I Know By ExperienceI Know By Experience

And We’re Back…

Jonathan Firestone — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:46:58 +0000

I’ve recovered my posts, now I just have to re-format the posts, and re-tag the images. Whew. Hang tight folks.

Positive Trends In UX: Educate Yourself and Learn What is a Myth and What is Not.

Jonathan Firestone — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 21:26:28 +0000

One of my favorite sites of late is a cool site called “UX Myths”. UX Myths is a pretty nice little site brought to you by Zoltán Gócza and Zoltán Kollin at Kirowski in Budapest, Hungary. They quite clearly detail the differences between opinion, fiction and fact, and they back it up with statistics and examples whenever possible. ROI baby, that’s where it’s at. For example, check out the opening of Myth #27, UX Design is about usability.

Myth #27: UX design is about usability Designing for the user experience has a lot more to it than making a product usable. Usability allows people to easily accomplish their goals. UX design covers more than that, it’s about giving people a delightful and meaningful experience. A good design is pleasurable, thoughtfully crafted, makes you happy, and gets you immersed. Think of games, they usually have these characteristics. Or think of the iPhone that makes even failures “more enjoyable than succeeding on a Blackberry”.

I’d love to hear if my readers disagree with their findings on this Myth — I land pretty heavily in support of what’s presented for Myth #27 by the authors’ viewpoints, but of course it’s all open for discussion. Feel free to leave a comment below. For or against or somewhere in-between I’d love to hear your take on it.

Positive Trends in UX: A customer first attitude is critical

Jonathan Firestone — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 01:44:47 +0000

Recently I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful company called TMG on a few short-term projects. The company believed that time and again, you had to do whatever it takes to help a customer, to define yourself by giving “Hugs” to your customers. There’s also a company, called Headscape that espouses the same thing. Paul Boag, a Web strategist and a founder of Headscape is obsessive in his quest to deliver great customer service to his clients. It’s probably safe to say at this point that I believe in what both of these companies are all about — a customer first attitude. Delivering that “hug” to the customer that understands what you’re producing in a very human way of connecting to people and trying to make their lives easier. Their pain, their wants, their needs are all in the thoughts of any Web strategist, or user experience practitioner worth their salt. In Paul’s recent blog post, he points out a comprehensive customer service plan a company had in place to serve it’s client’s needs and identifies this as a growing trend among companies, and I couldn’t agree more. Customers of every industry around the world are realizing that their lives are filled with pain and frustration — they want products that have a great user experience on the outside, and great usability. However, as you’re about to see they’re stuck with a nasty choice in the end after all the hard work of getting the product out the door. Alot of companies think the process is simple and it ends when the product is done. That’s not true is it? You can…

A) get a product that’s the cheapest, or
B) have spent the money to get the best product produced that you could

Customers have come to expect they have to pay a little more to get the best, but regardless of how much was spent on making it better… if your customer service stinks the world’s going to be a cold, cold place for you. Paul pleads with his readers to ensure what’s happening in the organization is equal to what’s happening outside the organization. When you’re consulting for a client, follow through is critical. I found another company that espouses that on the Web, a small web design agency called “Headscape”. They produce a great podcast called Boagworld, where they discuss aspects of Web strategy, web design, usability, and a lot of other great things that are important to the emerging Web. My hat’s tipping to one of the podcasters, Paul Boag who has quite a bit to say about the subject. I urge you to explore what he has to say.

Positive Trends in UX: Integrating UX into Agile Development

Jonathan Firestone — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:19:42 +0000

I’m very excited by something I’ve just read at UX Matters, “Integrating UX into Agile Development“. A nice article where they discuss some of the expectations in maintaining an Agile team for UX, and it ironically keys into some things I’m working on right now. At any rate it’s a good article, I recommend it. One of my favorite parts is the coverage of a method which I love for bringing UX testing into the Agile Development mission:

fast planning—No longer do we have to have a face-to-face planning meeting. Instead, I send out a list of things I need to know about the study goals, tasks, personas, and issues. From this, I can initiate planning of the elements, some of which I write and some my clients draft for my review. We do an email exchange, oftentimes with many email messages going back and forth in a single day, until we get the study protocol mapped out.

participant recruiting—If I’m recruiting and scheduling the participants, I get the dates and timeframe for the study first, along with user profiles. Then I start recruiting right away from a database of accessible potential participants.

rough and tumble pilots—I warn my client that the pilot is likely to be very rough because we are working under very tight deadlines, so we need to plan for an intense hour after the pilot, when we’ll make the needed changes between the pilot and the tests we’ll run for the rest of the day with participants.

fast debriefs at the end of each day—We print test logs throughout the day and use these at the end of the day to capture the top findings from all observers. If we are doing two days of testing, this quick meeting at the end of the day captures things we don’t want to forget during our review on the second day. If a study lasts just a single day, this meeting gets everyone together to agree on the findings and prioritize the issues the development team needs to fix. The developers, when present, walk out with their list of issues to address in the next or a future sprint. If they are not present, we send these findings, along with the logs of sessions, to everybody the same night.

Another section mentions another cool factor, which I find even effects teams using waterfall but make use of intense collaboration (like the team I’m working with right now):

“This increased overlap between the work of team members in various disciplines not only changes their social and cultural interrelationships, instilling increased cross-disciplinary empathy and understanding, but also replaces traditional document-centered communication—which is slow, unwieldy, and incompatible with the velocity of contemporary agile software development projects—with fast, lightweight communication that reflects the current project reality. “This type of change does not come easily to organizations. It frequently requires changing how and where people work, how an organization plans projects and builds product teams, and the nature of an organization’s psychological relationship to documents, which ultimately tend to be little more than imaginary assurances of progress. Therefore, I recommend starting small, with a pilot team of energetic team members, who can then become a living testimonial of success for the rest of the organization.”

Positive Trends in User Experience: Panel Navigation

Jonathan Firestone — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:46:47 +0000

I refer to Mega dropdowns as “Panel Navigation”. It’s much more descriptive. But I do think of it as a huge opportunity to inform the user about the content that lies ahead. You might know this UX pattern by another name. In March of 2009, Jacob Nielson summarized mega dropdowns as “Big, two-dimensional drop-down panels [that are] group[ing] navigation options to eliminate scrolling and use typography, icons, and tooltips to explain the user’s choices.”

Reuters navigation panel example: Opinion category panel

Reuters.com’s implementation of them (as you can see to the right) is probably one of the best and most widely used examples of how you would make use of this type of panel navigation. In this instance, we’re looking at a story within the Reuters site. Imagine that the user has clicked on a link posted to twitter to read an opinion article. The user examines the content seen here, and decides they’d like to see what else catches their fancy. The user then rolls over the navigation and instead of making the user guess as to what might be interesting to them based on simple titles, or more content categories (or topics), the user is presented with something that is entirely different and a hundred times more usable and appealing. A navigation panel that incorporates content into the mix is much more engaging and informative to the user. In this example, the navigation panel is divided into four columns. In the first a few of the biggest active stories within the category of Analysis & Opinion. It appears to be a short-list of stories dedicated to summaries which fall under the Analysis portion of the content. Columns dedicated to “Breakingviews” and “Opinion” feature friendly faces and names of columnists along with the title of their latest column. The column to the far right contains a list of various columns and varied sections of interest within this category set.

Typical Dropdown Navigation Example (From the Washington Post)

This kind of navigation improvement is much more usable than something like what you see to the left. The questions I have to ask are “Is this informative?”, “Does the user understand what will happen next?” I think anything you can do to help the user remain engaged is a good idea, and as you can see this news organization has a dropdown for navigation, but it’s pretty typical. Regardless of how good the information architecture is, the risk you are taking is that the user won’t want to look much farther for items of interest, nor will they have an interest in subsections which might have a lot more to offer the user than just a simple topic. Immerse the user in your world. You’ve got nothing to lose, and technology like this, once you have a syntax to follow can be very easy to implement and maintain. Regardless of what you do, you should test it against your users, just as Mr. Nielsen recommends.

Sasha

Jonathan Firestone — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:43:07 +0000

Sasha Firestone, passed on today, at the ripe old age of 14. Rescued through the Humane Society, you came into our lives and warmed our hearts. We remember that You were gentle to the point that someone could put their hand into your mouth and you’d never bite. You loved to chase the squirrels and poop in the ivy. You never chased the cat, and even slept next to each other now and then. When Kelly the Sheltie showed up, you found a friend to play with in the backyard, even when you didn’t speak the same language (there’s a theory out that she speaks French or something, we’re still not sure)… And we remember a critical point in your life when you were bitten by a snake in our backyard, and in such pain, with your fur falling out. Several surgeries began and you were one of the toughest dogs anyone at the clinic had ever seen. Veterinarians were writing papers about you. The odds were against you, and they gave you a purple heart for your effort, and we came to see you nearly every day to help you through it. You even ended up with a pig’s GI tract for a reconstructed backside. Amazing. Nobody understood how you survived. More papers were written when it was discovered you retained a full range of motion. More amazing. Just like before the bite you loved to tear around the backyard in big circles, even with the hood on. (And by the way, we really have to thank Pender Veternary Clinic in Chantilly for pulling out all the stops for us. You gave Sasha her life back, and quite a few more great years with us.) Your Mommy said today one thing she’ll really miss is the ridiculous seam running down your side where the doctors had to patch you up, messing up that beautiful brown streak through your black fur. Years later, we had to put the hood on again when you worried over some of the scar tissue. Even a year ago, your vet marveled that you still had full range of motion. And we still had no idea anything was wrong until less than two weeks ago when things just started giving out. In the end, you were still brave, wanting to make your Mom and Dad proud and reassure Abby and Caroline that everything would be all right. And it was, and it is. We’ll be okay. We’ve had to explain to Abby how you’ve got to go to heaven to be with Squeekers, and that you’ll be able to run around again up there, and that’s real important to all of us that you be able to do that again. She sort of understands, and but she wants you to stay. All the same she knows you have to go. You’ve had a good life, and we’ll miss you much. Sweet puppy, we’ll make sure Kelly the Sheltie’s looked after, she’s going to miss you too. R.I.P. Sasha Firestone, you will be missed. To the bravest purple heart dog ever loved by all, I hope you have a great time tearing around the backyard up there in heaven. Say “Hi” to Squeekers for us, and we’ll catch up later kid. Cheers. We love you. G’night Sasha-bear.

image Posted via web from consider your source

Project: PeopleIQ

Jonathan Firestone — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:20:20 +0000

Objective

Build a Software as a Service (SaaS) Rich Internet Application (RIA). A client brought us an opportunity to help realize a product that would ultimately improve efficiency for employee review scenarios. The intent was to produce a Flash/Flex based interface that would allow employees to be graded against each other on a bell curve using 8-15 traits or “Dimensions”, such as accuracy, customer service, communications with peers, etc. All employees are asked to review 5-6 others from their same department or departments they interrelate with.

Overall Project Tasks

This project covered Web and branding strategy, product development, design, application programming and SaaS establishment.

Duration

First phase of the project lasted three weeks from start to finish.

Screenshots: Public Facing Site (PeopleIQ 2.0)

(IA Work JBF, Design/Improvements by Browsermedia, LLC 2004/2005)

Information Architecture

Jonathan Firestone — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:08:38 +0000

Task Summary: Information Architecture (IA) Development

When designing the structure of any Web site, application or service, the categorization of information is pretty important. My job involves the categorization of information into a coherent structure, and if it’s done well or the opportunity presents itself, you can develop something that most people can understand quickly. The ultimate goal is for users to understand this inherently. The information we present is usually hierarchical, but you can have other structures as well. I’ve organized a few information architecture projects by project:

Project: SAI Global Corporate Web Site (2009)

Task Summary: IA Diagramming, Format: OmniGraffle

This project was particularly complex with a focus on parsing together taxonomies in use across the world, two distinct business divisions (Assurance and Compliance) with a third (Publishing) that supported the other two and had their own business to run, (and three more not so distinct sub-product lines that could easily be business divisions themselves.) The bottom line, ensure a Web site that currently looks and acts like it’s organized by department and country and turn it into a Johnson & Johnson or General Electric class of site. The new SAIGLOBAL.COM has to route people to the services they need and having a solid Web strategy combined with solid support from the executive team to drive implementation helped quite a bit. This was a huge success for our Global CIO, Brett Lenthall (who I answered to directly) and the worldwide management team. IA Diagram Examples:

Task Summary: Taxonomy Development, Format: Microsoft Excel

As a part of developing an Information Architecture for SAI Global, we had to look at the Taxonomy being used across a variety of business divisions, regions of the world, specific countries and identify the original source of the Taxonomy reference. This is just an example of what we ran across when looking at the word training and the meaning across various sources of content within the organization.

Project: PeopleIQ Promotional Web Site (1.0)

Task Summary: IA Diagramming, Format: Microsoft Visio

In producing this light Information Architecture, we didn’t go too deep, not in our thoughts about the product nor in the design. We felt something simple, to the point would be useful. It’s a brochure site after all, and the real meat is in the application. The results were very successful.

Workflows

Jonathan Firestone — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:19:16 +0000

Task Summary:

Establish a visual workflow showing a process. My focus tends to be on operational, task related or user focused workflows.

Project: PBS: The Business Channel Learning Management System

Format: OmniGraffle

I was brought aboard PBS The Business Channel specifically to architect a method for bringing the video training content we were delivering via satellite straight to the desktop using video streaming. By doing this we would be saving millions of dollars in satellite airtime and increasing our reach to the marketplace for corporate training. Part of the concept of this product was not just delivering video to the desktop, but providing testing with remediation built in, and a 360-degree service approach to the effort. This meant workflows had to be developed for everyone participating in the service:

Instructional Designers – Responsible for course design and require knowledge of where courses are not effective, so they may be improved.
Marketers – Responsible for establishing up to date copy and encouraging the sales of TBC courses.
Course Participants – Require the ability to start and stop a course, where the course can be continued where they left off.
Course Reviewers for Certification – They need validation that people taking a course will receive continuing education credits or certification.
HR Departments – Requiring confirmation that the participant actually took the course.

Two types of processes were developed for this, a simple process overview and a detailed process.

Operational Process Overview

Process Detail (Operational): Copy Content into WYSIWYG Editor

Task Summary:

Iterate critical functional task flows for a service or application. This can be an important process tool for everyone to understand and improve on the underlying process for any task. This is usually presented as a portion of a larger site-mapped workflow, or an outline or task analysis grid of the process in question.

Functional Task Flow Development

Project: PeopleIQ

Task Flow Development Example:

Functional Specifications

Jonathan Firestone — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:28:29 +0000

Task Summary:

Develop a list of functional specifications that are provided to the client and developer for approval, development and sign-off.

I Know By ExperienceI Know By Experience

And We’re Back…

Positive Trends In UX: Educate Yourself and Learn What is a Myth and What is Not.

Positive Trends in UX: A customer first attitude is critical

Positive Trends in UX: Integrating UX into Agile Development

Positive Trends in User Experience: Panel Navigation

Sasha

Project: PeopleIQ

Objective

Overall Project Tasks

Duration

Screenshots: Public Facing Site (PeopleIQ 2.0)

Information Architecture

Task Summary: Information Architecture (IA) Development

Project: SAI Global Corporate Web Site (2009)

Task Summary: IA Diagramming, Format: OmniGraffle

Task Summary: Taxonomy Development, Format: Microsoft Excel

Project: PeopleIQ Promotional Web Site (1.0)

Task Summary: IA Diagramming, Format: Microsoft Visio

Workflows

Task Summary:

Project: PBS: The Business Channel Learning Management System

Format: OmniGraffle

Operational Process Overview

Process Detail (Operational): Copy Content into WYSIWYG Editor

Task Summary:

Functional Task Flow Development

Project: PeopleIQ

Task Flow Development Example:

Functional Specifications

Task Summary:

Project: PeopleIQ

Functional Specification Example