right type of questions during an interview.   In fact you could have an entire post just on interview questions and strategy.  When questioning you don’t want to lead the person at all.  You need to ask investigative (open ended questions)  or confirmation questions that paraphrase what the user has just said.  It’s a good idea not to use your own words (and avoid the buzz words) – use theirs.  Don’t  evaluate by giving any option with a question.  Also watch your body language giving off the wrong non verbal cues.  Thinking up questions on the fly is initially not easy, but after a while you will discover that you have lots of time, and the right question instantly, more on this later.

6. Body Language.

   Yes there are going to be non verbal cues, and you have to be observant and pick them up. They could be a change in facial expression, voice tone, a postural shift or just hand actions.  These are all important and can indicate an emotion shift.  Watch for this, don’t be afraid to ask about it gently.

7. Silence is Good.

   It’s okay for the user to be silent and think about the subject at hand.  This gives you time to watch for those non verbal cues and the like.  Be passive, don’t interrupt the silent time, especially if they look like they are thinking. Patience is the key.

8. Give No Advice.

   Again it’s not about you, it’s about the user, let them find the solution, let them see the alternatives. Yes you may need to repeat their own alternatives back to them and ask  how the feel about them and such.   But this is not the same as giving your person option. The reason giving an option is bad is by doing so it will re focus the listening process on you and will give the impression that you are not listening at all as you have not helped them find the solution at all.

9. Remove Bias.

   Reset you mind for each interview or conversation, don’t go into one with any preconceived ideas, bias, prejudices or the like.  Remember that each person is different and you can learn lots if you just listen to them. Ensure you start without a preconceived option from maybe age, gender,  race, ethnic group, culture or previous contact.   You can’t assume you  know what they are going to say, want or even tell you, they are not you.

10. Learn to Say No.

    If you are really tired, can’t focus,  don’t even try and continue with an interview.  You are just going to ruin the results you get as they will be half hearted at best.  Better to reschedule for when you can give your full attention.  I find the best solution is not to overload the day with interviews,  testing subjects or the like.

11. Practice.

    I find it best to really practice listening very intently about 2-3 times a week at first, then after a while you will get better.  Ensure that after a listening session you take the time to review what you have done and note down the mistakes you made and what caused them.  Also it’s a good idea to  seek out colleagues to give you honest reviews on your listening skills.

More Bonuses

I have found after a while you become very aware when you are listening.  You notice lots of small details, and you will also end up with a large amount of dead time to think.  It’s almost as if by removing your conversation you have slowed down time, giving you these large slabs of free time in which to process the conversation and respond.  Use them wisely.

Another aspect of being a good listener is that you will show people that you care about them and will connect with them.  Remember once you find the topic people love to talk about, you often can’t stop them, especially when its a topics they are passionate about.   Yes this does apply to even ultra shy introverts as well.

Taking the time to listen to someone, will also make them feel good, wanted, understood, this will gain you a lot of allies in the long term.

Interestingly these tips can also be applied to general day to day life as well, so what you have learnt for user research has a number of carry overs.

Can you think of any more techniques you have used to improve your listening skills? If you can please add them below.

I’m seeing an interesting trend here in Perth. Recently,  job adverts and recruiters looking for Test Analysts to do usability and accessibility testing as part of their duties. Now this is a good thing in a way.

At least the traditional roles of the IT software project are understanding the need for usability and accessibility testing in web and general software projects. I guess something is better than nothing, right?

Well maybe not.

Traditionally Test Analysts are inserted into a project to test software code and specification compliance, usually via various automated processes and the like. Whether the SDLC of project is agile or waterfall in nature, they still have a part to play. However they work is at the end of a productivity cycle, after the run of the development / design team.

It is interesting to note that the type of testing techniques listed do not mention the usual usability testing methods that a usability professional would employ. There is also no reference to using the users of the system as test subjects. It seems that the Test Analysts has to play the Expert Reviewer card and use their wealth of understanding of the usability and cognitive process the users will go through to evaluate the system.

This is a waste of time!

Unless the Test Analyst is a usability specialist they are just going to be wasting everyone’s time and money. Yes they are looking at the issues, but this is really just like making User Acceptance Testing = Usability Testing – and we all know about that old chestnut.

Getting a User Experience professional on the team, even just part time, would produce better results than having the Test Analyst cover off the usability and accessibility issues to save a few dollars. At least the UX professional would examine the issue holistically throughout the run, not at the end.

Point to note there is also no reference to User Research or the like, just a reference to supporting business requirements.

Another case of the industry just not getting it, maybe? I suspect that the terms usability and accessibility testing are being dropped in, a bit like a form of buzzword bingo.

Now people tell me, especially Test Analysts, is this just happening in Perth or is the trend across the Australian job market and beyond?

Interestingly recently I had a very bad experience booking some accommodation. Out of anything that bad, can come some good.  It seems that sometimes we are just loosing sight of the fact that customer (experience) service  is in many cases more important than the products we are selling.   So I have put together this quick list of what went wrong and how any business can learn from these mistakes:

1. Answer correspondence

   If you offer a method of communication with your customer, be that email, phone, fax, sms, online chat, whatever,  ensure that you do in fact communicate with them and reply to any correspondence. Use an answering machine or voice mail for your phone would be a very good starting point.  Also review your recorded messages and auto response emails from time to time.

2. Keep information up to date.

   Ensure that the information you provide is current be that on your web site, or with a reseller or the like.  There is nothing worse than promoting services that you  no longer provide. You do all the work selling then just can’t deliver.  It just leaves bad feelings all around.

3. Computer illiteracy is not an excuse

   It is nearly 2010, saying that you don’t know how to use your website, or even your computer to check for emails is not an excuse. If you are in business you need to get your head around this technology. If you or your staff can’t then you really have to seriously look at why you should remain in business.

4. Appearance and business currency

   It is very important to ensure that you don’t give the appearance that you are no longer in business. This is essential in an online world. The web is littered with sites that are dead, abandoned businesses, that are no longer in operation. Still they appear in search engines. Usually the average Joe determines if the site is active or not based completely on the currency of the content and professional appearance of the web site. Having not updated your site in six or even  twelve months and having the same design as it had in 1998 isn’t really going to help you much.  Customers will just assume you are no longer in business.

5. Sell the Service

   To often people forget  to be able to present your best customer experience you have to forget about the products you are selling, and instead focus on the service that you provide in selling those products.   As people really like to interact with other people, so it’s often the service that makes the difference in relation to customer loyalty, not the product, but how you delivery it.  In an online world this can be little things in the design of the website or your delivery process that provides for  that perfect service.

6. Relate to your customers

   Your customers are people. Yes I know it’s hard to remember this sometimes, but they are. Often it pays to just stop for a moment and think about what your customers are seeing.  What does your business look like from their initial contact with you. Be that from your  website, phone or reseller to the final service (even product) provision. Try and relate and understand their feelings, concerns and rectify any nagging doubts they may have.  They will love you for it.

Regardless there will be some items that I have missed, feel free to add them below.

Any business needs to present itself in its best possible light to its customers.

With a new customer every aspect of the business is on display, under review constantly as the customer gains the confidence in that business. From the website, initial customer contact to service provision.

We have all done this, be it from the corner shop, a local cafe, a hotel, to ordering things online. It’s pretty much a given isn’t it, the initial user experience is everything. Or is it?

Recently I came across what  was a very bad initial customer experience – not that they aren’t that hard to find.

However I found myself pursuing with the experience, defending the vendor. All because of several recommendations from trusted friends.

The Experience

We were looking for last minute accommodation in a nearby town. Having reviewed the available accommodation on the local tourist bureau web site, we selected one that met our dates and various requirements. We were advised to approached the accommodation provider directly.  So we did…

This when the bad experience started. The website was something from 1998, plus it just didn’t seem to render correctly in any of our browsers, even Internet Explorer 6.  Okay this is not that unusual in the accommodation trade as secondary accommodation directory sites (like the tourist bureau) or reseller vendors like wotif tend to do all the promotional work for the accommodation. Still it was a little off putting.

Anyway we used their online form and emailed them with our requirements and requested dates.

Time went by, two, three, four days, other emails were sent – no reply.

Maybe they where no longer in business. A quick check on a satellite photo from last month on  Nearmaps showed they where still operational. Maybe they are just not that Internet savvy.

It was funny at this point I was making excuses from the vendor. Wanting them to shape up and be outstanding,  a beacon of customer service with a rough exterior.

So we resorted to the old school methods – the telephone.

We rang them, mid morning, usually the best time to get any accommodation provider I have found.  No answer, not even an answering machine.   It’s at this point real alarm bells went off.   I contacted the tourist bureau in question, yes they confirmed the business was still in operation, they suggested that we must have just been unlucky.

We rang at different times over the next few days, until we finally go someone on the phone. They explained in detail they were busy, and what did we want…

Clearly at this point I had somehow fallen into the set of Fawlty Towers.  After some strained conversation we determined that they didn’t have the accommodation we were looking for. And yet they were advertising that they did.  This fact they  were not in the least bit  concerned about.

After another phone call we learn that the same accommodation was available, just with one day difference. However they were clearly not prepared to tell us this unless we asked.

It gets better, to date we have never got a reply to the emails.

And finally it came time to confirm the booking, again it took several phone calls to reach one flustered employee. Who at least this time was helpful – Basil Fawlty mustn’t have been on duty that day.

The Trust Factor

Why did we even bother with this accommodation provider.  Why did we give them chance after chance.

It was the trust factor. It was because we trusted the reviews and recommendations  we had been given face to face from friends about the accommodation provider that really made us put aside the bad (well no service) that they were providing.

It’s something to consider, that recommendation factor, reviews, testimonials from real people, given freely, independently can be the key factor.

Despite all the bad experience and warning signs, all that is put aside, as appearances can be deceiving, but a word of mouth recommendation is worth pure gold!  This we should be using on the web, as small business embraces the social media of the web, the recommendation of your customers is king.

Something to consider.

Over the years I have been trying to implement UX design tools and techniques into my day-to-day production cycle.   This would be very simple if all my projects where large ones with moderate size teams.   However business reality is that this is not often the case.  The projects I tend to work on, as an independent user experience consultant, can be with a large team for a limited amount of time, to 8-24 weeks as the sole user experience practitioner on a project.

More often it is the case that the projects are just micro projects for small business.  These projects can be anything from 2-3 weeks in length.

The budget on these projects is often very limited.    Often people look at these projects as too small to use any user experience techniques on.  However I have found  you can approach using user experience based tools and techniques two ways for these smaller projects:

1. Do it all anyway, as you would for a larger project, but do it under the radar at your own cost.   Just because you want to remain pure to the “cause”
2. Look at a way to reduce or streamline the user experience design tools and techniques so that they can be used on these smaller projects.

I tend to lean towards the latter.  The idea of working endless hours for an ideal when I could be spending the time with my family and friends is just plain silly.  Besides it devalues our industry and the worth of my fellow user experience designers.

Reviewing Wireframes for Small Projects

Now I’ve learned over the years to question the need for everything in my production cycle, there are no sacred cows here.  No special tools or procedures that must be done  – “because it is the way”, because some industry icon told me so.    Guess it’s my scientific training, the old requirement of having some evidence to support an idea or hypothesis.

With the smaller projects wireframes can be useful I have found, but only in a limited sense.  So maybe we should review if we need them at all.

It’s a similar story – you have completed all your user research to the highest level you can within budgetary constraints.    After all this you end up with basically two lists a “must have” and a “wish list” of information and functional elements for the site’s web design.

At this point we can go ahead and start to explore the concepts and ideas for the design.   What we need is a quick and iterative process to design, test and refine a number of design alternatives very cheaply and quickly.   Remember we have a very limited budget in terms of time and resources.

With this considered what are the pluses and minuses for using wireframes within a small project:

Advantages

1. With simple thumbnail sketches (mini wireframes) using paper and pencil one can very quickly iterate design ideas.
2. By using automated tools and libraries such as Omni Graffle or Balsamiq one can produce final idea wireframes with within minutes and shoot these off to a client for approval.
3. Wireframes can also give a base direction for the design, without the final high-fidelity designs having to be being produced.

Disadvantages

1. Clients often don’t understand wireframes.  They just can’t imagine the design over the top of the fine lines and greyed areas.   It’s like looking at traditional building architectural plans verses a 3D mockup rendering.  Lack of  visualisation skills tend to lead to the requirement for the final high-fidelity  mockups.   It’s at this point with hi-fi that they start to see the design that they understand what it is all about.
2. Wireframes often cause project time creep as too much time is spent making wireframes perfect and documenting all the requirements on them.
3. Smaller projects generally don’t have a major interactive component that is radically difference from the mainstream of existing web sites.
4. The online applications and packages usually used within small business projects are usually open source off the shelf products that can be skinned to meet the client’s visual requirement.   Hence there is little alteration in the interactive component.

Given that we seem to be just wasting our time on reinventing the wheel each time with wireframes, especially for small business projects. In these projects one site can look the same as another at the wireframes level of the design.  One has to consider why keep doing them if they are taking so long to do..

So we should question why keep them at all for smaller projects.

Beyond the idea generation stage discussed above there really isn’t that much use for them.

Even on larger projects we are spending too much time making them perfect, making them into masterpieces, when a few quick pencil sketches is all that is required, be that on a white board or paper.  Documentation is simple – a photograph of the whiteboard or a scan of the piece of paper will suffice.

Alternative Methods – Prototyping

Okay, so if we get rid of wireframes from the process what can we use instead. We still need to represent the base structure or layout with the constrains of the high fidelity design.

This is where I elect to move to rapid prototyping.  I’m not going to detail the process of prototyping here.  But you can use anything for prototyping,  paper, pens , bottle tops. paper clips, post-its, just remember to keep it simple.    The primary goal is to generate and discount ideas  as fast as possible.

Remember your client may not be that familiar with the prototyping process so it’s a good idea to add some detail to your simple prototype before you show it to them.  Flesh them out a little.

If you are using CSS/HTML perchance to prototype, you will have an added advantage.   As the underlying code, even if you are using a framework, can often be reused later on in the development process.  In some ways what we are really doing here is just moving the developmental process forward with a design component.

We can also create a tighter synergy with the design and developmental team as well.  A side effect here is that you tend not to get an overload of crazy design ideas that blow out the developmental budget as the developers can instantly comment of the proposed prototype as well.

One could say that doing the prototypes first is logical as it follows to have the wireframes produced from the outcome of the prototype developmental process.  However that would mean fussing over detailed wireframes. Again in a small project we just don’t have the time.

Simply we move the process from the user research to prototyping to the final high fidelity design.  Eliminating the wireframes.

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at the Edge of the Web conference in Perth on UX Architecture for the Small Guy.   I will do a brief write up on the conference shortly, so standby on that one, but for now on with the talk.

Why this Topic

Too often I have been to various conferences and I have heard from some very experienced UX people discussing numerous case studies of projects.   All of them have one thing in common – large budgets or large teams.   Frankly these are not the projects that happen from day to day in Perth.  But they appear to be the mainstay of the UX designer, one gets the impression they are the general bread and butter in some parts of the world.

It is from this frustration and the lack of direct application of IA or UX in general for smaller business projects that made me rethink my design approach a number of years ago.   Why couldn’t we apply UX principles to SME projects or was it just for the larger projects?

I asked around the UX community, no one seemed to be willing to discuss applying UX to smaller projects.    I did have one amusing conversation in which the other party considered a small project being our gross income for the year.

Hence talk was born from this lack of a reality check and the need for information that could be applied on day to day basis in the real world.

So what was Covered

This presentation is aimed at people not familiar with UX Design and UX practitioners who have not considered using User Experience Design tools and techniques on smaller projects.  In a way this talk was also a lead-in for the other UX based talks that where on throughout the conference.

The talk itself dealt with the way we are still using a simple waterfall based process for SME projects, and why we are doing it – suggesting that maybe an Agile UX approach would be a better way to work.

Based on my years of experience of designing user experiences for small business I presented a dramatically shortened list of tools and techniques, for a UXD process focused on smaller projects, down from the 50 odd usually available.    Some of the tools I have discounted you maybe surprised as to why I have cut them from the process

I also discuss what happens when we go with our “gut instinct” and ignore any user research, the outcome is very interesting indeed.  Finally I look at selling user experience, be it to your boss, a boardroom or just a SME business owner.   Without knowing how to sell UX any change in the way we do things is just going to be a waste of time.   So in a way this aspect is the critical element of this presentation.

I touch on a fair number of different topics in this talk.  To really do each topic justice I’m going to present then here over the next few weeks in a lot more detail than I presented at the Edge of the Web.

Also if you were fortunate enough to be in the audience of my presentation any feedback is most welcome.