Category Archives: Education

When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods

This post originally came for Nielsen Norman Groups website in the full article “When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods”. Here is an excerpt  from that article highlighting a comprehensive list of research methods.

Research methods chart on Jennifer Blatz UX Design

20 UX Methods in Brief

Here’s a short description of the user research methods shown in the above chart:

Usability-Lab Studies: participants are brought into a lab, one-on-one with a researcher, and given a set of scenarios that lead to tasks and usage of specific interest within a product or service.

Ethnographic Field Studies: researchers meet with and study participants in their natural environment, where they would most likely encounter the product or service in question.

Participatory Design: participants are given design elements or creative materials in order to construct their ideal experience in a concrete way that expresses what matters to them most and why.

Focus Groups: groups of 3-12 participants are lead through a discussion about a set of topics, giving verbal and written feedback through discussion and exercises.

Interviews: a researcher meets with participants one-on-one to discuss in depth what the participant thinks about the topic in question.

Eyetracking: an eyetracking device is configured to precisely measure where participants look as they perform tasks or interact naturally with websites, applications, physical products, or environments.

Usability Benchmarking: tightly scripted usability studies are performed with several participants, using precise and predetermined measures of performance.

Moderated Remote Usability Studiesusability studies conducted remotely with the use of tools such as screen-sharing software and remote control capabilities.

Unmoderated Remote Panel Studies:  a panel of trained participants who have video recording and data collection software installed on their own personal devices uses a website or product while thinking aloud, having their experience recorded for immediate playback and analysis by the researcher or company.

Concept Testing: a researcher shares an approximation of a product or service that captures the key essence (the value proposition) of a new concept or product in order to determine if it meets the needs of the target audience; it can be done one-on-one or with larger numbers of participants, and either in person or online.

Diary/Camera Studies: participants are given a mechanism (diary or camera) to record and describe aspects of their lives that are relevant to a product or service, or simply core to the target audience; diary studies are typically longitudinal and can only be done for data that is easily recorded by participants.

Customer Feedback: open-ended and/or close-ended information provided by a self-selected sample of users, often through a feedback link, button, form, or email.

Desirability Studies: participants are offered different visual-design alternatives and are expected to associate each alternative with a set of  attributes selected from a closed list; these studies can be both qualitative and quantitative.

Card Sorting: a quantitative or qualitative method that asks users to organize items into groups and assign categories to each group. This method helps create or refine the information architecture of a site by exposing users’ mental models.

Clickstream Analysis: analyzing the record of screens or pages that users clicks on and sees, as they use a site or software product; it requires the site to be instrumented properly or the application to have telemetry data collection enabled.

A/B Testing (also known as “multivariate testing,” “live testing,” or “bucket testing”): a method of scientifically testing different designs on a site by randomly assigning groups of users to interact with each of the different designs and measuring the effect of these assignments on user behavior.

Unmoderated UX Studies: a quantitative or qualitative and automated method that uses a specialized research tool to captures participant behaviors (through software installed on participant computers/browsers) and attitudes (through embedded survey questions), usually by giving participants goals or scenarios to accomplish with a site or prototype.

True-Intent Studies: a method that asks random site visitors what their goal or intention is upon entering the site, measures their subsequent behavior, and asks whether they were successful in achieving their goal upon exiting the site.

Intercept Surveys: a survey that is triggered during the use of a site or application.

Email Surveys: a survey in which participants are recruited from an email message.

I am quoted in an article at UX Beginner

“Am I Too Old For UX?”

According to the blog UX Beginner, “Yes, you are.”

But if you read the story further, entering the UX field is not really about how old you are, but rather how much experience you have. Don’t let your age intimidate you and keep your for pursuing a career in UX. Just get started today!

UX Beginner, Am I too old for UX?

Read the Entire article now:

Am I Too Old For UX?” Yes, you are. by Osbourne Chen at UX Beginner

UX Radio and Podcasts Massive Collection

UX radio retro woman

I found a great definitive list of design, tech, web and UX podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts on my drive to and from work, so this is going to be a great resource for people like me who like to catch up on their podcasts on their commute.  Yes some are in German, but pick the English ones if that’s your cup of tea.

UX Radio: UX-, Design-, Usability Podcasts

Some of the podcasts that I think look particularly interesting are:

 

Usability Testing for User Experience Course

When testing the Weather Channel App, I discovered a number of usability issues. Clearly, if the UX team had run some basic usability tests, a number of problems would have discovered and corrected.

Some issues I discovered:

• Make clickable items like buttons seem clickable.

• Remove ads within the feed, especially if they look like weather (editorial) content.

• Do not use ads as a background image on home page.

• Put useful information like search functionality in side drawer.

• Put more information, like a few days’ forecast on the home page.

• Use arrow indicator to notify the user to scroll down.

• Do not include every searched location in the favorites list.

• Allow user to just search a location without saving it.

• Allow users to include more than 10 locations in the favorites list.

• Clearly indicate current city with writing the city name, rather than relying on image.

• Give clues on social weather page as to what the icons mean and what will happen before a user clicks the icon.

• Make icons intuitive and less confusing and add a word them to clarify the function.

• Allow user to return to the top of page by tapping on the bar at the top of the screen.

• Move radar closer to top of feed. Or allow users to modify the order of content or remove something that does not interest them.

weather channel app usability problems
Make sure that items that are clickable in an app or website are clear to the user

UXPIN’s Guide to wireframing free book

I came across a great resource the other day that I would like to share with you. UXPIN is a paid service for wireframing websites, tablet and mobile pages online. Though UXPIN is a paid resource, they do offer several valuable and FREE resources. One resource I would like to mention now is their free ebook “The Guide to Wireframing.

UXPIN's Guide to Wireframing ebook

Some of the resources I like in particular are:

  • The pros and cons of various wireframing techniques and software
  • Provided UI patterns and resources
  • Common UI trends in today’s most-used apps

Yes, it is kind of a pain to have to provide your email to get the book sent to you. But for the UI pattern aspect alone, I think it’s worth checking out. Enjoy.

Lynda.com has great UX Tutorials

How about listening to something education while you are at work? Lynda.com has a lot of great video tutorials on a lot of subjects – like UX, web design and business. I saw this slide on one of the courses the other day and thought it was a great reminder to share. When working on a UX project, one will often go through these phases:

This illustrates the basic steps of the product development life cycle.
This illustrates the basic steps of the product development life cycle.

This particular slide was found in “Foundations of UX: Content Strategy with Patrick Nichols” and is often referred to as the product development life cycle.

Check it out. You just might learn something!

Wireframes for desktop – Hollywood Walking Tour

As part of my class project, I also had to create a wireframe for a desktop version. Though my concept really focuses on just the mobile app, I was tasked with creating a computer version that would promote the app. Below is the wireframe for this desktop website that would be promotion the app and leading viewers on where they could download the app.

Hollywood Walking Tour App Desktop ad website Jennifer Blatz Design UX
Hollywood Walking Tour App Desktop ad website

Getting excited about my next class on prototyping

I wil leb starting my next California State Fullerton class very soon. It’s called Prototyping User-Centered Design Solutions and obviously it involved prototyping. I am excited to be learning more about this great field and to hopefully gain some skills that will be applicable to a new job. Below is the text book for the class.

Prototyping: A Practitioner's Guide. Textbook for class for Jennifer Blatz UX Design
Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide textbook for class.

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.

IA Information Architecture for Cal State Fullerton class
IA Information Architecture for Cal State Fullerton class: User-Centered Design for Web and Mobile Interfaces.

 

d.modes from d.school

Learned about this little process on “Design Thinking” on MOOC today.

  • Empathize
  • Define
  • Ideate
  • Protoype
  • Test
d.modes from d.school Empathize Define Ideate Protoype Test
d.modes from d.school: 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 theory on MOOC

I just started the online course titled “Design Thinking MOOC” and so far it’s pretty interesting. I love new courses that challenge my every-day thinking and teach me something new.

In Chapter 4 , Week 1 of “Design Thinking,” I was introduced to the Trajectory of Artificiality Theory by Krippendorff. Here is the theory illustrated below:

Trajectory of Artificiality chart
The “Trajectory of Artificiality” by Krippendorff as presented via Design Thinking MOOC on Iversity.com

Text book number 2: The Web Designer’s Roadmap

Well it’s official. I now have both text books for my “User Experience and Customer-Centered Design” certification class. I guess I’d better get off the computer and start reading my books for the course. The course lasts only three weeks, so I need to start reading ahead of time if I want to be on schedule.

The Web Designer's Roadmap
This is the second book for my CalState Fullerton course “User-Centered Design for Web and Mobile Interfaces.”

My First class textbook: ‘Mobile First’ by Luke Wroblewski

I received the first text book in the mail today for my first class at CalState Fullerton’s “User Experience and Customer-Centered Design” certificate program. I start my class in a couple of weeks, and I am very excited to be  learning a new topic. What is my first class?  User-Centered Design for Web and Mobile Interfaces.

Mobile First
‘Mobile First’ is my first text book for the CalState Fullerton User Experience certificate program I am enrolled in.