Caroline Helms
LIBR 251
08/10/12
Creating a More Social Medium:
Interactive Improvement for Web Design
Views vary on what makes a website usable. Is it the visual scheme that makes it
bearable? Or is it the various features? In this time of increasing online connectivity and
the proliferation of social outlets such as Twitter, many sites are implementing their own
versions of this.
To adapt to these changes as a designer, I have devised a prototype of a forum
where users of my organization’s website will be able to mingle with each other and
those who manage the site. Not only will this give users a feeling of having control over
the site’s activity, designers will learn from the users on how best to improve
functionality.
Design has always been a process of modification; scrap ideas that no longer
work and add in features to enrich the experience of the user. My hope is to always
improve features. One clear way to do this is to allow feedback from the users. This way,
we designers can always have the challenge of meeting the user expectations. The
continuous dialog between designer and user will strengthen our interactions.
The proliferation of the Internet has allowed new avenues for this interaction.
Communication can be conducted visually and/or auditory instantaneously from
anywhere in the world. The ease with which users can find the information they seek or
others with similar interests has never been easier. Users can have their voices heard to
anyone at anytime. Websites with feedback options allows designers of the site to address
the concerns of those users.
User-centered design made the most sense in my prototype for user feedback.
Since this design problem affects users, who else to design for? The best results would be
achieved by directly working with and for users. Their feedback would be invaluable in
development of the design. In regards to my prototype, user input has molded the way the
website looks and interacts with the user.
Being a digital domain, interaction with our users is limited. Unless someone is
continuously on staff, dialog will be delayed. A delay would be beneficial in allotting
time to formulate a detailed, thoughtful response. That is the single thought that we as
designers for our website hope; communication with our users which will benefit both
parties. They have the questions and we should have the answers.
The hope from my design is to strengthen the goals and understanding of both
designer and user. By a clear mode of communication, this can be done. By providing an
area of the website which allows dialog, user and designer can work together to create a
better product. There is little to be had of flaws in this plan. By listening to the user-base,
designers can best address their needs.
The description of my design is necessary to “explain what it is, what makes it
unique, and why someone would use it instead of something else” (Saffer, 2010). I
wanted to ensure the users that the inclusion of a comment/discussion section would be
beneficial to them. This will allow the users to socialize with others as well as the
designers to address user concerns. Design improvement would go nowhere without user
feedback.
My user feedback has shown that features should be kept to a minimum. Too
much on the screen overwhelms the user in the process of finding what they are looking
for. On the other hand, too few features also limit the user on finding exactly what they
want. The solution is finding a balance though that could prove challenging. The
placement of their options on both the top and bottom of the screen provides the
satisfaction that the user is never far from the information they seek.
A strong prototype would give proof that my design is worth implementing. This
would be something to prove to both the users and the organization which manages the
website. Great care and effort must be taken in the ideation stage as well as the
preparation of the prototype.
One way in which to support the users is through abstraction (Saffer, 2010). By
weeding through the numerous user comments, we can find some of the most relevant
data for future design issues. Of course, I should be concerned with listening to what
everyone has to say. One would hope that whatever the users have to say is relevant to
the topic at hand.
Much thinking and testing should go into a project before finalization. To truly
find out how a comment/discussion section would respond to its core audience requires
many bouts of testing with a wide variety of subjects. With the limited time available, I
was able to have two users who seemed promising. Tester 1 was a 59 year old female
who is just discovering the social connectivity of the Internet using websites such as
Facebook and Twitter. The second tester is a 20 year old male who blogs often and
converses extensively on Facebook.
During the testing period, I realized that some of the best ideas for website
improvement came from the interaction between designer and user. This is exactly the
point I was trying to prove. The addition of a comment/discussion area to our site will
strengthen our bond to our users as well as more easily address their concerns for later
design improvement.
Being someone who visualizes ideas most easily with colors, this helped with the
design of a prototype. Having a prototype with colors to highlight important features of
the page focused the tester’s attention. Colors also helped me in structuring the site
layout. I asked both users - with a blue marker - to mark on the initial sketch where the
comment/discussion area should be. The use of markers for highlighting drew the user’s
attention on what I wanted them to focus on (Butow, 2007).
The testers appreciated my attempt at addressing their concerns with a
comment/discussion area. Tester 2 commented on the potential of a liaison between user
and designer. How else could we improve our services if not for continuous
communication? How else would users interact with each other to find people who share
similar interests provided through my site?
A great concern of mine was the placement of the comment/discussion area and
how it might affect navigation. Both testers saw the bottom of the page as the logical
placement. Tester 1 thought that a link near the top in the left or right-hand corner could
also be implemented. I then asked her if it would be better to have that link send the user
to the comment/discussion area at the bottom of the page or be sent to another page
entirely. Her answer was not so simple. She thought that the link should send the user to
an area of the site for general comments and discussion. The comment/discussion area at
the bottom of the page should only be for users who wish to speak only about that page.
When working with my testers, all pages of the paper prototype were numbered to
not allow the user to become confused and lost. It also helped me not become lost
myself! In a business-oriented test, it would be quite embarrassing as the designer to lose
control. The tester and whomever they represent might lose respect for the designer and
their organization. Being prepared is always essential.
Being a low-fidelity prototype, the tester had to use their imagination. Although I
tried to involve myself as little as possible, there were times when I had to explain the
image and what the user was expected to do. I learned from my designing experience that
instruction is also a necessary skill. If the user does not understand how to perform the
test, the results will do little to validate my findings.
From my results, I have learned that designers should devote a large portion of
their time to the user and what they want. In regards to the development of a web based
forum, this is especially crucial. Through this medium both user and designer collaborate
to create an altogether satisfying product. As social media changes, so too must the
interactive designer.
Works Cited
Butow, E. (2007). User interface design for mere mortals. Addison-Wesley Professional.
Saffer, D. (2009). Designing for interaction: Creating innovative applications and
devices. (2 ed.). Berkeley: New Riders.
Tester 1
(59 year old woman) used a blue sharpie to notate where
comment/discussion area should be located.
Tester 2 (20 year old male) used
a blue sharpie to notate where
comment/discussion area should
be located.
Tester 1 also thought link should be provided for an area of the website
specifically for general discussion.