Tag: Usability

Usability Summary

This article focuses on the five principles of visual design in UX. Principles of visual design refer to how “design elements go together to create well-rounded and thoughtful visuals.” It starts by stating that for the most part, at a glance, a user can immediately tell whether a visual is appealing or not. Kelly Gordon then states and defines those five principles.

  • Scale – This principle uses size to draw attention to certain visual elements. Something that is bigger is more likely to be noticed. A visual appealing design should not use more than three different sizes. The biggest size should emphasize the most important part of the website. Using different sized visuals also establishes a visual hierarchy.
  • Visual Hierarchy – The second principle in the article refers to how our eyes are guided in a website. Usually, the user knows where to look in a website when a visual hierarchy is well-established. “Scale, value, color, spacing, placement” can all be used to establish a hierarchy. Using a bright color to signal something more important and a muted color for something less important is an example of a visual hierarchy
  • Balance- Balance occurs when there is an even and satisfying arrangement or proportion of design elements in a website. Visual signals must equally distribute between both sides of an imaginary axis that either runs vertically or horizontally. The balance may be symmetrical, asymmetrical or radial, but balance must be achieved so that no one area draws “your eyes so much that you can’t see the other areas.”
  • Contrast – This principle refers to “the juxtaposition of visually dissimilar elements in order to convey the fact that these elements are different”. Contrast also helps empathize differences between two objects in order to highlight that they are distinct.
  • Gestalt Principles – Gestalt principles explain how humans tend to analyze images as a whole rather than as individual elements. Proximity, one of the principles of Gestalt is particularly important to UX design because humans tend to perceive images that are close together as part of the same group.

The author finishes  the article by stating that these principles help increase usability, provoke emotion and delight, and strengthen brand perception.

 

Experience, World Leaders in Research-Based User. “5 Principles of Visual-Design in UX.” Nielsen Norman Group, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/principles-visual-design/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2020.

Usability Summary

In the article, “First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Users” by Jakob Nielson it overall states that web designers should not listen to what users say that they want, but listen to the actions they do. Previously websites used to focus on how flashy they looked, now they focus on the simplicity. Typically when customers think they will like an idea, is it not actually functional or something that is easy to use. The article mentions that even when users have taken surveys about what they want to see on a website, they will choose things because it ‘sounds cool’ not because they actually want it.

The proper way to collect data from users is by seeing their actions on a webpage. It is also not recommended for designers to try and predict what is the next move that users will make, it is best to just focus on their current needs.

Nielson, Jakob. “First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Users.” Nielsen Norman Group, 4 Aug. 2001, www.nngroup.com/articles/first-rule-of-usability-dont-listen-to-users/

First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Users

In this part of the article, it focuses on the first rule of usability.  It says that the first and most important is to not listen to the users.  At first thought, it seems odd, people that create websites want to have it appealing to their users, therefore their input is important.  However, instead of listening to what they say, and might do.  Focus on what they actually do on the website when navigating, this would include the idea of business intelligence.

To go along with the idea of not listening to the users, there are three sub-points to it.  The first one is watch what the people actually do.  Second, do not believe what people SAY they do, and lastly do not believe what people predict they may do in the future.  In conclusion this basically means, do not react to what the users says, react to what they actually do.

World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience. “First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Users.” Nielsen Norman Group, www.nngroup.com/articles/first-rule-of-usability-dont-listen-to-users/.

UX Workshops vs. Meetings: What’s the difference?

In this article, we are able to explore two words we hear often in the school and work fields. Workshops and meetings are often used in a professional setting to get an established topic to a final conclusive destination. In the article, we learn that “meetings are for sharing information and workshops are for solving a problem or reaching an actionable goal” (Kaplan, Nielsen Norman Group, 2020).

Often times workshops are unsuccessful when the goal is unclear from the beginning and this causes everyone to have different thought processes for achieving what they believe is the goal. In a workshop, ideas and thoughts are brought together to ultimately create one larger idea related to their mission at hand. Solving the problem through action is done within the workshop in a controlled environment. Meetings are more information based an allow for things to be discussed amongst a group. A speak and listen environment is often used to convey information more effectively. Often times meetings can last from 30 mins to a few hours, whereas a workshop can take from half-days to several days. The structure is also a bit different amongst the two; a workshop often time includes the process of brainstorming, stretching, writing and overall action-based demonstrations to complete a more involved way of solving the problem. In a meeting, more round-table like discussions are had and often there is a facilitator who is giving a good portion of the information regarding the topic of the meeting. Notes are most likely being taken and the environment is more passive.

Kaplan, Kate. “UX Workshops vs. Meetings: What’s the Difference?” Nielsen Norman Group, 16 Feb. 2020, www.nngroup.com/articles/workshops-vs-meetings/.

Usability Article Summary

In this article, Jakob Nielson describes how developers should pay attention do what users do on their site, rather than what they say.  In the past, most projects were unsuccessful due to the complexity of a website when all people wanted was simplicity.  Now, public websites are focusing on making it easy for customers to do business; and intranets are focusing on improving employee productivity.  Now, the new problem is getting usability right.  Nielson says to discover which design works best, watch users as they engage with the interface.  Watch what the users actually do, rather than what they say they do or what they may do in the future.  Only after people have engaged with a design should one collect data from users.  Nielson and Jonathan Levy found that there was a 0.44 correlation between the user’s measured performance and their stated preference.  In collecting this data, the group typically bend the truth to be what they think the designer wants to hear.  This is why it is so important to pay attention to what they are actually engaging with in the design rather than simply collecting data.

 

Nielson, Jakob. “First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Users.” Nielsen Norman Group, 4 Aug. 2001, www.nngroup.com/articles/first-rule-of-usability-dont-listen-to-users/.

UX Research Cheat Sheet Summary

Experience, World Leaders in Research-Based User. “UX Research Cheat Sheet.” Nielsen Norman Group, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-research-cheat-sheet/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2020.

This article promotes the importance of research at any point of design process. This article breaks down the design process into four parts: Discover, Explore, Test, and Listen. At each of these parts, there are methods of research to better the user experience at each of these levels of design. During the discover stage, one is attempting to better understand what people need. Here, you could conduct interviews with stakeholders and find strengths and weaknesses of the product. Exploration methods include understanding the problem space and design scope and addressing user needs appropriately. With testing, methods are used for checking designs during development and beyond, to make sure systems work well for the people who use them. Lastly, by listening to our research and design,  we can better understand existing problems and to look for new issues. Each of these parts have a variety of activities to incorporate to better user experience. These methods and activities can improve the user experience of one’s design, ultimately improving the final product.

Drag- and Drop: How to Design for Ease of Use

Experience, World Leaders in Research-Based User. “Drag–and–Drop: How to Design for Ease of Use.” Nielsen Norman Group, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/drag-drop/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020.

Drag- and Drop is a popular type of direct manipulation that is useful for grouping, reordering, moving or resizing objects. The first step for this process would be to make sure the item of interest is visible on the screen. Next, the user will select the item using the moue or touch gesture and while the item is still selected, the user will move it to the new desired location. Finally, the user will deselect the item and the process is complete. Drag- and-drop makes actions immediate and visible but can also be inefficient, imprecise and physically challenging resulting in errors. when using the drag- and- drop feature it is nice when a drag icon appears but unfortunately, the drag icons are not universal. in mouse-driven interfaces, cursors will change with these actions. to make this process as smooth as possible you need feedback when these actions are completed for example making the item you are grabbing look different when it is selected and dropped. it is also important that when you are moving an item around you see the background items moving around the selected one. Precise accuracy is challenging with drag and drop, having a magnetic effect can be helpful. Traditionally this process is used with a mouse but it can be made more accessible with keyboard accessibility, by using the tab key to grab and the space bar to drop. Touch screens make this process a little difficult so it is nice to ad haptics so you can feel that you have completed an action, it is also nice to have some unused space in the design so that it can account for the use of fingers.

Usability Article Summary

The introduction on the assigned page talked about the phenom that people are more likely to forgive a negative user interface if the site is more aesthetically pleasing. People like things that look nice and are more likely to use them. Therefore, the aesthetics of a site can be just as important if not more important than the functionality of the site when it comes to maintain and drawing in users. The article I read for the assignment was about usability testing on minors. When testing a product/app on minors it is important for one to understand that they are dealing with children who have different needs than adults. Children may take longer to settle into a comfortable position or may fidget more often than adults do. They may require more bathroom or water breaks and may get bored more easily than an adult would. Therefore, it is important to keep this in mind when testing on minors. One may want to give incentives with the kids in mind such as gift cards or toys. They may also want to prepare more participants in case something may come up with one the other can be used as a backup. Most importantly the testing coordinator wants to keep in mind that these are minors, there tech skills will increase each year they are exposed to the tech, and the children will be receptive only if the study is understandable and tailored to incorporate their needs as well as the coordinators.
References
Joyce, A. (2019, April 28). Usability Testing with Minors: 16 Tips. Retrieved from Nielsen Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-testing-minors/?lm=aesthetic-usability-effect&pt=article

Empathy Mapping Summary

Sarah Gibbons, in her article Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking, describes the empathy map as a tool many UI designers use to create a successful and useful product. An empathy map, she explains, is a display used to combine knowledge about different kinds of users. It usually has four squares labeled Says, Thinks, Does and Fells, with an associated type of user in the middle. Says incorporates what the customer verbally wants, Thinks is what their thoughts are while using the product, Does describes the actions the user makes while exploring the product, and Feels is their emotional state while using different features of the UI. There are two types of empathy maps, One User and Multiple-User maps. One User is usually centered on people have provided insight on their preferred style of product. Multiple-User maps are broader and include multiple user comments that expressed similar thoughts and actions. Empathy maps provide a lot of beneficial uses to designers, as they give insight to how the user-base companies have feels about their products and how to design and create a better UX. Gibbons wrote steps in this process which includes choosing a specific goal and gathering materials to create the map, then actually collecting information from users to  put all of the notes together so that a map is created. Then, using this information the designers can begin planning. This tool is designed to enhance UX experience by giving direct feedback to companies based on customers’ feelings about their product.

Gibbons, Sarah. Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking. Nielsen Norman Group, 14 Jan. 2018, www.nngroup.com/articles/empathy-mapping/.

Usability 101 Summary

In Usability 101: Introduction To Usability, Jakob Nielsen outlines five key components to usability:

  1. Definition of Usability

Nielsen defines usability as “a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use”. With usability comes five quality components: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction. All of these components define usability from the user’s perspective. Ultimately, each one of these influences the user’s experience. If users are unable to learn how to accomplish basic tasks with the design efficiently, with minimal errors, to their satisfaction, the usability of the design takes a major hit.

  1. Why Usability Is Important

Essentially, usability is important as it is needed for a product to sustain longevity and relevance. Users tend to abandon of products for multiple reasons. Whether it being the website is difficult to use, offered products and services are not clearly listed, information contained on the website is difficult to read, or key questions are left unanswered. As leaving is typically the first response of users when encountering difficulties, it is important to minimize them. To combat this, it is suggested that 10% of spending should be allocated towards a design project’s budget on usability. In turn, this should double a website’s desired quality metrics. And although improvements may be small, they can still be substantial when usability is prioritized in the design process.

  1. How to Improve Usability

Though it may be basic, user testing the most useful way to improve usability. By doing so, representative users are able to interact with the design whilst giving direct feedback without the need of wasting resources on larger, and more expensive, studies.

  1. When to Work on Usability

Before starting a new design, the old design should be tested to determine what parts should kept and what parts are an area on concern or dissatisfaction for users. Secondly, competitor designs should be tested to get a range of how their product compares to yours. Next, conduct a field study with users in their natural habitat. Then, construct paper prototypes and conduct the usability test. Next, Refine the design, compare it to established usability guidelines, and start the process over again after the design has been implemented.

  1. Where to Test

For frequent user studies, building a dedicated usability laboratory is worth the time and resources. If unable to, conferences ones or offices can be used as well if distractions can be kept away from the session. As far as equipment goes, only a notepad is needed.

Experience, World Leaders in Research-Based User. “Usability 101: Introduction to Usability.” Nielsen Norman Group, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/. Accessed 29 Feb. 2020.