Usability Specialist

Usability Specialist • Eugene Chen • Director of Design and Analysis • Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. • > eugene@amanda.com • Steve Krug • Usability Specialist, First Class • Advanced Common Sense. • > skrug@sensible.com © 2001 AIGA

Usability Specialist A hat worn by members of a design team when evaluating and testing, or when focusing on use, i.e. almost all the time. To be most effective, usability specialists have a strong understanding of design and vice versa. © 2001 AIGA

Usability Specialist (noun, proper) Person who for one reason or another is good at helping people who design and build things—like software, alarm clocks, and fighter jets—figure out how to make them easier to use © 2001 AIGA

Usability Specialist (job title / attitude) The person within an organization who eats, sleeps, breaths usability. That means: • Doing usability work to improve the quality of a project / product • Teaching usability concepts to other team members to help them do better work • Promoting usability with strategic insights based on this specialization © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types • 2. Primary concepts that guide the work • 3. Typical collaborators • 4. Immediate and the ultimate goals of the work © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: • Determine what elements of a design are making it hard to use, and… • Help the people designing and building it find a better solution (triage and creative problem solving) • Train them to do it on their own in the future • Project types include • designing a new Web site • redesigning or adding features to an existing site © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: Ultimate product: UI design for • Desktop productivity applications • Websites (e.g. portals, communications) • Web applications (queries, transactions) • In-car navigation devices • Handheld devices • Kiosk systems • Home information-appliance and Interactive TV • Computer- and web-based training/learning products Product Types: • Revolution (next generation) • Evolution (add features to existing design) © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: Artifacts: • Reports (needs analysis, user profiles, task analysis, evaluation, recommendations etc.) • Designs (metaphors/concepts, information, interaction, appearance) • Products • Design Documentation • Style guidelines, standards, and templates © 2001 AIGA

A Design Strategy Usability Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: Processes: • Beginning: plan, research, analyze • Iterate: ideate, design, prototype, evaluate • End: document, train, maintain © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: a. The products and corresponding processes for addressing them • Expert reviews • User tests • Consultation (listening to clients’ description of dilemma and offering advice, or problem solving with them) © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: a. The products and corresponding processes for addressing them (ditto, plus 1 more thing) • Organizational “pain”: Training on usability principles & other types of usability therapy to help make the pain go away © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: b. an inventory of tools and techniques • Techniques: • User Profiles • User Interviews • Scenarios, Task Analysis • Contextual Observation • Participatory Design • Focus Groups and Informal Testing • Formal Testing • Evaluations (Methods: heuristic evaluation, cogntive walkthrough, collaborative inspection Focus: consistency, cultural appropriateness, labels, help, icons etc.) © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: b. an inventory of tools and techniques User Interviews User Profiles Information Design Interaction Design Appearance Design Design Branding Strategy Usability Focus Groups Comparative Analysis Project Management Contextual Observation Scenarios Task Analysis Participatory Design Evaluations Testing © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: b. an inventory of tools and techniques • Tools: • Whiteboard and sticky notes • Digital camera and video camera • Director, Illustrator, Photoshop, Word, PowerPoint • Extranets and email © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: b. an inventory of tools and techniques • Expert review • Informal usability testing (neighbors) • Formal usability testing (recruited) • Simple user profiles • User interviews (preferably in context) • Annotated screenshots (hundreds) • Photoshop-doctored designs (when words fail) © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 1. Problem types, or project types: b. an inventory of tools and techniques (ditto, but with 3 angles) • Doing, • Teaching, & • Promoting each/any/all of these techniques © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 2. Primary concepts that guide the work: a. The User is central b. To get good ideas, get lots of ideas c. Iteration is indispensable and occurs on various levels d. Begin with the Root Causes and Big Picture then hone in e. Where usability is the priority, Form tends to follow Function © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 2. Primary concepts that guide the work: a. Anything you want people to use must be many times more self-evident and forgiving than you care to imagine b. It’s seldom too late to reconsider your basic premises c. My mother should “get” most Web sites. (I have never heard a “Power user” complain that something was too easy to understand.) d. All Web use is idiosyncratic Corollary: Most generalizations about Web use and Web users are a fool’s errand. What counts is “Does this design, in this context, work for most users when they try it?” © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 2. Primary concepts that guide the work: • Usability methods make the experience better (other methods contribute, too, of course) • User-centered techniques and attitudes can help “non-usability people” “do their thing” better • Organizational change is often the biggest roadblock to making it happen, so you have to think and act strategically • “It depends”: figure out the trade-offs, make informed decisions, “if you try to please everyone, you will please no one” © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 3. Typical Collaborators: b. External • Users • Subject-matter experts (SMEs) • Product managers and marketers • Engineering managers and implementors • Business executives, venture capitalists • Other usability and design professionals, e.g. branding firm, industrial designers • Hired specialists, e.g. writing, illustration © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 3. Typical Collaborators: b. External • Web development team members - Project managers - Designers - Developers - Marketing types - Information architects - Talented Web navigation writers • Fellow “usability specialists” © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 3. Typical Collaborators: a & b. Internal, External (ditto, plus) • Any one who will listen and either buys into the concepts or sees where they promote their own agenda (“the org chart only helps me know when I am more likely to get into trouble”) © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 4. Immediate and ultimate goals of the work: • Getting technology out of the way, creating seamlessness • Enabling flow: reducing annoyance, recovering time • Providing better human service, respect • Making technology responsive to people rather than vice-versa • Similar to zoning or public planning: Maintaining standards of cleanliness and safety in public spaces • Similar to consumer advocacy: evaluating performance/handling, comfort, convenience, reliability/safety, value • Similar to fengshui, creating harmony in environs © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 4. Immediate and ultimate goals of the work: • “Ship” a Web site that visitors can use for its intended purpose • Make the product as efficient, satisfying, successful, frustration-free, and foolproof as possible, given the available resources • Educate team members so usability is “built into” their future work © 2001 AIGA

A Themes of what we actually do Usability Specialist • 4. Immediate and ultimate goals of the work (ditto, plus): • Support the bottom-line (i.e., be a smart business decision, and the rest will take care of itself) © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 1. ‘Design’ concepts and methods • 2. What else beyond ‘Design’ • 3. Kinds of education needed for the future • 4. Kinds of research to help us in the future • 5. Five key colleges/universities/design schools that we look to for inspiration, leadership and recruiting © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 1. ‘Design’ concepts and methods: a. From traditional design field (technical) • Visual design principles (typography, hierarchy, layout, Gestalt, color, economy etc.) • Human factors • User behavior, preferences • Semiotics: the science of signs • Rhetoric: practices of communication and persuasion • Information Visualization (Tufte) © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 1. ‘Design’ concepts and methods: a. From traditional design field (people) • Ability to analyze needs (facilitation, active listening) • Client management • Common sense © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 1. ‘Design’ concepts and methods: b. New elements of our practice • Design system profoundly interacted on by user and other systems • Dynamic environment (user preferences and profiles, dynamic data and layouts, adaptation to various devices and contexts, collaboration) • Users are increasingly overloaded with information • User can easily access many competing designs, features must sell themselves • Design accesses many competing multi-cultural users • Including Novices and Norwegians © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 1. ‘Design’ concepts and methods: b. New elements of our practice • Technology rapidly changes constraints and opportunities. Old solutions become obstacles (e.g. file systems) • Multimedia and Multi-modal (graphics, text, sound, voice) © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 1. ‘Design’ concepts and methods: a. From traditional design field • What he said (minus “Semiotics”) • “Wayfinding” and public-space signage b. New elements of our practice • Interaction/choice-based medium (Do we really know what this means?) • WYSINWID (“…not what I designed”) • Designing large information spaces full of unique design needs, with comparatively few well-established conventions © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 1. ‘Design’ concepts and methods: a. From traditional design field (ditto, plus) • Hypertext: content + user interface (as implemented today with links and navigation) b. New elements of our practice (ditto, plus) • Hypertext: as implemented tomorrow with inclusions and collaboration [Nelson and Berners-Lee] © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 2. What else beyond “Design”:a. Business operations • ROI of design and usability, development of metrics • Winning an appropriate share of development time b. Management practices • Project management (risk, expectation, scheduling, resources, cost, quality, scope) • Motivation and leadership • Evangelism and education of usability and design, integration into culture © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 2. What else beyond “Design”: c. Economic, social, cultural conditions/processes • Digital divide; global culture • The network as a public space; politics • Accessibility issues (inc. OSHA impact) • Ubiquitous computing: Processors being embedded into everyday products • Commodification of design and usability (everyone becomes an expert) • Difficulty of innovating and predicting adoption © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 2. What else beyond “Design”: d. Most relevant technical disciplines to support our work? • Ethnography • Psychology • Cultural studies • Rhetoric, persuasion, semiotics • Business modeling © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 2. What else beyond “Design”: a. Business operations • How to gauge practicality of business models d’jour b. Management practices • Project management c. Economic, social, cultural conditions/processes • Accessibility issues © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 2. What else beyond “Design”: d. Most relevant technical disciplines to support our work? • Ethnography (field work practices) • Document design (e.g. Karen Schriver) e. Other • Creative problem solving (team and individual) © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 2. What else beyond “Design”: (ditto, plus) a & b. Business operations & Management practices • Bridge between technical and business, one of the few to understand both c. Economic, social, cultural conditions/processes • Universal Usability (universalusability.org, work in progress) brings all of these issues together nicely for me © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 3. Kinds of education needed for the future: a. Balance of liberal education and professional specialization • UI Design, Visual Design, Rhetoric, Semiotics, Culture, Technology, Tools • Broad, yet specialized • Able to move into and contribute to different situations, but still able to do something © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 3. Kinds of education needed for the future: b. Program features • Theoretical curriculum grounded in industry context, history and future • Pioneering moments, consumer adoption trends, case studies, revenue models • Reading list of canonical texts/papers • Project-based courses • Presentation and review • Studio space for community and collaboration • External community involvement • Work for non-profits • Guest lecturers from industry • Fundamentals taught technology-independent © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 3. Kinds of education needed for the future: a. Balance of liberal education and professional specialization • What he said (minus “Semiotics”) b. Program features • Extended exposure to Web users via extensive field experience (e.g., conducting user tests and contextual interviews) • Multiple internships: Design firm, non-profit org, and industry © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 3. Kinds of education needed for the future: (ditto, plus nothing from here on. I bet Steve and Eugene are running late on time already, so adding slides here would just make them feel worse.) © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 4. Kinds of research to help us in the future: a. Research in design • Sophisticated user models so UIs can “understand” and respond better • Theories of design for “baby faces” (small displays with multi-modal interaction) • Value of design in the business world • Evolving extensible standards b. Research in other fields • Human factors data for each new technology (e.g. new input/output devices) • Understanding canonical uses and user-types (e.g. novice professional search strategies) © 2001 AIGA

B Themes of what we need to know Usability Specialist • 4. Kinds of research to help us in the future: b. Research in other fields • Knowledge visualization: depicting structures and processes, plus action plans • Culture and communication: semiotics and culture models; metrics of impact of culture dimensions on performance and appeal (e.g., Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations, McGraw-Hill, NY, 1997) • Theories of trust, credibility, and persuasion (e.g., Robert Cialdini, “The Science of Persuasion,” Sci Amer., Vol, 284, No. 2, pp. 76-81, www.influenceatwork.com) © 2001 AIGA

Usability Specialist