Category Archives: Uncategorized
Merry Christmas 2018
I am going to keep this post short and sweet. Just a quick message of Merry Christmas and best of luck in the new year.
How to… Do Interview stakeholders
With mosts UX projects, you are not working alone. Someone is coming to you with a project in mind. They want a website built, or a new mobile app, or they just need to make changes to an existing project. Whatever the case, you still are working with the person who has “The Ask.” And it’s this person you must tap in to to get as much information as you need to get started on the project.
Awhile back, I wrote another blog post, “Questions to ask your Client in a Kickoff” that lists a number of questions you should have ready to ask for a Client interview. But many of these same questions can be applied when interviewing a stakeholder as well.
How to… Do the Rose, Thorn, Bud method
I recently attended a Ladies that UX Fort Worth event where Kayla Wren covered the topic “Rose Bud, Thorn.” This research method is designed to surfacing three things: the good, the bad and opportunity and insights. I thought that using these lenses was a rather interesting perspective, so I thought I would share the method with you today.
What is the Rose, Bud, Thorn method?
Rose Bud, Thorn is a “Design Thinking” activity that can be used to uncover and surface insights for a number of topics. It’s a way to proclaim what exists now, as well as explore ways for improvement. Basically, this process asks you to look at something from three different perspectives:
- Rose: Something that is positive or working well
- Thorn: Something that is negative or not working well
- Bud: An opportunity or area for improvement
The “Rose” of this process is a way to showcase the good things that are going on. Hopefully not all things are bad. The “Thorn” is the bad parts of the process/app/etc. You must be authentic and recognize that not everything is perfect, and it is critical to discuss what needs improvement. The “Bud” of this the gold mine because this is where you surface ideas and potential improvements.
You can use this method to explore a number of things. It could be reviewing a process, like traveling on an airplane or onbaording a new employee. You can review an app or enterprise software. It can even be a future concept or something that is not even real yet, like how you might envision a new policy or idea.
Why would a person do this?
There are many benefits of this of this procedure including:
- It is so darn simple.
- You do not have to be a deep subject matter expert on a topic to participate.
- Nor does it take any technical knowledge to work in this method.
- It’s super low-fidelity, so no computer hookup required.
- Only a few supplies are needed: sticky-notes, markers and a wall or whiteboard to accumulate the thoughts and ideas.
- It can be done in-person in any office or online on an electronic whiteboard like Mural.
- You can do this activity with a larger or small group of people.
Who can do it?
Anyone! Of course that is the answer you were expecting, right? Really though, this activity can be conducted by people with any skill levels. You can go through this process through members of your team, or with external clients. Rose, Thorn, Bud can be among students or professionals. All age levels. All levels of expertise. The more diverse the perspectives the better.
If you are working with a large group of people, it might be better to break this larger group in to smaller, more manageable clusters of participants.
How do get ready?
First, decide on the topic. Then determine if that topic can be broken in to phases or chunks so that the activity can be organized in to smaller, manageable portions if needed. Also determine if the problem is too large for this activity. It might need to be refined so that you are focusing on the right part of the problem you would like to explore for improvements.
Then decide who should participate. Are there subject matter experts who can bring expertise to the brainstorming session? Are there customers who can bring a unique perspective? Who from the team should be included? Developers? Designers? Product owners? Anyone else? Like I mentioned before, the more diverse perspectives you can bring to this process the better. This is a time to brainstorm and come up with a lot of ideas. So give your opportunity to do so with a variety of perspectives. Though, if the group gets too large, it might be better to multiple sessions, pending budget and time constraints.
Next deal with the logistics. I won’t get in to those details in too much depth here because those will vary on your circumstances. Keep in mind basic best practices when conducting any research session:
- Define the goal of the research. Also understand the hypothesis and the reason(s) you are conducting the research.
- Make sure that you are meeting the stakeholders’ and requesters’ needs and ask.
- Plan ahead of time and make sure you are organized and ready for the session.
- Run a pilot and make sure the plan that you have runs as smoothly as it can.
How do you do it?
Let’s fast forward to the day of the session. You already have your topic, participants, venue, etc. Now let’s talk about what you will need to do.
Supplies
- Whiteboard or wall for post-it notes
- Sharpie markers for each participant
- Three color of post-it notes. I recommend pink for Rose/Good, green for Bud/Opportunity and yellow or blue for Thorn/Bad.
- Optional: voting stickers for the participants to vote on the Bud/Opportunity that he team will work on to implement or research further
- A whiteboard segmented in to topics you would like the group to work through
Talk to the group about the goals of the research process. You want them to be honest, open and creative. Tell them about the topic we are going to explore today and how we are going to explore it through three lenses: the good, the bad and the opportunities.
Overview of the process
- Grab three different-colored post-it pad for the phase we are on (pink for Rose, green for Bud and blue for Thorn) and a sharpie marker.
- Step up to the board and start with the (first of however many you have) portion of the process you want to brainstorm about.
- Take 5 minutes to quietly brainstorm the good and bad aspects of that process, as well as opportunities, by writing on the different colored post-it pad. Don’t forget to change the color of the post-it you write on based on whether or not is was a good point, a bad point or an opportunity.
- As you come up with an idea, write it down and then verbally state what it reads as you put it on the board. This is done so that you can inform others of your idea. Plus it might prompt other people to think of something related or different to what you wrote.
- Populate the board with as many good, bad and opportunities as you can in in 5 minutes. Don’t start side conversations or dismiss any ideas. This is the time to brainstorm as many ideas as you can and then capture them on the board.
- If the group is still going strong, give them another minute or two to get all of the ideas out.
- When the time is up, have the group cluster the post-it notes in to themes and similar ideas.
- Let the group take a few minutes to reflect on these themes and have a short discussion about what data has surfaced from the exercise.
- Are there surprises?
- Are there repeated problems?
- Are there issues that are present, have been for a long time, but don’t ever seem to be fixed?
- What are the opportunities?
- Any great ideas?
- Any opportunities that could be easily accomplished? Low hanging fruit?
An optional next step is that you have the group use stickers to “vote” on various opportunities to determine what the group should work on first.
Final thoughts
There are so many aspects of Design Thinking. And there are so many ways to build empathy for the user and generate ideas during discovery. Rose, Thorn, Bud seems to be an easy method that provides an opportunity for your group to surface several opportunities for improvement. Don’t be intimidated by this method if you are nervous and feel like you do not have extensive experience to conduct or participate in such a session. Just go for it. If you do try the Rose, Thorn, Bud method, please let me know how it worked for you and what opportunities your team has discovered to work on.
To read more about the method, I found another interesting website that breaks down how to do it on Atomic Object’s website.
Speaking about UX Design laws
I had the honor of participating in North Dallas Agile Product Owners Meetup lightening talks this week. Though I am not a product owner, I like to participate with this group because, as a UX designer, I often parter with product owners on my projects. I like to gain a better understanding of approaching work and projects from my co-workers point of view. Also, I work in an agile environment, so this is a great way for me to learn more about those practices.
OK so now on to my talk. I only had a few minutes, so I had to pack a lot of information in a short time. Hence the lightening talk format. Also, I had to make this topic relevant to to my audience: Product Owners. They are generally not designers or an interface or product, though in some cases they could be responsible for coming up with a design concept. At the very least, they will often be working with other members of the team who will be creating the design. Also, the Product Owner might be reviewing the design. So I thought having some basic design principles in their pocket might be helpful for them.
I had over 20 design principles I wanted to talk about. But I had to cut it down to just 6 to comply with the short, lightening talk, format. Short but sweet.
Please feel free to look at my entire presentation: Don’t Fight the Law, Let the Law Win Please feel free to give me any feedback you might have. Also, if you would like me to speak at your Meetup or organization, please reach out. I would be happy to talk about UX design with your group.
Sketching For UX
WIAD DFW 2018 was a success
WIAD, or World Information Architecture Day is an annual event held around the world. This year’s event, which took place on February 24, took place in 56 locations in 25 countries.
This was not my first WIAD rodeo. A few years ago, I acted as the project manager for the WIAD event that took place in Los Angeles. Planning an even like this is a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding once the event wraps.
For the Dallas area WIAD event, I acted as the Chief Social Officer. What does that mean> I was a lean, mean Tweeting machine. ha!
I had the honor of tweeting leading up to the event as well as documenting all of the highlights on the day of the event. We got a lot of retweets from our sponsors and attendees. Though our attendance was less than anticipated due to a huge rain storm that certainly deterred attendees, those who did brave the storm seemed to enjoy the event and said that they learned a lot.
Overall I would say that they day was a grand success. For me, I enjoyed meeting my fellow volunteers and making new friends and connections. I also enjoyed hearing the speakers and seeing the attendees enjoy the topics as well. Events like this are a great reminder of how wonderful the UX community can be! I certiainly hope I can participate again next year. If I have anything to do with it, I will.
2018 New Year’s Goals
First thing I did to think about 2018, is to review the goals I set for myself in 2017. Man, I did knock a few of those off of the list, but I was not nearly as successful as I should have been.
Here are my lame excuses for not accomplishing last year’s goals:
- I changed jobs 3 times in one year. I had a huge learning curve to every new job, and I am still trying to understand the new industries I was working in.
- I was a bit stressed having landed in positions that were empty promises and not career-growth opportunities. Thus, the change in positions so many times.
- With all of the new jobs, I was devoting any extra free time I had to getting up to speed, and not focusing on networking or getting involved in the local UX community.
OK, OK enough with the pity party. Now let’s focus on what I really want to accomplish in 2018.
Read
- “Design of Everyday Things” (started in 2017, need to finish)
- “Checklist Manifesto” (charted for 2017, pushing to this year)
- “Sprint”
Write blog posts
- In 2017, I was shooting to post 25 original blog posts.
- I want to shoot for 12, long-format blog posts with valuable content.
- Plus I would like to continue my series of “UX Tidbits” and “UX Quotes” sprinkled throughout he year. I enjoy researching, gathering and creating these fun short snippets of info. I will shoot for 18 “UX Tidbits in 2018
Social Media
I have felt so lucky to have the followers on twitter that I have accumulated this far. I would like to continue to grow my Twitter following.
- On jnblatz on Twitter, my goal is to tweet enough interesting content to gain 1,200 followers. Ambitious goal I know!
- On Ladies that UX Dallas on Twitter, my goal is to tweet enough interesting content to gain 700 followers.
- Continue to tweet for The North Dallas Agile Product Owner Meetup and report what is happening with that organization.
Networking
- Continue to participate in local Meetups to expand my network and to get to know others in the UX community and other related fields.
- Have the opportunity to participate in one panel at a Meetup, meeting or class as a person who has some sort of UX knowledge to bring to the table.
- Give a presentation to one Meetup group. Group and topic to be determined.
- Attend Creative Mornings events to meet more designers and artists in the local community.
Professional Development
- Continue to learn Sketch well enough to mock up several designs to expand portfolio and skill set.
- Understand the industry I work for, cloud computing, better.
- Learn about managing teams. It might be something I am interested in, so I would like to learn more.
- Create UX assets and deliverables to sharpen my skills and enhance my portfolio.
- Wrap up the “UX Process” project I have been working on at work and develop a strong case study on the process of creating it. Continue to visit the project through the year to see how it is going and iterate as needed.
- Determine what topic I need to know more about when it comes to UX. Perhaps Customer Experience or Service Design? See how these tracks can be explored further in my current work space.
- Revisit these goals in the mid year to not only track my progress, but to add to it. I feel like I need more concrete goals than just listed here. Stronger possibilities tbd.
Personal development
- Have better work/life balance. Right now I am spending any extra time I have in the evenings working on “Cloud Computing” or “Leading the UX Team” related tasks and not having any rest or personal development time.
- 2017 was not a great year for travel for me. This is especially true for international travel. I would like to explore the world a bit more, even if it is in my home state.
- Read more outside of UX. I would like to learn more about another discipline. Be that fine art, history or social sciences. I would like to increase my knowledge about a field that could be complementary to UX, but is not strictly UX.
New phone, new Woes
I finally relented and for the iPhone X. Happy new year to me, right? Despite being a UX designer, I am not a gadget geek. I am not an early adopter. In fact, I am just the opposite: I will resist updating and change for as long as possible.
I can’t really explain why I am not super eager to adopt the newest technology right off the bat. I guess it is a combination of fear and anxiety. I don’t want to lose any data, like photos. I don’t want any down time. I don’t want any learning curve. Geez, this is really starting to sound like it is all about me, ha!
I came across an article or two that talked about how the new iPhone was a gesture nightmare. Oh brother, that certainly was not a glowing endorsement for me. I was already unhappy with the iPhone 7 which took away the headphone jack. I guess my silent protest of mot buying the “headphones” version would be in vain because once Apple takes something away, they never give it back. We are forced to adopt. That’s the price you pay with the advancement in technology.
So I got the new phone and of course the first major difference is how do I get in to the thing?? There is no home button. I instantly touched the screen and swiped up. That seemed like the logical thing to do. Well that did nothing. Nope. Then I just tapped on the screen. OK! Progress, that seems to be the magic touch to open the phone. I can do this.
So I decided to go a little deeper in the water to try a few other things: open an app, take a screen shot, close an app, display the percentage of my batter power. These are items I do multiple tomes a day, so these are the most common actions I will be performing.
Opening an app, no problem. Same old, same old.
Closing an app, now that is a different story. That required a good search on my part. Now instead of just swiping up through the apps that are mounted, I now I have to hard press and get the “Do not Enter” street sign to close each window. This seems like additional work. Not to mention a tiny touch target to close an entire window. I am not a fan. Easily discoverable? No. Doable? I guess so.
I am constantly checking the battery power of my phone. OK, maybe I am a little bit OCD about it. (My husband would certainly say so.) I can’t help it, I like to know the exact quantity I am dealing with. So now with the new iPhone X, I cannot instantly see the remaining battery power on my phone. Huge deal killer for me. I am not happy about this. Again, I resorted to Google to see how to turn this on. There are instructions on how to activate this in Settings. Alas, this option is not available. Noooooo! Now I have to do some crazy swipe from an angle at one corner to bring up the Control Center (or whatever the hell is it called) and then do another corner swipe to see battery power. No I have to 2 (TWO!!!!) swipes to get information that was available on the opening of the phone. This is a big problem for me. (Though my husband is probably over there in the corner laughing at me….)
Finally, I wanted to know how to take a screen grab of the phone. The home button was half of the equation on completing this task. So now what? Again, I had to do a Google search to figure out how to accomplish this task. Are you starting to see a pattern here? Yeah me too.
So much for Apple being intuitive. So much for iPhones being so simple to use that I can just pick it up and figure things out by playing around with it a bit. I am not to type of person to just try anything because my fear of “not mucking it up” is more powerful than my desire to try new things. Nope, when it comes to technology, I am a “play it safe” kind of gal.
One really important lesson that has surfaced in my experience is the importance of keeping the user in mind when I am designing something new. All too often, I hear people say, “They will be able to figure it out,” or “It’s pretty intuitive, they will not be bothered by this change.
Ahhh well, I have a refreshed level of empathy for the user. I will design for the type of user who just wants to get things done and does not want to worry about some huge learning curve. I want to make sure that my designs, or change in design will not harm the experience, but will help the experience.
Here’s to doing good in design in 2018!
Reflecting on 2107: Good, Bad and Ugly
Seems like everyone has a “Year in Review,” or “2017 Wrap Up.” I am going to join the cliché train and talk about my trials and tribulations in 2017.
The Good
- I still have my health. ha ha. Actually things were not that bad.
- I have made several new friends in the new career paths and journeys I have joined.
- I actually accomplished some of my 2017 Goals this year. Maybe not everything, but it’s a start.
- I learned Sketch and feel pretty confident with it. But I want to practice it more and get stronger at using the program.
- Continue to grow online presence in Twitter. Do you want to follow me too? I would be honored.
- I did grow my UX network in Dallas. I’ve done a pretty good job, but I want to be more embedded in the UX community here.
The Bad
- Imposter syndrome will never leave me. No matter where I work, how much I learn, how successful or accomplished I might seem to be. I always feel like I am looking over my shoulder trying to fake everyone out.
- This could be good, but this is also bad. I started, but did not finish, “Design of Everyday Things.” So that has to be bumped to the 2018 to-do list.
- My new job has taken up a lot of my personal time where I should be devoting that time to advancing my career and learning more about UX, Service Design and Customer Experience.
The Ugly
- Working for a company who did not understand UX
- Having a narcissistic boss who thought it was appropriate to try to sabotage your career rather than helping me succeed.
- Changing 3 jobs in a year. Ouch! That can look really bad professionally, and I am stung by that potential perception. But the job changes were all for very good reasons, and I hope that things will settle down in 2018.
UX Tidbit quote: Best ideas
UX Tidbit Quote: Frank Zappa
Blog is back
Are you wondering where I have been hiding? Me too!
I had some technical difficulties because my website got hacked. And because the main website was hacked, I lost access to my blog.
The good news is that I am up and running again… for now! The bad news is I lost all of the images that accompanied my blog posts. I am slowly trying to restore most of them. But some may never be replaced.
Never the less I learned a few valuable lessons from this experience:
- Back up your files. Sure I tend to think I save often. But backing up your files is just as important. And I really neglected to back things up.
- Know a great developer. My good friend Anita Cheng cleaned up my files an got me up and running again. I would not have a website again if not for her.
- Did I mention to back up your files?
Thanks for your patience. I will post more UX-related stuff soon.
Persona share out: stakeholder interviews
I know there are many ways to build personas. Sure, you can build them on assumptions and guesses and just throw something together quickly. But actions like that just leave a bad taste I’m my mouth. I want personas to be based on research, not assumptions.
One major project I am working on now is to create personas for vehicle purchasers. Where I work, one of the products we are working on deals with the consumer automobile buying space. One things we don’t have is personas. An even bigger flow of our organization is that we are designing products without having personas to consult for our design validation. I won’t dwell on this aspect too much. Let’s just say our organization is coming to light and recognizing the importance of having personas.
My task is to build kick-ass personas. I am up for the challenge.
One of the first steps I took in building personas is to talk to several stakeholders who would have interest in these personas. I talked to designers, design leads, product managers and researchers to find out one thing:
What information do you need from a persona?
I asked a few other questions as well, but this was my primary goal in this phase of my research. I am sharing the information about “What do stakeholders need from personas” is in the attached deck.
Peak-End Rule and User Experience Design
Have you ever interviewed a user, after the fact, about an experience and they had nothing but positive things to say about it? But you know that they struggled or had pain points along the way. This phenomenon has a name, and it’s known as peak–end rule.
What is the peak-end rule?
Peak-end rule is a phenomenon where people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak. The peak is the most intense moment. In other words, they forget about all of the feelings and emotions they were experience throughout the entire event. And thy seem to just “remember” how they felt at the peak, whether that is good or bad. This model dictates that an event is not judged by the entirety of an experience, but by prototypical moments (or snapshots) as a result of the representativeness heuristic, according to Wikipedia.
Why does it happen?
The peak-end rule tends to happen more on emotional events, even though people are not usually aware of their motional involvement at the time. Also, people tend to remember how things turned out overall. If they had final success in the process, then their memory is going to be more positive and they tend to forget about the struggles they had along the journey. People just tend to think more positively of themselves when they have accomplished something, and therefore forget the negative aspects. One way to think about this is, if people think too much about it, and focus on the pain they went through, then they are likely to feel that pain again. So perhaps this is a instinctive defense mechanism? Without obtaining a psychology degree, I will leave that question open for debate.
How can you avoid it in your research?
The best way I can think of avoiding the peak-end bias is to observe participants in real time instead of relying on their account of it after the fact. This is why ethnographic research is so important in User Experience design. People are not even aware of some of the actions they perform. But if you are there to observe them in person, you discover all sorts of nuggets in behavior the user might not be aware to share. When you observe a participant, you see things like pain points, struggles, repetition, redundancy, mistakes, hacks, work arounds, cheating, confusion and all sorts of gold nuggets of user behavior.
I have seen it time and time again, a participant is trying to complete a task, and the software or website they are using does not perform as expected. The participant is frustrated. Maybe she expresses a slight sigh in displeasuer. Maybe she even tries to accomplish the task in a different way. Maybe she concedes and relies on the “hack” she has created as a work around. When confronted on an obvious frustration, she makes comments like:
- Oh what to you mean? Did I make a face? I didn’t even notice.
- I always have to do this.
- It’s no big deal, it’s just part of the job.
These comments are a tell-tale sign of actions that would likely not be reported in an interview after the fact.
The bottom line: Get out of the building and observe your user first hand. You will get much more context witnessing them in their environment rather than just “taking their word for it.” Observation is king!
UX Deliverables: card sort
Cards sorts can make many forms. They can be low tech with index cards or Post-it notes. Or they can be a higher fidelity done on a website or with other card sorting software on the computer.
If you have access to users in person, you can use a physical card sort. With this, you can use index cards or Post-it notes to have the user organize the items written on the card in to more general categories. If you do not have the opportunity to to meet the user in person, it’s ok to use a remote card sorting service or software (second image above) to do a card sort.
The major things that a card sort is used to accomplish is:
- It is cheap and easy to do. Yes it takes a bit of time to create one card for each topic and make sure that all assets are covered. But once that is done, all you need to do is hand the cards to the user and have them organize them. Take a picture of the results with your phone or a digital camera and save for analysis.
- It is user centric. It truly is from the viewpoint of the user since the user is the one organizing the cards in the best way they see fit.
- It can be done in person or remotely. As shown in the images above, card sorting can be performed in a variety of ways.
- It is a valuable and reputable source for gathering information. Car sorting and taxonomy have been used in a variety of ways for years. And if done correctly, it really works!
- It can also help create labels and navigation titles. If you leave the card sorting open (without providing categories for the user to organize the cards) you can have the user not only group like items, but give them intuitive titles as well.
- It provides insight in to the user’s thoughts. If you are able to talk with the user as they organize the cards, you get great insight as to WHY they are organizing the cards in certain ways. This helps you get sone context as the why and how the user is grouping like items.
Don’t be afraid to perform your own cart sorting exercise to help organization for your website or app. Feel free to leave comments and share your experience with your own card sort.
Usability review: talk to your users ASAP
As professional in the User Experience field, we’ve all heard it time and time again:
- Test early and test often.
- The only way to find out if it really works is to test it.
- We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.
- The sooner you start to code, the longer the program will take.
- Just because nobody complains doesn’t mean all parachutes are perfect
- Don’t guess. Test.
To get early feedback is easier said than done. I know that it takes time to create the visual mocks. Then things are moving so quickly (2 week sprints!) and it feels like we don’t have time to run our ideas by users. Finally, we feel like we know what it best for the product. We have done some user research. Our ideas have evolved as the project has progressed. We have made some decisions, that we think are for the better.
The earlier you test your site designs, the sooner you can find any problems and fix them.
But it’s this type of thought process that you need to take pause and stop in your tracks. Just when you think you are doing the right thing, that is the moment that your assumptions and biases are likely to creep in. So, this is a great point to take a break and get user feedback before you proceed down the rabbit hole any further.
To start with, we sent the wireframes to the visual designer to mock up our concept with more visual reality. We made sure that the flow we wanted to show the users was visually represented enough through our mocks.
Once the mocks were in a state we felt we could share with the user, we needed to figure out what type of information we wanted to gain from our usability review. Next, I came up with a brief list of topics and content we wanted to focus on.
I wanted to first focus on the overall presentation and design, as well as have them look at the navigation and taxonomy that we were presenting. Then after getting their feedback on the overall design, I wanted to take them through a specific work flow, and see if it made sense to the user.
I think that a common error in usability testing is giving the person too much information as soon as they see your prototype. Don’t jump the gun!! Take this opportunity to get initial reaction feedback. Let the person participating in the usability review take a moment to take in the design, layout and wording. Let them get acquainted with the page and get that “first few seconds” feedback. Please don’t miss the opportunity.
Then after taking a few minutes to talk to the user about the overall design, you can then take a deeper dive in to a work flow. I found that in this instance, the first half of the conversation focused on the website’s design, terminology and assessing if the user understood how to get started on some general tasks. In other words, I wanted to see if the navigation choices made sense. Also, I wanted to see if they had any cognitive dissonance with any of the terms we had used. Next, we asked the users how they would perform a specific task. In this case, it was how they would start to place an order. Along their usability journey, they brought up a lot of good questions and educated us on how they do this process now. It was all very insightful, and helpful to find out what we had done right, and what we needed to improve. That, my dear friends, is the whole goal of performing this usability review.
Want to watch the entire usability review live in the flesh? Please feel free to watch the video. If you have specific feedback on my approach or any aspect of my session, please share your thoughts in the comments. Just like designing a website or software, my research methods are always in a state of improvement and iteration. Please help me make my product, in this case ME, even better.
Axure bootcamp kicked my butt
Think about when you attend an exercise bootcamp. You are trying to whip your body in to shape quickly by participating in an intense workout session. Then the next day, man, does your body hurt. You realize just how out of shape you are.
This is how I felt after attending an intense weekend workshop taught by instructors from AB Collective. I realized, quite humbly, how out of shape my Axure skills have become. You have heard the phrase, “Use it or lose it.” This came to light this weekend after attending the bootcamp.
After being reintroduced to some of the advanced features in Axure, I learned a few valuable lessons:
- Keep practicing and using the tool or you will forget.
- Don’t assume just because you used an item a few months ago, you can jump in and use it again easily.
- Online videos may not be the best way to learn. You don’t always absorb information from videos. Well, at least I don’t.
- If you cannot using this skill in your everyday job, create a project to practice it to keep your skills sharp.
I am so thankful I had the opportunity to to take a course like this. And it was worth every penny. I understand that every person learns differently, so if online videos work for you, by all means continue to watch and learn. But for me, I learned some valuable lessons that I need to keep practicing to keep it in my arsenal.
Happy 2016 — Goal setting for the new year
We are comfortably in the new year, 2016, and I am glad you have made the journey so far. I guess that people make goals for the new year huh? Here’s my to-do list:
Learn programs
- Axure
- Sketch
Improve coding skills
- Learn javascript, at least the basics
- Refresh my knowledge about CSS and HTML
Read books
- “Information Architecture” aka the Polar Bear book
- “Design of Everyday Things”
- “Checklist Manifesto”
- “How to Get People to do Stuff”
Keep learning
- Start another “100 Days of Learning” journal, but expand it for the entire year
- Review the “Learning Stuff” journal from last year
Write blog posts
- I am shooting to post 30 blog posts in 2016
Join a side project
- I would love to join another project. If you know of any short term projects that need a UX designer, please let me know.
Build out portfolio
- Improve the content of my portfolio by introducing new clips
- Present my acquired knowledge illustrating my software proficiency
Ok just 29 more blog posts for 2016. Thanks for reading.
User Interface Elements
- Dropdown list vs. listbox
- Buttons vs. radio buttons
Sometimes you just forget what each UI term really is called. And it’s good to have the terminology correct, especially when you are talking with stakeholders.
Usability.gov is a great resource when you want to quickly remember the names of those pesky UI elements.
User Interface Elements
When designing your interface, try to be consistent and predictable in your choice of interface elements. Whether they are aware of it or not, users have become familiar with elements acting in a certain way, so choosing to adopt those elements when appropriate will help with task completion, efficiency, and satisfaction.
Interface elements include but are not limited to:
- Input Controls: checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdown lists, list boxes, buttons, toggles, text fields, date field
- Navigational Components: breadcrumb, slider, search field, pagination, slider, tags, icons
- Informational Components: tooltips, icons, progress bar, notifications, message boxes, modal windows
- Containers: accordion
Input Controls
| Description | Examples | |
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| Checkboxes
Checkboxes allow the user to select one or more options from a set. It is usually best to present checkboxes in a vertical list. More than one column is acceptable as well if the list is long enough that it might require scrolling or if comparison of terms might be necessary. |
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| Radio buttons
Radio buttons are used to allow users to select one item at a time. |
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| Dropdown lists
Dropdown lists allow users to select one item at a time, similarly to radio buttons, but are more compact allowing you to save space. Consider adding text to the field, such as ‘Select one’ to help the user recognize the necessary action. |
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| List boxes
List boxes, like checkboxes, allow users to select a multiple items at a time,but are more compact and can support a longer list of options if needed. |
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| Buttons
A button indicates an action upon touch and is typically labeled using text, an icon, or both. |
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| Dropdown Button
The dropdown button consists of a button that when clicked displays a drop-down list of mutually exclusive items. |
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| Toggles
A toggle button allows the user to change a setting between two states. They are most effective when the on/off states are visually distinct. |
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| Text fields
Text fields allow users to enter text. It can allow either a single line or multiple lines of text. |
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| Date and time pickers
A date picker allows users to select a date and/or time. By using the picker, the information is consistently formatted and input into the system. |
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Navigational Components
| Description | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
| Search Field
A search box allows users to enter a keyword or phrase (query) and submit it to search the index with the intention of getting back the most relevant results. Typically search fields are single-line text boxes and are often accompanied by a search button. |
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| Breadcrumb
Breadcrumbs allow users to identify their current location within the system by providing a clickable trail of proceeding pages to navigate by. |
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| Pagination
Pagination divides content up between pages, and allows users to skip between pages or go in order through the content. |
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| Tags
Tags allow users to find content in the same category. Some tagging systems also allow users to apply their own tags to content by entering them into the system. |
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| Sliders
A slider, also known as a track bar, allows users to set or adjust a value. When the user changes the value, it does not change the format of the interface or other info on the screen. |
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| Icons
An icon is a simplified image serving as an intuitive symbol that is used to help users to navigate the system. Typically, icons are hyperlinked. |
.jpg "Examples of icons") |
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| Image Carousel
Image carousels allow users to browse through a set of items and make a selection of one if they so choose. Typically, the images are hyperlinked. |
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Information Components
| Description | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
| Notifications
A notification is an update message that announces something new for the user to see. Notifications are typically used to indicate items such as, the successful completion of a task, or an error or warning message. |
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| Progress Bars
A progress bar indicates where a user is as they advance through a series of steps in a process. Typically, progress bars are not clickable. |
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| Tool Tips
A tooltip allows a user to see hints when they hover over an item indicating the name or purpose of the item. |
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| Message Boxes
A message box is a small window that provides information to users and requires them to take an action before they can move forward. |
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| Modal Window (pop-up)
A modal window requires users to interact with it in some way before they can return to the system. |
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Containers
| Description | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
| Accordion
An accordion is a vertically stacked list of items that utilizes show/ hide functionality. When a label is clicked, it expands the section showing the content within. There can have one or more items showing at a time and may have default states that reveal one or more sections without the user clicking |
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15 Mobile UX Facts And Insights
I cam across this interesting article about UX and Mobile.
Read the entire story including links at Measuring Usability‘s website.
Designing a better user experience means making sure that users can access information and services across multiple devices, especially mobile devices (phones and tablets).
In building a better experience, there are many questions about mobile device usage and how designers can best meet users’ needs with apps and responsive designs. We’ve conducted a lot ofmobile usability studies and in the process have encountered many common questions.
Here are 15 data points to help in answering some common questions about mobile usage and behavior. I’ve included as many sources as possible so you can double check our conclusions.
- Around half the US’s and 62% of the UK’s mobile phones are “smartphones.” The percentages are similar across Europe. Fortunately for us researchers, most consumers actually know what a “smartphone” is and whether they own one with around 8% not knowing what “smartphone” means.
- Around 20% of the US population over the age of 18 owns a tablet. It’s about evenly split between Android and iPad platforms.
- Tablets have a similar profile as desktops. While tablets get lumped together with smartphones, some data suggest that they are more similar to desktop computers. Tablet users are more engaged and view about the same number of pages as desktop users. That’s about four times more than smartphone pageviews.
- People use full-size tablets at home and in the evening. In addition to size, part of the reason for the homebound devices might be that only about half of iPads have cellular data access. In fact, we found the most concentrated time was used at home, on the couch, or bed between 7 and 10pm[pdf].
- Most people have over 20 apps (5 or more paid for).
- Most people forget what apps they even downloaded.
- Most user prefer shopping using websites to apps. One of the more pressing decisions for mobile teams is whether or not to build an app. Going down the app path means supporting multiple operating systems and platforms (usually having different development teams). In our lab-based studies, we also generally see users spending the most time with the web browser and often not knowing whether they have an app or not. One of the biggest complaints in the mobile browsing experience is the constant nagging of downloading apps and the non-continuity of links that don’t open the apps. We generally see users prefer shopping on websites rather than using apps. The percentage changes depending on the industry, app and demographic but the app should offer a compelling experience, rich features or something you can’t get in a browser. Update: Changed a link title that cited a somewhat misleading figure suggesting 87% of consumers preferred apps over websites.
- Around half of US smartphone users use their mobile phone to compare prices while in the store. The percentage is a bit lower for Europe.
- Most tablet owners still have another desktop or laptop, and despite high usage, it’s still not considered the primary computer.
- Most smartphone users haven’t scanned a QR Code. But if they do it’s usually for finding more product information or obtaining discounts.
- Portrait vs. Landscape? For viewing content it’s about evenly split with 54% preferring portrait mode. However, landscape might be more popular for using certain apps.
- Conversion rates from tablets are four times higher than smartphones 5% vs. 1% (about the same as desktop conversion rates).
- Consumers who own both a tablet and a smartphone were significantly more likely (63%) to indicate increased overall mobile spending than owners of smartphones only (29%). Larger screen size, full keyboard, and touch screen capabilities are cited as the main reasons for a better shopping experience.
- Security is a still a major reason why mobile users don’t make purchases. In our 1:1 lab interviews, we consistently hear fear of stolen data as often as usability and screen size as reasons why users don’t like to use credit card or bank information on mobile phones and tablets.
- The more consumers consider and research a purchase, the more they use their smartphones to find product information. For example, 73% of mobile usage in electronics stores was to read product reviews.
CoCo’s website very early draft
There are some roadblocks in CoCo’s redesign progress. We need the organization to complete the content analysis. And then we need to figure out the new site map.
In the mean time, I wanted to sharpen my “Layout in Photoshop” skills so I mocked up a very rough draft of a page. I can see from my layout that it needs a lot of work. I feel like it’s very bland. But it’s a good way for me to get some practice in Photoshop.
Getting Ready for Stakeholder Interviews
I just found out that I’ll be conducting stakeholder interviews for my taproot project Community Coalition or better known as CoCo of South LA. It’s exciting to be part of this project.
But I have to admit I am a bit nervous about conducting my first interviews. I am sure it will be fine. I just hope I don’t bore the interviewee with a long laundry list of questions.
Nice Visual Slides on Heuristic Evaluation
I came across this nice and simple slide presentation called, “The 10 User Experience Principles à la WordPress.” It visually illustrates Jakob Nielsen’s Heurstic Evaulation Principles. The best part of her slideshow is it gives concrete examples to illustrate each principle.
UXPALA newsletter for April
I am sad that the April newsletter for UXPALA did not make it out the door due to delayed responses et. al. But I am proud that I wrote several summary articles covering various UX events that took place in the spring 2014. If the UXPALA newsletter did come out last month, this is what it would have said:
What clients say
This is a great infographic.
The Experience Economy
On Design Thinking on MOOC today, students were introduced the the evolution of the the Economy. See the graphic below:
Joseph Pine and James Gilmore suggested in their book ‘the Experience Economy’, that the economic value creation in developed countries went from an agrarian economy, to an industrial economy, to a service economy, to an experience economy.
The agrarian economy is mainly concerned with producing and dealing with commodities. Extracting natural resources is here the major economic driver. The value creation in the industrial economy is based on the production of goods. When the goods market is saturated the next level of value creation is the service economy, which refers to an increased importance on the delivery of services. And last but not least there is the experience economy, where the experience becomes a significant economical differentiator.
The reason could be seen in a natural evolution, that as soon as basic needs are met, humans seem to strive for improvement and development.
‘Design of Everyday Things’ MOOC course with Don Norman
I almost forgot to start the MOOC Course offered through Udacity.com “Design of Everyday Things” with Don Norman. There’s only a few more days to complete the course so don’t delay.
Graphic Design USA website award
The first of three award winning designs I would like to share with you is my website www.jenniferblatzdesign.com. This was my first ever web design award, and I won’t it from GDUSA Magazine’s Inhouse Design Awards. I have won several awards from them through the years. But this is the first year I’ve won a web design award from the organization. I am proud and inspired to design more great looking websites. Thanks for the confidence boost. Back to work….
GD USA Award # 2
This is the second Graphic Design USA award winning design for 2013. The concept here was a jovial and festive “Save the Date” reminder for a company’s holiday party. I needed to express the festive season, without promoting any religious affiliation. This design was well received.
GDUSA Award Winner ‘hike it up’ logo
The logo I designed for Website weekend won a 2013 Graphic Design USA award. Just announced today, the logo and branding for “Hike It Up” won an American Inhouse Design Award. I am pleased to add this to my gallery of award-winning designs.
Cal State Fullerton first class
I enjoyed the first day of my first California State Fullerton Class: User-Centered Design for Web and Mobile Interfaces. Today, we learned about examining the goals of the customer and the business. In this class, we discussed four facets of the goals for the customer and the business:
- Purpose (Why) The reason for existence
- Goal (What) What you want to accomplish
- Mechanism (How) How to reach the goal
- Metric (When/Where) Define what the accomplishment looks like
After brainstorming these possibilities, for both the customer and the business, then the UX designer can better determine a stronger justicification for creating the website or app.
After discussing the goals, we then worked on the taxonomy of the site. We brainstormed topics that could be on the website. In the class, the business we used was a small gym with five locations. We explored the topics that might be included on the website.
d.modes from d.school
Learned about this little process on “Design Thinking” on MOOC today.
- Empathize
- Define
- Ideate
- Protoype
- Test
This is one of many design process models, called the d.modes from the D.school in Stanford. It consists of five different modes
Empathize, the first mode, is about understanding people. It is the foundation of the entire design thinking process. You should try to understand and „feel“ the needs, hopes, aspirations of users, experts and stakeholders. Your thinking mode should be that of an psychologist.
Define is the second mode. Often overlooked, it makes sure the problem is understood by everybody in the team. Structure and analyze the data collected in the first phase, cluster your findings and map patterns. You focus on crafting the right questions and define what point of view you will take. Your thinking mode is that of an analyst.
The next step is called ideation. Starting from the focused position of define, it is about collecting many ideas, deliberately without judging. It allows you as a team to go beyond the obvious solutions by combining individual skills. It is about sharing stories about what could be. Think of yourself as an explorer. Des
The mode prototype is about creating a first impression. It derives from the greek protos = first and typos = impression. You can build a prototype for anything out of everything. By crafting something with your hands your brain switches into a different mode. Your thinking mode is that of a craftsman.
Test is the last mode. Get your prototypes into the real world, engage people to interact with it. Ask them and observe their behavior. Figure out what is not yet good about it and what could be improved. Your thinking mode is that of a critic.
Design in one word?
I am now watching week 2 of Design Thinking on MOOC viewable on iversity.org. One of the interviewees said something very intruiging:
- Question: What is Design in ONE word?
- Answer: Freedom.
Now this is a very interesting answer isn’t it?
Design is so complex, and so difficult to define with just one word. Some might say design is “art” or “creativity.” Others might say it is “communication” or “planning.” But to think of Design in terms of Freedom is a very interesting approach indeed. There’s some food for thought.
Osborn’s Checklist, also known as “SCAMPER”
A friend introduced me to a new (to me) brainstorming concept. Alex Osborn, developed a brainstorming tecnique abbreviated as SCAMPER:
- Substitute
- Combine
- Adapt
- Magnify
- Put to other use
- Eliminate and
- Rearrange
You can download the Manual Thinking Template to start this brainstorming exercise. Below is a visual example of the brainstorming session in use.
Gesture Reference Guide
I read about Luke W’s Touch Gesture Reference Guide today in his book “Mobile First.” This is a handy little reference cheat sheet so I thought I would share it with all of you. Enjoy!
Internet of things at Tech job fair
I participated in the workshop “Physical, Digital, Human: Designing Experiences for Mobile and the Internet of Things” taught by Steven Hoober. It was a mixture of instruction about technology and how it is creeping in to other devices in our lives. With technologies like Nest and Smart Watches, we are accessing the internet and using technology in more and more ways. In between lectures, we broke in to smaller groups and brainstormed a concept or two about our project: integrating all house-hold devices that control some aspect in our house, like turning off the lights or adjusting the temperature. We wanted to create a central location for all of these apps to make the experience more delightful.
UXPALA event: Demystified
Demystifying the UX Team
On Wednesday, April 2, 2014 I attended the UXPALA event “Demystifying the UX Team: Who are the players?” which was the first event held by our organization this calendar year.
Did I mention that I am a Chair of Strategic Projects for UXPALA? Yes I certainly am! That means I assist with the organizations newly established website and email newsletter. I’ll post more about our organization soon.
So of now, here’s a summary of last night’s event:
Demystifying the UX Team: Who are the players?
Almost every company, be it a UX/UI firm or any industry that has a UX team – all seem to have different team structures and working methods.
UX/UI/Usability is a relatively new field, so we’re getting 5 UX Directors and Managers together from various companies to form a panel and answer UXPALA’s questions and yours.
Want to attend future events like this? Keep an eye on our Meetup page for more to come. http://www.meetup.com/UXPALA/
I hate host monster’s email interface
Hostmonster’s email is so ugly! I feel like I’ve been thrown back to 1999 every time I open it. I think I am going to design some mock ups for it just for fun.
UX Hackathon team building
Though I was completely exhausted from WIAD the day before, I was energized by the opportunity to meet new people and gain new skills. We casually formed teams based on a variety of strengths and job titles. My team contained a front-end developer, a graphic artist, a web designer and seasoned marketing guru. and they were all great.
UX Hackathon introduction to Interrobang
UX Hackathon took place at General Assembly in Santa Monica and was an entire day filled with UX. My team was called “Interrobang.” What is that? I did not really know either. Here’s more information on Interrobang.
WIAD (World Information Architecture Day) participation was great
About a month ago, I had the privilege to not only participate, but also help organize a global conference on a local level. It was an invaluable learning experience for me. I made new contacts, gained new skills and helped produce an event that would best be described as a success.
Takeaways:
- Weekly meetings keep the group on track.
- Always communicate with the group so everyone is on the same page.
- If you think you are planning early enough, you probably are not. Work ahead of schedule.
- Holidays and time off make keeping things moving difficult.
- Anticipate problem and plan for them in advance.
- Secure the venue ASAP because so many other factors are determined by booking the venue.
WIAD Logo
WIAD: World Information Architecture Day
World IA Day is about bringing the information architecture community together. Los Angeles was selected to participate in this global event that took place in 24 cities, 15 countries, spanning 6 continents. Our local event hosted over 170 attendees, and there were nearly 3,000 participants globally, all one the same day!
My role as Project Manager is the overall responsibility for the successful planning, execution, monitoring, control and organizing teams and over 30 volunteers, participating in the development of this conference. http://worldiaday.org.
