Monday, October 24, 2011

The War for Your Living Room

The home video entertainment war between monolithic cable companies and new, cloud-based, "over-the-top" services, has just begun. Until just recently, cable companies owned your living room, and their "pipes and boxes" were the only conduits delivering TV and Movie entertainment to your television set. Those who didn't want to pay cable service premium fees opted to rent physical DVDs from physical DVD retail stores. Cable fought back with On Demand rentals through the television set-top-box. At that moment, the dominant "pipe" carrying the entertainment signal was the one connected to the box that sits atop your TV.

Today, the new entertainment pipe is the one connected to your computer. Via the cloud, it is wirelessly transmitting entertainment to all your connected devices. Technology has enabled a wide array of cloud-based entertainment options to consumers. In this new world, some are opting to "cut the cord" to their set-top-boxes, and choosing to pay for exactly what they want to watch.

Well, not exactly...

The reality of the situation, is that most over-the-top entertainment services lack the content deals that cable companies have garnered through years of relationship-building with networks and studios. So, cable companies are utilizing these relationships to maintain their viability with consumers. A new threat is emerging, however. Some consumers still do not wish to pay premium fees to access hundreds of channels, when all they really want is two or three. Recognizing this, studios are beginning to offer their content directly to consumers, bypassing the cable "middle-man." Studios and networks have begun to go "over-the-top," delivering cloud-based entertainment services via the web, and through mobile device applications.

In order to survive in this new video entertainment landscape, cable companies have few options:

1. Provide more flexible packages and pricing - the main reason why consumers abandon cable TV is because it is expensive. Additionally, you pay for lots of channels you may never watch. If cable companies could figure out how to remain profitable and provide more flexible and relevant service options, they may be more successful in reducing the number of customers who "cut the cord."

2. Re-brand themselves as "entertainment passports" - "Cable TV" is antiquated branding. It reeks of old technology, and places emphasis on the pipe, NOT the entertainment. What is a cable company, then, without the "cable?" It is a set of credentials that enables customers to access the most robust video entertainment, leveraging the relationships that the company has with networks and studios.

3. Unchain themselves from the "set-top-box" - the biggest threat to the cable box isn't a connected iPad or iPhone, it is a connected TV. Yes, consumers are watching video, via over-the-top services on their mobile devices. However, the majority are still watching movies and TV shows on their TV. Cord cutters are using IP enabled boxes to access over-the-top entertainment services directly on their TVs, but that won't be necessary in the near future, when most TVs will access the Internet directly. In that scenario, cable companies must be prepared to offer "over-the-top" service, that can be accessed without a set-top-box.

4. Create brand loyalty with the next generation of "bill payers" - Cable companies need to build a brand with a younger demographic, because it is this demographic who is adopting "over-the-top" services for video entertainment. Many of these consumers do not even have TVs, and are only watching video on their laptops or other mobile screens. Most are on Facebook, and even consuming video entertainment on social network platforms. Cable companies have to integrate with the platforms that are widely adopted by this young demographic.

5. Monitor usage and deliver personalized services - The thing about cable, is that it is mostly "unidirectional." It is difficult to analyze usage patterns for the purpose of service optimization, customization, and personalization. Cloud-based services are increasingly leveraging usage data, via the Internet, to deliver personalized recommendations to consumers. Cable companies must figure out how to deliver "custom entertainment channels" that provide more relevant entertainment to their customers.

Jonathan Lupo - http://www.twitter.com/userexperience

Sunday, October 09, 2011

The Importance of Storytelling to UX Design

As web sites and web applications become increasingly modular in their construction, Designers run the risk of creating applications that consist of an endless, near random, stack of modules. This situation is common to many ecommerce experiences. Because it is widely accepted that users "will scroll," there seems to be a willingness to stack modules on top of modules, endlessly, with no sense of hierarchy, or logical narrative.

Take a Step Back to Plan
A key theme to many of my blog entries is the need to plan. Planning is fundamental to Design. When designing the UX of an application, planning needs to happen at many levels. Core user experience planning happens after an assessment of end-user needs, as a result of qualitative behavioral research. In addition to that, however, there needs to be planning from business stakeholders, which should result in a marketing and content strategy. It is a combination of the user needs assessment and the business' content strategy, that results in the framework, or user experience strategy, of a web site or application.

What's the Overall Story?
I've used some jargon to describe the building blocks of the user experience of a web site or application. Really, it boils down to this:

1. What do users expect from the experience?
2. What story does the business want to convey to its users?

A business can enjoy great freedom in storytelling, as long as users can intuitively get what they expect or need from the user experience. The sad fact is, not many businesses are great at telling stories online.

Each Page Tells a Story
The underlying information architecture of an application is the outline of a novel, but each page or screen of the experience tells it's own story. It is important to map these narratives, at the page-level, before engaging in interaction design. Block out regions of each key screen, using low-fidelity wireframes. That will help you define the story that you are telling on each page.

Simplify and Engage
Ernest Hemingway was straightforward and understated. Anne Rice is ornate and rich with detail. When designing for the web, you'll want to lean more towards Ernest. Excessive visual design and content can quickly obscure your story. Make sure that doesn't happen, by creating pages that have real structure, modules that are introduced with bold headers, and copy that is brief and infused with the personality of the brand.

Your web site or application should be a platform for your business to have a conversation with your users. Architect it as such.

Jonathan Lupo - http://www.twitter.com/userexperience

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Usability and Engagement: Success Metrics of Design

In an age where every consumer interaction with a brand is measurable across multiple digital channels, it is important to understand which metrics and measures are valuable to you, based upon your role in a business. It is a common mistake to measure everything, at regular intervals, without an understanding of how to make these measurements actionable. Data holds different meaning to different individuals within an organization. It may be used to inform marketing tactics, advertising spending, product development, or user interface design decisions.

Design Measurement
I am a user experience designer, so I will focus on the measurements and research used to assess the success or failure of a Design, within a digital context. User experience designers need to understand how to analyze the user interface of digital applications, in order to assess:

1. The usability of the Design

2. The Design's level of engagement

Usability -
Individuals visit web sites and download applications to achieve specific tasks. User experience designers spend time with these individuals, prior to conceptualizing a Design of an application or web site, to better understand and document the relevant tasks of these individuals. The easier it is for end-users of an application to achieve the tasks that they came to perform, the better the Usability of that application's design and user interface.

Usability Testing-
User experience designers encourage a business to perform Design validation of key elements of an application or web site's Design (usability testing), in order to ensure that anticipated, end-user tasks can be easily completed. Usability testing is a process by which UX Designers recruit participants, who are representative of the target, end-user segment for the Design, and observe them trying to complete key tasks, using the Design. The level of frustration that end-users exhibit, as well as their rate of success or failure, in attempting to complete key tasks, ultimately determines the usability of the Design. Measuring usability, typically, does not require a statistically significant sample size, however, new, online Usability Testing tools do allow for larger populations.

Engagement -
While usability is certainly an important criterion for a Design's success, it is merely "table-stakes." That's because a Design that is highly "Usable" does not ensure that it will be widely adopted by consumers. Therefore, It is also important to measure the level of engagement of the Design.

Engagement Analytics -
Measuring the level of adoption of an application can be done at many levels. This type of measurement is quantitative, and requires a large amount of data. At a high-level, marketers should benchmark the amount of traffic that an application receives, and set goals/projections for a redesigned application interface. However, marketers will need to isolate the key screens that have been redesigned, or new features that have been added to the application, to begin to understand if the new Design is driving engagement and adoption.

Brand Perception and Awareness -
A great way to understand if new products, applications, or Design is affecting the popularity or perception of a brand, is to take the brand's pulse through social media measurement. There are now, four conventional key performance indicators (KPI) that are used to gauge a brand's reach and perception (taken from the online tool, socialmention.com)

1. Strength - likelihood that the brand is being discussed in social media

2. Sentiment - ratio of positive to negative mentions in social media

3. Passion - likelihood of individuals repeatedly mentioning the brand in social media

4. Reach - measurement of the range of the brand's influence in social media

As with any other quantitative measurement, benchmarks should be taken prior to new Design enhancements, or the introduction of new marketing campaigns, products, applications, etc. Projections should also be made, based on business objectives. Marketers may, then, effectively utilize these key performance indicators to assess the impact, level of engagement, and likely adoption of brand enhancements (including Design changes).

Jonathan Lupo - http://www.twitter.com/userexperience

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Site Map Do's and Don'ts

It may come as a shock to hear this, but, unless your client is a developer or a content strategist, site maps are rarely valuable documents to show them. Why then, is the site map continually socialized to the wrong stakeholders, and incorrectly positioned as a dependency for other Design deliverables (Which we know will result in the site map becoming a road block for the rest of the Design process)?

Site maps confuse and distract certain stakeholders, because:
  • Site maps are abstract, system-level documents - They document a system, but are not visually representative of that system at an interface level. Consequently, they take a certain level of extrapolation to understand how the hierarchy works, at a page, or screen, level.
  • Site maps can appear dense or complex - Site maps take time to study and understand. You'll likely have about an hour, max, to present your site architecture to your client. How on Earth are you going to convey that level of complexity and detail, in that amount of time, especially to a "C-Level" executive? When designing a site map, think about simplifying the diagram, or presenting multiple views of the map, "peeling away the layers of the onion," to gradually expose more detail.
  • Site map "approval" is typically considered a dependency for the start of the Design process - Yeah. It's weird to think that everyone on the team expects the Information Architect or User Experience Designer to completely nail the entire taxonomy and flow of an application, without even having sketched a screen or two. Word of advice...don't hold up Design, while awaiting site map approvals.
  • Site maps are NOT good for presentation of a UX vision - There are more effective visualizations, infographics, and high-level diagrams that can be utilized to convey the User Experience Vision, or Strategy, for an application, to a marketing executive. The interconnection of pages or screens isn't a visualization of a strategy. It is a visualization of a content hierarchy.

What are site maps good for, then, if they aren't great tools to convey the high-level vision for an application?

  • Site maps are good for development and implementation - Site maps are invaluable documents to illustrate to developers, how to construct the hierarchy of pages or screens in the application. It is a document that is generally delivered to a client or team of developers, prior to the screen level user interface designs. That being said, I strongly recommend that site maps are not considered "FINAL," until the very end of the Design process. There. I said it!
  • Site maps are good for content development and categorization - Because site maps represent the "outline" of the content, they need to convey, in some cases, the flow of the narrative to the end-user. This is especially true when designing the information architecture of a marketing web site or application. Content strategists and developers will want to map their copy and content to the site map sections and sub-sections.
  • Site maps are good for SEO planning - The underlying framework of a web site is extremely important, when planning for the search engine optimization of a web site. It is critical to understand the likely searches that consumers will perform to access the client's web site, and create an information architecture that will, at a primary level, satisfy likely searches. Thus, the site map becomes a communications tool amongst four parties:
    • Information Architects/User Experience Designers
    • Copywriters
    • SEO planners
    • Developers

Of course, old habits die hard. It will take a long time before agencies realize that they shouldn't, out of habit, shove the "site map" deliverable at the beginning of a project plan, and require the client "sign-off" on the document before the Design process begins. But, please don't force the client's CEO, or CMO, to sit through that presentation!

Jonathan Lupo - http://www.twitter.com/userexperience

The Proper Use of a Site Map

It may come as a shock to hear this, but, unless your client is a developer or a content strategist, site maps are rarely valuable documents to show them. Why then, is the site map continually socialized to the wrong stakeholders, and incorrectly positioned as a dependency for other Design deliverables (Which we know will result in the site map becoming a road block for the rest of the Design process)?

Site maps confuse and distract certain stakeholders, because:
  • Site maps are abstract, system-level documents - They document a system, but are not visually representative of that system at an interface level. Consequently, they take a certain level of extrapolation to understand how the hierarchy works, at a page, or screen, level.
  • Site maps can appear dense or complex - Site maps take time to study and understand. You'll likely have about an hour, max, to present your site architecture to your client. How on Earth are you going to convey that level of complexity and detail, in that amount of time, especially to a "C-Level" executive? When designing a site map, think about simplifying the diagram, or presenting multiple views of the map, "peeling away the layers of the onion," to gradually expose more detail.
  • Site map "approval" is typically considered a dependency for the start of the Design process - Yeah. It's weird to think that everyone on the team expects the Information Architect or User Experience Designer to completely nail the entire taxonomy and flow of an application, without even having sketched a screen or two. Word of advice...don't hold up Design, while awaiting site map approvals.
  • Site maps are NOT good for presentation of a UX vision - There are more effective visualizations, infographics, and high-level diagrams that can be utilized to convey the User Experience Vision, or Strategy, for an application, to a marketing executive. The interconnection of pages or screens isn't a visualization of a strategy. It is a visualization of a content hierarchy.
What are site maps good for, then, if they aren't great tools to convey the high-level vision for an application?
  • Site maps are good for development and implementation - Site maps are invaluable documents to illustrate to developers, how to construct the hierarchy of pages or screens in the application. It is a document that is generally delivered to a client or team of developers, prior to the screen level user interface designs. That being said, I strongly recommend that site maps are not considered "FINAL," until the very end of the Design process. There. I said it!
  • Site maps are good for content development and categorization - Because site maps represent the "outline" of the content, they need to convey, in some cases, the flow of the narrative to the end-user. This is especially true when designing the information architecture of a marketing web site or application. Content strategists and developers will want to map their copy and content to the site map sections and sub-sections.
  • Site maps are good for SEO planning  - The underlying framework of a web site is extremely important, when planning for the search engine optimization of a web site. It is critical to understand the likely searches that consumers will perform to access the client's web site, and create an information architecture that will, at a primary level, satisfy likely searches. Thus, the site map becomes a communications tool amongst four parties:
    • Information Architects/User Experience Designers
    • Copywriters
    • SEO planners
    • Developers
Of course, old habits die hard. It will take a long time before agencies realize that they shouldn't, out of habit, shove the "site map" deliverable at the beginning of a project plan, and require the client "sign-off" on the document before the Design process begins. But, please don't force the client's CEO, or CMO, to sit through that presentation!

Jonathan Lupo - http://www.twitter.com/userexperience





    Sunday, September 18, 2011

    Social Marketing: Reach Vs. Engagement

    There seem to be two opposing sides on the topic of marketing through Social Media. Although I'm certainly no expert, and never claimed to be, I can say that the side whose platform is "get as many followers as you can," is probably less credible than the those who believe that success on Social is determined by how engaged your followers are with you, and with the content you push.

    That being said, social media should be treated like any other marketing medium, and a balance needs to be struck between "Reach" and "Engagement." These are classic marketing objectives that are measureable, with metrics and indicators to allow for improvement over time.


    Wednesday, September 07, 2011

    Mobile UX Strategy - Web Site or App?

    With the wide consumer adoption of smartphones and tablets, digital consulting firms are proposing mobile tactics as part of a larger digital strategy, to their clients, based on an understanding of their clients' business objectives, competitor landscape, and consumer needs. When proposing this strategy, consultants must decide whether it is more beneficial to their client's business, to develop a native, mobile application, or to build a mobile-optimized, web site.

    Recent research seems to suggest that, in general, consumers prefer to engage with native mobile applications (due to their responsiveness, and because they are better able to leverage some of the nifty, user-interface capabilities of the mobile device). However, mobile-optimized web sites enable businesses to be accessible on a wider spectrum of form factors and devices.

    The question is, since there are clear benefits to both tactics, how should a business decide which mobile tactic would best meet their specific needs?

    The following are key considerations to help a business decide upon a mobile direction ( App vs. Mobile Web Site):

    1. How well-known is the client's brand? There is a greater likelihood that consumers will seek and download an app from a well-known brand than a lesser-known brand, so, brands with less awareness are more reliant on app store placement, prominence, and promotion, to gain popularity with consumers. Since an app has a limited "promotional" window within an app store showcase, a lesser-known brand should consider entering the mobile space with a mobile-optimized web site. Why? The client probably already has a traditional web site that has gained a certain amount of organic search engine equity over the course of years. Consumers are more likely to look for services that the client offers, via mobile search, than directly searching for the brand, via app download.

    2. What are key, mobile use cases, based on anticipated, consumer behavior? Are they "online" or "offline" use cases? One benefit to native applications, depending on their intended functionality, is that they can sometimes be useful in an "offline" situation. Mobile-optimized web sites, on the other hand, are always accessed via "the cloud," restricting their usage to "online" use cases. A key question a business should ask itself, is whether or not the application needs to function when end-users are offline. If so, a native application may be the way to go.

    3. What is the "technographic profile" of the consumer base? The technographic profile of an end-user segment, describes the nature of the segment's likely adoption of relevant technology. An important consideration, when developing a mobile strategy targeted to this segment, is, obviously, whether or not the target segment is likely to adopt the application's intended mobile platform. If not, or if adoption will likely be spread across a wide variety of mobile platforms, the mobile strategy may lean in the direction of mobile-optimized web site, versus a platform-specific application.

    4. Will the app functionality need to access data or capabilities native to the mobile device? As mentioned earlier, an application may be more useful, or engaging, if it leverages specific features of a smartphone or tablet, which cannot be accessed by a mobile-optimized web site. If this is the case, choosing to develop a native, mobile application, may make it easier for a client to take advantage of the cool features of the application's intended devices.

    5. What is the budget for the mobile initiative? Developing a native, mobile application may be costly for clients with a limited budget (depending on the functionality of the application). Additionally, the native application may need to be redesigned, to be optimized for a variety of form factors, which, ultimately, increases costs. If a client only needs a simple, mobile presence, and wants to be accessible on a wide spectrum of mobile platforms, it may be a good idea to recommend a simple, mobile-optimized, web site.

    6. How aggressive is the timeline for the initiative? Aggressive timelines may actually prevent a client from developing a native application, distributed via an "app store" like Apple's. Consultants must factor in the "app store approval process," when planning a mobile application's design, development, and deployment, timeline. If the application does not meet the standards of the app store (and Apple has very strict standards), there is a risk that an aggressive timeline may be blown.

    7. Will there be an eCommerce, transactional component, to the mobile application? Currently, all purchases of digital media (music, movies, etc.) initiated via native iOS applications, must end up as iTunes transactions. That means that Apple gets a percentage of each sale initiated through a native iOS application. To avoid paying the fee, a business with redundant digital media products to those found on iTunes, should consider developing a mobile-optimized web site, as a consumer-facing storefront.

    In short, the decision to build a native app, or develop a mobile-optimized web site, requires careful consideration. Consultants need to thoroughly examine a client's brand, business, and likely end-user behavior, before making this decision. Making the wrong decision could be costly, miss a window of opportunity, or result in an application that goes largely unnoticed by it's intended audience. As always, planning, through careful investigation of business objectives, as well as likely, end-user behavior, can prevent a failed mobile strategy.

    Monday, August 29, 2011

    "Just-in-Time" Mobile Apps

    With mobile application design and development, "timing is everything."

    That's because smartphone users are fickle when it comes to downloading applications. There is a low-barrier to acquiring content, because apps are cheap and quick to download. Unlike desktop software, mobile applications fill end-user desires, cravings, and short-term needs. Mobile apps do not always suit the longer-term needs of end-users. For example, on the days leading up to Hurricane Irene, I scoured Apple's App Store, looking for the best Hurricane Tracker. After the storm, having found an app to suit my short-term needs, I, just as quickly, deleted the application from my iPhone.

    My behavior does not appear to be anomalous, judging from a recent study of Mobile App users, conducted by a Massachusetts-based application analytics firm, Localytics.




















    With thousands of Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 apps analyzed, the study found that users do tend to try out new apps, but 26% use the app only once!

    This study seems to underscore a need for mobile application developers to think about the timing of their mobile application deployment, as well as the customer "needs" their application is intended to fill. As always, it is recommended that app developers conduct primary research with their end-users, to gain a deep understanding of their likely behavior and engagement with the app. Research for mobile development should include customer investigation around the types of events, motivations, and triggers for mobile application usage.

    Another opportunity for mobile application developers seems to be the targeting an application for specific, time-based, events, such as:

    1. Holidays
    2. Conferences
    3. Theatrical Releases
    4. Political Events
    5. Sporting Events

    Thus, app developers may consider capitalizing on a major event, with the understanding that the application is likely to be used once, and then removed.

    Friday, August 26, 2011

    Goal-Oriented Design: a Primer

    Design is purposeful, and, by definition, aims to achieve goals. Good Design, therefore, begins with a careful examination of the specific goals it aims to achieve. Because Design is engineered to achieve goals, there is a process to follow, which includes the observation and analysis of potential end-user engagement, with the Design.

    There is unprecedented potential for user engagement and interactivity with contemporary, digital applications. Engagement is multi-channel, complex, and social. Therefore, it is more important than ever for Designers to conduct contextual research with end-users, and analyze their behavior across a wide spectrum of devices.

    Step 1 - Identify End-User Goals, in addition to Business Objectives, for the Design

    Design, for business applications, aims to achieve two sets of goals:

    1.      First and foremost, Design aims to achieve measureable, business objectives.
    2.      Innovative businesses also understand that Design needs to meet end-user goals

    Step 2 – Hire a “Design Research Specialist”
    It takes a special type of Designer to properly identify and document end-user objectives. She must begin the process as a detective, systematically observing and analyzing relevant user behaviors to the business. Luckily, this specialist (an Information Architect, perhaps), has a Design research methodology at her disposal. Following a “User Centered Design” process, she conducts her investigation, and sifts through a mountain of behavioral data to plan a Design that can achieve its intended objectives.

    Step 3 – Perform the Right Research: “Contextual, Behavioral Research”
    Only a specialist is able to recognize the influence that an environment has on user behavior. She understands that a special type of user research is required, to collect information about environmental factors on behavior. Contextual, ethnographic research is the ideal method of observing natural user behavior, versus lab-based research, which may be less accurate due to environmental bias. This type of research, called “Contextual Inquiry,” captures relevant behaviors, where the interaction is most likely to occur (e.g. - an office, a home, or a shopping mall).

    Step 4 – Understand how to Properly Analyze Research Data – Information Architecture
    Contextual Inquiry findings are qualitative in nature, so the richness of the finding is more important than the amount of data that the research study produces. The reason that the quantity of data is not important in qualitative research is due to the fact that behavioral trends emerge quickly. That being said, Contextual Inquiry can still generate a large quantity of rich data, which require a specialist to interpret. As behavioral trends emerge, so do different “types of users.” Information Architects illustrate key behavioral differences, as uncovered in the research, in the form of behavioral personas. Behavioral personas highlight different sets of primary tasks that are important to each “type of user.” Aggregating key tasks, in the form of personas, help designers make sure that their Design accommodates the needs of each primary type of user.

    Information Architects go a step further in their qualitative analysis, by extracting the key tasks from each persona to form end-user “mental models.” Mental models are a grouping of each user segment’s tasks, into task categories and sub-tasks. The goal of the mental model is to identify and prioritize all key user tasks for each segment. Once completed, the Information Architect can generate ideas for content to satisfy each user task identified in the mental model. This process makes it easy for an Information Architect to define the high-level information architecture of a digital application.

    Step 5 – Synthesize Research Data into Design – Interaction Design/UI
    Once an overarching, information architecture is established, an Information Architect proceeds to define the screen-level user interface, and interaction model, for the application. Often, screen-level design begins with a simple, series of questions that the Information Architect asks herself. “What is the most important element on this screen?” Then, “what is the second most important element on this screen.” It is a process of task prioritization that drives the layout of each screen. Behavioral research also provides valuable insights about the level of sophistication with the interfaces that each user type encounters on a daily basis. Observing this behavior helps Information Architects understand the “Technographic Profile,” or level of proficiency with technology, of each user segment. They then use this knowledge as a filter for the level of sophistication of the user interface elements they propose.

    Design Tip: Collaboration is the Key to Great Design
    A good user centered design process should strive to include participation from different Design disciplines. I recommend having a visual designer accompany an Information Architect on research studies to observe, 1st-hand, likely, end-user behavior. Observation gives Designers greater Empathy for the application’s end-users.

    Re-evalua

    Wednesday, August 24, 2011

    Great Thinking is Never "Out-of-Scope"

    "Out-of-scope" is a phrase that Creative professionals are used to hearing from budget-conscious Project Managers and Account Managers who, to their credit, are trying to ensure a profitable account for a consulting business. While it may be true that the cost and effort to implement a great idea may be "out-of-scope," based on a given project budget or statement of work, great ideas are NEVER out of scope, and should be generated constantly for clients. When Creative professionals are regularly told that "thinking," "brainstorming ideas," and "innovating," are "out-of-scope," they will limit their thinking to following "client requirements." However, that's not, in most cases, why a client hires a consulting agency. If they just needed a firm to execute on requirements, chances are they would hire a team of freelancers or use internal resources to do production work around a given set of requirements.

    But, that's not what happened.

    The client hired you to think about their problems, customers, and business. The client wants you to help them identify a strategic roadmap for deploying tactics that will evolve their business. If you come up with killer ideas, the Project Manager and Account Manager need to help the client figure out how to execute them, within timeline and budgetary parameters. And, if it can't be done, within the initial timeline and budget, it's your job, as a great consultant, to document your recommendations, so that these ideas can be put on a roadmap for the future.

    ...oh, and bill it to "business development (non-billable)."

    Thrill your client. Give them great thinking. Be a great consultant and you will be rewarded with new projects.



    Tuesday, August 16, 2011

    Reinventing Registration Forms

    Perhaps the biggest challenge for a website designer, from a brand and user experience perspective, is the design of the website's registration form flow. When designing an experience around registration, User experience designers generally focus on the creation of usable forms, best practices, and optimizing the process. The end result, however, is always a form. Whether it is a single page form, or multi-page form, registration always results in a form. All in all, it seems that registration never benefits from the due diligence of understanding a brand, content strategy, or likely user behavior...which is odd, given that the registration process poses the biggest threat to the perception of a client's brand, if the process results in a poor user experience.

    Marketers and keepers of the brand also have high expectations from consumers, when they ask them to register. They tend to add "optional" marketing fields, hoping that the consumer will freely offer up their personal information. The problem is, on a registration form, there is usually no apparent benefit to giving the brand additional, optional, personal information.

    It's time to rethink the registration form.

    Designers should begin with an in-depth understanding of their client's brand, tone, and voice. The end goal, is to convince the consumer that there is a worthwhile reward for offering up the information that is being solicited. Asking the consumer for personal information, and then illustrating the benefits of doing so, requires a two-way dialogue.

    As designers, we should ask ourselves, is a "form" the best vehicle to have a conversation with the consumer?

    Perhaps, we need to understand and map out the dialogue that the brand would like to have with the consumer, if the brand was an actual person, engaged in a conversation. Maybe it would go something like this:

    "Hello. We are psyched that you are here, and think you are going to enjoy your experience. Let's get to know each other!"

    "What's your name? _______________"

    "Thanks, {username}!

    Did you know that, if you connect us with your Facebook profile, we'll be able to provide you with instant recommendations for products and services? We promise that your personal information and profile will be safe, and not given to a third-party.

    "Would you like to sign-in to Facebook, now? _______________"

    (if they do connect with Facebook quickly reveal how many recommendations are being generated)

    Etc.


    The point is, as Usability Engineers, we tend to focus on how quickly end-users complete the registration process, instead of how effective the experience is at encouraging consumers to have a deeper level of engagement with the brand. In theory, creating a meaningful dialogue, highlighting consumer benefits, and designing an engaging experience, should result in deeper brand connections, versus a quick, optimized form.

    Friday, August 12, 2011

    Best Practices Are Killing You

    Not too long ago, digital media was a palette for pioneers to express new concepts, for reasons that were both personal and professional. At that time, however, the limitations on expression were severe. Bandwidth was low. Screens were smaller. Access was tethered. The buzz came from the ability to produce a valuable concept, and share it, instantly, with the world.

    The early days of digital expression required individuals to focus on their ideas, because the sizzle was costly. But, it didn't matter. The idea was what was important. We got Google, eBay, and Amazon. Those days produced iconic, digital brands that defined specific types of user experiences. As soon as these useful experiences gained traction in the digital marketplace, consumers got accustomed to "design patterns," which usability professionals named, "best practices."

    Suddenly, there were rules that governed the user experience design of specific types of digital experiences (Search. Browse. Buy.) These rules allowed other, "me too" brands, to quickly design and deploy digital storefronts and experiences for consumers to easily perform intended tasks, and, just as quickly, leave. Consumers became "users," reduced to their personified behaviors, and focused on specific tasks. Brands became largely irrelevant, because their platforms, engineered from "best practices," rendered them invisible to "mindless users" who came to complete tasks, and only remembered that Google got them to where they needed to be.

    The rules of the universe have now changed.

    Every conceivable service is available through every conceivable digital channel. Bandwidth is high. Screens are huge. Everything is connected to the cloud. Experiences are multi-channel. Possibilities are endless.

    In this new world, if you are a brand that offers a commodity product or service, and you are content to apply "best practices" to provide these services to consumers, prepare to be squashed!

    Ask yourself, "why is Apple the most important brand in the universe?" Because the brand stands for something. It is synonymous with innovation, and the creation of memorable, engaging, user experiences, with the launch of each new product and service.

    So, why are user experience designers content to apply "best practices" to client experiences? Because it is easy to do so. Applying design patterns to an experience requires no brand or customer investigation. It reduces Experience Design to thoughtless Design production. Worse, this practice is envangelized by notable, self-proclaimed, Usability experts.

    If your brand is well-known for the products and services it offers to consumers, to the extent that it is top-of-mind to consumers within a specific category, then it may be ok to apply "best practices" to your digital user experience. However, don't rely on best practices for too long, as you can rest assured that another brand is thinking about how to reinvent and differentiate the same digital products and services that you offer to consumers.


    Sunday, June 12, 2011

    Mobile Platforms Force Us to be Better UX Designers

    A few years ago, in a time before iPhones and iPads, designing for mobile platforms meant designing within serious constraints. Limited screen real estate, low bandwidth, and minimal browser capabilities, forced us to be minimalistic in our approach to mobile web user interfaces. Usability and Clarity were core Design principles, during the mobile web's "Dark Ages." In those days, the focus was squarely on facilitating key user tasks and behaviors that made sense, based on what the user was likely doing with the phone. Today's sophisticated, mobile devices, have amazing capabilities. They have large, multi-touch screens, access to WiFi as well as fast mobile networks, application marketplaces, GPS, video capabilities, etc., etc. In theory, "the sky's the limit" when it comes to contemporary, mobile user interfaces.

    Inherent in this new found freedom, however, is the temptation to ignore all of the lessons that "Constrained Design" has taught. Luckily, new standards, trends in usage, design patterns, and best practices are emerging, to help Designers keep the focus on what is important to Mobile UX Design:

    1. Understand likely usage - Your consumers' mobile usage is probably going to be different than their web usage. Seek to understand what your end-consumer is trying to do on a phone or tablet before you attempt to re-present your entire web site within a mobile context.

    2. Simplify the user experience - The secret to great interface design is the ability to make it instantly intuitive to end-users. Avoid the temptation to clutter the interface with unneccessary options, filters, and interface "decorations."

    3. Elevate and prioritize key tasks - Select the top 4 main tasks, and elevate them to the main menu bar. Understand what is a top-level task, and what is a sub-task that can be integrated contextually within the appropriate top-level task.

    4. Tailor the experience to the strengths of the platform - This is the fun aspect of Mobile UX Design! Consider the cool features of the target, mobile platform, and exploit them in the user experience. For instance, if an application is intended to deliver recommendations to the user based on geography, consider using a native GPS functionality of a phone to bring these recommendations back instantly, based on the user's current location.

    5. Start with a great core concept, and enhance it over time - Simplicity should be the guiding principle of the core concept of the application, as well as the interface itself. Launch an application with a few key features, and develop a roadmap of enhancements over time, based on usage patterns, industry trends, and level of effort.

    Wednesday, May 25, 2011

    My Life as an [INFOGRAPHIC]

    I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon, "INFOGRAPHIC" craze, so I created a graphic of my professional history. I wish more resumes that are passed on to us at Empathy Lab were graphically depicted.


    Monday, April 18, 2011

    Create a User Experience Brief to Guide Design

    What is a User Experience Brief?
    The purpose of a User Experience brief is to establish a framework and guiding principles for the user experience design of any interactive experience. It may be a companion or chapter of a larger Creative Brief, which seeks to define brand attributes and explain how these conceptual attributes get articulated in Design. A Creative Brief may focus primarily on graphical elements, however, whereas the User Experience Brief attempts to describe the interaction design and strategic, conceptual model that governs the experience.  
    When Does the User Experience Brief Need to be Delivered?
    The User Experience Brief, or UX Brief, should kick-off the "Design phase" of an interactive initiative. Typically, this phase follows a "Discovery phase," in which any of the following activities may take place (defined in the next section):
    • End-User Research
    • Competitor Analysis
    • Identification of Business Objectives and Success Measurement

    What Are Key Inputs to the User Experience Brief?
    • End-User Research - In order to define guiding principles for a User Experience, it is critical to understand the likely behaviors and motivations of the end-user, for which the experience is designed. Prior to developing the User Experience Brief, it is assumed that a qualitative, behavioral research study has been performed. The User Experience Brief should reference the study, when making assertions about the audience, or recommendations about the Design. 
    • Competitor Analysis - The User Experience Brief is a strategic document, as much as it is a guiding Design document. As such, it should draw upon insights gained from analysis of industry trends and leading interactive experiences related to the one being designed. Even if the User Experience Designer was not directly involved in the competitor/industry research, she must draw upon those insights to understand what is contemporary, in terms of experience design for that industry's audience. 
    • Business Objectives and Key Performance Metrics - Obviously, a User Experience will be measured against its ability to successfully achieve business objectives. Therefore, the conceptual model for the Design of a User Experience, as outlined in the Brief, should be able to be defended in the context of its ability to achieve either user objectives or business objectives. The User Experience Brief may also outline a roadmap of future enhancements to the Design based on an evolving strategic vision for the business, its goals, and changing trends in user behavior.

    Format of the User Experience Brief
    • Summary of User Experience - The format of the UX Brief can be a PowerPoint, Keynote, InDesign, or Word document, depending on the preference of the client, however, must contain a well-written description of the Design challenge, business objectives, user research summary, and resulting user experience implications. 
    • Conceptual Model and Infographics - The document will likely present paradigms, conceptual models, and high-level thinking that can best be illustrated using infographics, which should accompany the text-based summary content.
    • Mental Models, Taxonomy, or Preliminary Sketches - Since User Experience documentation will already have been generated, as a result of any user research that has been done to date, it is useful to include any mental models, taxonomies, or interface sketches that may have been developed to support research claims or recommendations.

    Who Should Read the User Experience Brief? 
    • Client - The client is the primary audience group for the User Experience Brief. This document is a synthesis of all information related to the business' objectives and audience needs; therefore, it is a litmus test to assess if the Design team properly understands the client's holistic needs. 
    • Internal Creative Team - The User Experience Brief guides Design, so it should be used as an onboarding document for any Design professionals who engage on the initiative.
    • Account Manager - If there is any dispute or challenge to the Design, the Account Manager may need to use this document, as a reference, to help support the internal User Experience Design team.
    • Internal Technology Team - With any User Experience Design, there will be technology challenges to its execution. The UX Brief helps to explain the importance of guiding principles that may require specific user interface elements, before they get "lopped off" in the actual execution.


    Friday, April 15, 2011

    Web Design Evolves: Goodbye Columns. Long Live Rows!

    Emerging digital trends have fundamentally altered my approach to Design for the Web. In highly complex, content-heavy experiences, for example, my new focus is to conceptualize and design content modules that can be measured, optimized, re-ordered, and replaced with different modules. Modular Design enables businesses to quickly deploy, test, and optimize new functionality, without destroying the template structure upon which the modules sit.  Pages can be designed to have greater flexibility when the Design concept includes full-width content modules, stacked as rows on the page, enabling module re-ordering, stacking, and replacement in a “non-destructive” template architecture.

    The decision to utilize full-width, content modules, stacked in rows, led me to decide to eliminate columns; which was a decision based on emerging trends and technologies. The following are just a few examples of the trends that have led me to adopt a Modular approach to Web Design:
    1. Increase in Volume of Content – Marketing, entertainment, ecommerce, and corporate web sites are increasingly becoming content portals, due to evolving marketing/content strategies. This increase in content volume has resulted in a shift of focus with respect to the user experience, from the aesthetic presentation of the content, to its findability and utility. The ability to “merchandise” content in specialized and “personalized” content modules gives marketers the ability to create greater content relevance and improve findability of content.
    2. Wider Adoption of Mobile Web – As connected, mobile devices become more widely adopted, web sites must be designed to scale to many different mobile platforms, in order to deliver the same content (in some cases) to users, via a variety of mobile browsers. This is especially true when a business cannot, for typically economic reasons, develop mobile applications that consumers can download from “App Stores.” Having a “mobile browser-optimized” web site, then, requires a modular content design that is flexible enough to render in a wide variety of mobile form factors, screen resolutions, and browser specifications.
    3. Changes in User Browse Behavior – Usability testing has proven to me, that users increasingly place their focus on the center of the “page” (in most cases), resulting in blind spots around the periphery of that “sweet spot.” Users were also conditioned to avoid the right column of web sites because of their likelihood to contain advertisements, such as on a Google search results page. Why then, have a periphery? It was a tough pill for me to swallow, but Usability Testing revealed that content placed in a “right column” was getting less attention than content found in the center of the page.
    4. Increased Demand for Content Syndication – To increase content engagement and findability, marketers often develop strategies to make their content discoverable on partner web sites and digital platforms. When implementing a content syndication strategy, in order to maintain the integrity of content branding as well as consistency in content interaction, content presentment is often the same, on a partner web site, as on the originating platform.  Content syndication is most effective when it is planned for from the beginning, including early conceptualization of Content Modules that live on the originating platform and are “transportable widgets” that can live on any platform that is beneficial to attract engagement from a relevant audience.  
    5. Content Sponsorship – Display advertisements are a necessary evil to drive revenue, however, content sponsorships can prove more effective, relevant, and create a higher degree of engagement with the advertiser brand. A sponsorship can simply be a curated list of content assets that live within an advertiser-branded (“skinned”) module that is contained within the page stack.
    There is a valid Design argument and challenge to the decision to commit to a "column-less" Design...It is the issue of "visual interest." Brand is important to the user experience. Emotional impact is important to drive engagement. An unanswered question remains, "How does an additional constraint to Design impact the Designer's ability to create an emotionally impactful Design?"

    Sunday, February 13, 2011

    Design and the "Waterfall" Methodology

    The potential problem with any Design methodology is that practitioners may become religious about following it step-by-step, like a recipe, for every single project. Unfortunately, not every Design challenge is the same, nor is every client timeline, identical. There are risks in utilizing the traditional, interactive agency "waterfall" methodology, for example, as a template approach for every single Design project. The following are some of the hazards that a more streamlined and collaborative Design methodology may help to avoid:

    1. Failure to meet a client deadline -
    the classic "waterfall" delivery methodology assumes that one discipline begins work, only after another gets their deliverables approved. This "relay race" requires a generous project timeline, but, more importantly, depends on clients hitting their feedback/review deadlines, in order to be successful. More often than not, the project schedule needs to be collapsed, at some point, because some dependency or critical milestone gets missed. 

    2. Lack of collaboration -
    Ask any Designer what they think when they are given a stack of wireframes to "make pretty." It is insulting and foolish to avoid seeking a Visual Designer's input until an Interaction Designer has completed his/her work. Designers have an innate understanding of composition, balance, and, hopefully, interaction. Giving them exposure to the end-user makes them even more valuable, so bringing them in further upstream in a project timeline will likely yield better Design.

    3. Increased likelihood that an initial Creative vision is NOT realized - The longer a project takes to get into "code (development)," the more likely that features will get lopped off with a Technology Director's axe. Why? Because, with a waterfall approach, if disciplines that precede Tech miss their delivery dates, the Tech timeline is likely to get shorter. If Tech gets "the squeeze," the only thing for them to do is eliminate functionality. This situation can be avoided, if the Tech team is brought into the project early on to prioritize features, or, better yet, build a prototype to aid interaction and Design decisions.

    4. Decreased credibility in members of the project team who are "further downstream" -
    Face time with the client is extremely important in building credibility and trust. Generally, there are more opportunities to meet and collaborate with the client at the beginning of a project, when requirements and strategy is discussed. If these initial "Discovery" meetings include only members of the Account Management, Strategy, and Information Architecture disciplines, Design and Tech will surely miss valuable opportunities to meet and bond with clients. Even worse, they may not even be fully aware of the client's project requirements or business context, which is critical for a solid understanding of what they are designing and building.

    5. Missed opportunities to innovate or improve the Design process -
    There is no "cookie-cutter" approach to Design. Every client challenge is different. Rushing to get to an approach, by assuming a standard methodology may prevent an opportunity to do things differently. It is the exact opposite of being Creative or Innovative.

    The digital Design process needs to evolve along with the increased sophistication, pace, and technical complexity of contemporary digital projects. A process used to conceptualize a marketing web site may not be appropriate when designing a mobile application. Ultimately, there is no instruction manual for Design, that can be applied to every situation. Creating efficiencies in the Design process, therefore, should not replace the step of thinking critically about the specific Design challenges at hand.

    Jonathan Lupo
    http://www.twitter.com/userexperience

    Thursday, January 20, 2011

    Continuous User Experiences

    When designing a single user experience for a single platform, it is too easy to become myopic about the individual that will be using the experience, and not take into consideration, that same individual’s behavior on connected or related digital platforms. It is a stretch, for example, to think that a consumer would only visit a company’s web site, and never encounter another digital interface, or digital store front, from the same company. People use the web and mobile devices for different purposes.  One digital platform may even drive usage of another. Information Architects should seek to evolve their research methods to observe a single end-consumer's behavior across a connected, digital ecosystem of browser-based, mobile, and other digital experiences. The end goal, is to develop a holistic digital strategy for the client.

    What happens, however, if a client isn’t thinking about, or willing to pay for an engagement with a larger scope, or broader implementation across digital platforms? After all, client engagements typically begin with a single project.  Client budgets may only cover research that yields insights that inform the design of the contracted project.  In this case, it is up to the Information Architect to convince the client that the precious time spent with the end-consumer should be maximized to uncover insights that may prove helpful, when connecting behaviors across all touch points of their planned, digital ecosystem. Missing key behaviors on digital platforms that aren’t immediately relevant, may result in non-scalable interfaces that won’t elegantly support naturally connected experiences across platforms (from an end-user perspective).

    Ultimately, upfront end-user research with an intentionally narrow scope, may cost clients more money later, in future research and fixes to non-scalable interfaces. Behavioral personas should illustrate an end-user's total digital lifestyle, not an isolated set of behaviors, if they are to be used to inform the design of a connected set of digital platforms, rather than a single user interface.

    Tuesday, January 11, 2011

    Content Relevance and Promotion

    There are numerous ways to elevate content within a digital experience. For example, a marketing department may opt to treat a web site as a companion, or destination, for a promotional campaign or offline advertisement. In this respect, a web site must accommodate a dynamic, marketing schedule, that can be updated as often as new campaigns are launched. This type of promotion is often found on ecommerce, or consumer product marketing web sites.

    For content-driven experiences, however, content relevance to the consumer should power the logic employed to promote content. Designers may wish to define a content hierarchy, based on its relevance to consumer, in order to determine the prominence and sequence of promotional categories of content. The following, are relevancy models that can be used to define a promotional framework for content, on web sites:

    1. Elevate content that is of known, high-value, to consumers. Consumer research can help designers identify what content is most relevant to end-users of a web site. Perform qualitative analysis to develop theories about the type of information that will be sought on a web site, and then, perform a quantitative analysis to validate the information-seeking trends with a statistically significant set of data.

    2. If the web site author has a credible, editorial voice, consider editorially-driven content promotion. Many businesses mistakenly believe that their editorially-driven content promotions will drive engagement on their digital experiences. Understanding consumer perception of a brand is the key to understanding whether or not the brand has the credibility to warrant it curating the content that exists on the web site.

    3. On experiences where social engagement is likely, enable social discovery, and promotion, of content. Content discovery via integrated, social media tactics may be relevant, if the target audience of a web site is likely to engage with social media. Of course, an analysis to understand the level of social interaction on a web site is required before pursuing a path of social media integration, for content discovery purposes.

    4. Promote content based on prior end-user behavior. Amazon, Netflix, and other popular web sites are typical examples of web sites that elevate content to consumers based on their prior behavior. This tactic may be effective, however, a complex algorithm must be developed, which may be prone to defects. Additionally, a web site may not have the volume of content to make "behavior-based" recommendations a worthwhile experience. If the potential number of recommendations are
    few, based on a small amount of content, there is great potential to offer repetitive recommendations based on prior end-user behavior.

    5. Enable the web site community to decide which content is promoted, and which content is buried. Web sites with a large community, and ones which aggregate content from 3rd party sources, may opt to let their community dictate which content gets promoted or "buried" on the web site. Digg is a perfect example of a web site which empowers its community to promote or bury articles. Thus, content popularity, is what determines which content rises to the top. It is suggested that user-driven content promotion is only employed when end-users are likely to have a high degree of engagement with content, and when a web site's content is updated very frequently.