Who is your audience?

Sounds like a simple question, but it actually doesn’t get taken into consideration enough prior to completing a Project Charter and spending valuable resources and dollars. Many corporations kick off initiatives simply based on what they think makes sense and how they expect a user would need to interact with it. Even more surprising is that these organizations don’t rely on user experience teams to determine their path and provide some insight from historical experiences, but rather let development teams run rampant and build code-focused interfaces.

Don’t get me wrong. Many organizations are beginning to value the art (and science) of user experience and building internal teams to address these needs. But all too often, it is looked at as a burden to the bottom line instead of a group that saves the company money, targets the audience correctly and recommends the most effective business solution.

I was recently facilitating a work session for a Human Resource Management Company to drive out requirements and better define the functional areas and potential feature sets. The goal was to port an application and various processes online. During this session the topic of user experience (personas, research, etc.) was raised and a number of executives in the room strongly stated there was neither the time nor need for ‘any of that’ to build the solution and go-to-market. I nodded and then asked who they were targeting and received the generic response of “our customers”. I smiled and continued to go down the path and asked how their customers currently complete the processes they were moving to the web. The room was, for the most part, silent. They were viewing the entire process from the perspective of how they could technically move processes to the web and not how the user could actually leverage the suite of tools via the processes to get the desired outcome. In the end they saw the light. We, in an expedited timeline, performed some field studies to gain a better perspective of the processes their customers actually perform and how their product could fit in. In addition, it shed additional light on the attributes of the individuals conducting the work within their customer organizations.

What experiences do you have helping customers understand the value of user experience within the software development lifecycle?

How Transition in Web Medium is Affecting Design

The ever increasing popularity of mobile applications has sent savvy Web Designers back to the drawing board. The IPhone, the Android, the Blackberry and a slew of electronic media moguls are redefining what effective Web Design means in the here and now.

Because of the rapid dissemination of mobile applications, Web Designers  are quickly revising their design principles. Below you will find three additional core principles that should be kept in mind to effectively design for the mobile environment. These are addressed in recent posts, but we believe their importance requires multiple entries. 

1) Simplicity

Due to the reduced size of the mobile screen, the design should be limited in its’ complexity. Although a website can fairly easily be ported to the mobile device, it is not usable due to the information load on your typical website. Mobile design requires a new way of looking at how a user behaves and how the experience needs to change to enable use via the interface.

2) Familiarity
Take advantage of user’s current knowledge and memory of concepts, features or symbols used throughout the web and OS interfaces today. For example, the user is familiar with a recycle bin or waste basket to delete files, maintaining this metaphor would increase the likelihood of a user inherently understanding the principle of moving items to the ‘trash’. In short, don’t rethink the wheel, just improve on it.

3) Messaging

System to User collaboration is more than merely alerts/errors. There must be constant communication between mobile applications and the user to keep the user informed of what is happening through system feedback/content delivery. In addition, the inherent functionality of a mobile device plays an instrumental part in the messaging due to voice-based applications for the iPhone.

Mobile Design and Heuristic Principles

These are ten general principles for user interface design. They are called "heuristics" because they are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines. In the 90's Nielsen summarized these principles and they have been the benchmark for solid, structures UX Design.

Key Heuristic design principles are taken into account throughout a user-centered design approach; however, many UX designers tend to overlook these principles and are unable to translate similar guidelines for mobile interface design. 

With Google’s backing of HTML 5, mobile devices leveraging a mobile browser and HTML 5 rendering capabilities will be able to run web applications directly without any downloading or installation of applications. This limits the need to develop for multiple mobile platforms and enhances/changes the way mobile interface design is handled moving forward. Rather than remaining within the parameters of iPhone or Android based interface elements and placement, applications can provide a richer user experience and, in turn, should follow specific design patterns and principles. 

Various mobile design guidelines should be accounted for throughout the application life cycle. A few to keep in mind...

1. Screen size is compact

It is a challenge to design an interface for small screen sizes. Keep the focus on displaying important functionalities. Reduce the information overload found in most mobile apps and strive for an information rich application keeping the purpose of the application and direct needs of the user in mind. 

2. People see one screen at a time

Small screen sizes limit visibility to a single screen. Although modal windows are possible by opening an entirely new screen within the mobile interface, the use of modal windows is confusing to the majority of users. If the focus is on the experience and direct need of the user a multi-modal application can be avoided.

3. Don't rethink the wheel 

Use standard controls and behaviors a user is familiar with on mobile devices to minimize onscreen help. Although the access to many features and functionality are available through HTML 5, designers should be cautious of over-designing. It is still imperative mobile applications remain simple and direct. It is a very different experience to register within a My Account area via a mobile interface than a web interface. Even though the web can be duplicated for the mobile device this is rarely yields an optimal user experience.

That being said, Gartner predicts by year-end 2010, 1.2 billion people will carry handsets capable of rich, mobile commerce, providing a rich environment for the convergence of mobility and the web. This continued growth opens numerous opportunities for mobile interface design, but requires an intelligent approach to rolling out user-centered applications.