User Experience for Content Sites

www.designforcontext.com

Duane Degler@[email protected]

Website UX

Web Content Mavens DC27 January 2015

UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

WHAT IS A USER “EXPERIENCE”?

Anticipation and engagement

Social interaction

Expectations over time

Comparison with other experiences

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

How people describe positive experiences

EngagingFunInterestingUnexpected

SuccessfulProductiveSmooth

HelpfulReliableValuableEasy

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• Immerse in the experience

• Support discovery and delight

• “Sticky”

• Achieve goals

• Support them through actions/tasks

• Remove barriers to progress

• Provide the right level of information at the right time

• Maintain a trust-worthy authority

• Reduce puzzling / confusing moments

UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Dimensions of User Experience

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USERS

Skills/experience

Needs

Expectations

Motivations

BUSINESS

Goals

Performance

Resources

Metrics

TASKS

Actions

Alternatives

Decisions

Outcomes

CONTENT

Relevance

Persistence

Standards

Clarity/focus

CONTEXT

UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

GOALS: USER & ORGANIZATION

Understanding the bigger picture,

knowing what is valued

Balancing competing priorities

Vision and direction

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Identifying your goals and your users’ goals

• What are you aiming to achieve?

• Strategic

• Tactical

• How do you define success?

• Quantity – e.g. tracking usage, transactions, bottom line, citations

• Quality – e.g. feedback, secondary effects, or just the right thing to do

• How do your users define success?

• How to translate that into what you offer?

• Where you focus for impact and value

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

UNDERSTANDING OUR USERS

Knowledge, experience, language,

goals, motivations.

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

User profiles . . . Broad needs and expectations

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Group 1 Group 2 Group 3Group 1

UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

User personas . . . Distinct characteristics

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Marsha Emily

Goals

Interests

Experience

Skills

Knowledgedomain

tech

Abilities

Location

Language

UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

SITUATION AND CONTEXT

What triggers the need for content and interaction with your site.

Context awareness considers who, what, when, where, why, and how often…

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

My meeting starts in 5 minutes!

What will give my class paper a fresh

idea. . . today?

People frame an experience within a situation

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I need to confirm my

hypothesis for my book . . .

UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Interaction with content is dialogue

?!

!!

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Meet you at the Picasso in the South

gallery!

Context frames tasks, particularly when mobile

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Dinner next Saturday?

At the harbor?

Liu’s work seems relevant to my research.

UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

USER TASKS

An experience has multiple steps. Even reading a single page of content has a sequence of mental steps.

And you want users to do more than engage with a single page of content!

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Framing a task

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Task

Inputs

Next steps

User group

OutcomeTrigger

Context

Information & Data

Interruptions

UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Flows can change with platform and triggers

Request approval

View req’dcourse list

Search for a course

View description

Confirm selection

Set reminder

Read message

View req’dcourse list

View description

Confirm selection

Browse for a course

Search for a course

Finish looking

View course list

View description

View pre-requisites

Filter required

Request approval

Confirm selection

View related

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

CONTENT & DATA

“Content is king” – and a user’s overall experience with content and data involves:

• Finding and recognizing

• Understanding

• Synthesizing and managing

• Using, sharing

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Consider the whole navigational picture in your IA

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Content as a navigational center for experience

Search

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

SeekType in the box

EvaluateAssess results

ReviewAssess content

FormulateStrategyTactics

Activity

RefineAdjust criteria & tactics

Seeking is an experience, often over time

Situation

Info TaskAchieve in the search space

GoalAchieve in the world

UseApply what you gained

KeepPersistent resource

Outcome

Degler/Phua 2011. Searching: How One Box Can Mean Different Things to Different People

http://www.designforcontext.com/files/jp-dd_search-mental-models_userfocus_20110916.pdf

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

SITU

ATI

ON

SIG

NA

LS Location

Co-occurring events

Date / time

Conditions

Devices / connectivityU

SE

RSI

GN

ALS

Usage patterns

Experience

Interests / profile

History

Community

CO

NTE

NT

SIG

NA

LS

Link relationships

Text patterns

Categories / keywords

Metadata

TAS

K S

IGN

ALS

Outcomes / goals

Rules / requirements

Criticality

Sequence / status

Frequency for user

Relevance has manydimensions

Degler 2013. Supporting Relevance for

Users: A Design Challenge

http://www.designforcontext.com/publication

s/supporting-relevance-for-users

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

PRACTICING UX

Getting started with research,

design and evaluation.

Techniques you can use today.

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Practicing UX

1. Answer key questions about goals & users RESEARCH

2. Define a plan and build out a design framework DESIGN

3. Get feedback early and often EVALUATION

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Practicing UX

1. Answer key questions about goals & users

• Interviews

• Feedback collection & review

• Site visits

• Facilitation (internal and external)

• Roadmap development

• Content analysis

• Data model/pattern analysis

• Reviewing other documentation in the organization

RESEARCH

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Practicing UX

2. Define a plan and build out a design framework

• User-centered design

• Information architecture

• Interaction design

• Graphic design

• Development and developer support

DESIGN

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

Practicing UX

3. Get feedback early and often

• Quick expert review & recommendations

• Usability testing

• Analytics from use

• Longitudinal assessment

• Facilitated conversations

EVALUATION

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UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context UX for Content Sites 27 January 2015@design4context

LOOKING AHEAD

Visual and interactive “language” evolving

Mobile app / web evolving

Platform-relevant interaction

Pervasive and ubiquitous information

Collaborative creation with your users

Information as a shared asset –valuable, but with responsibilities

Deeper context / user awareness mapped to content, modeled as linked data

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http://hubblesite.org/gallery/spacecraft/28/large_web

www.designforcontext.com

Duane Degler@[email protected]

Website UX

Web Content Mavens DC27 January 2015