Day 3 Information Design: First, know your users

Get your mobile phones out!

Forum Nokia 

Rob Mansperger, Senior Information Architect at PixelMEDIA  How we work  Users

Objectives  Learn how to gather ideas to help formulate goals for the system  Learn how to create personas to represent different user types  Learn how contextual enquiry is used to gain insight into an employee’s work

Critical tasks of Information Design  Define the goals of the product  Understand your users  Assess the users’ needs and desires  Create a content list  Organise the content  Produce a content flowchart

Setting goals  Nothing gets the design process off the ground like having goals defined on a piece of paper  Goals should be the tool you use to evaluate every design decision Continually ask yourself “Does this solution move the design closer to or further away from the goal?”  Some companies will have very well thought- out goals, while others may have only vague goals  You will need to make sure you understand the client’s goals, perhaps even help the client recognise their own goals more clearly

Goal statements  The goal statements should define the results you are after and give you specific design objectives to work towards Some examples  To provide incentives for customers to purchase products online  To create an interactive catalogue that can be updated weekly  To create a DVD about meteorology that will engage users so that they learn and have fun  To create a DVD on calculus that will motivate students to learn Notice that these goals define the result you are after

Understand your client  Understand (or help to define) your client’s goals  Understand the client’s budget  Understand the client’s time constraints

Understand your users  Interviews  Contextual enquiries  Create personas

Interview potential users  You could ask questions their background  You could ask them about their computing environment  You could tell them the goals of your product and find out what they would like to see in such a product  You could ask them if they could think of ways you could achieve your goals

The interview process  Choose a few people who represent your target audience  Begin each interview by clearly describing the project’s goals  Read each question and record each answer  Ask follow up questions if necessary

Contextual Enquiry  Observe people performing tasks in the real world that they will be performing with your product (remember the nurses)  Perhaps you are implementing software for workers in a company, try observing them at work, perhaps asking questions as they work  Perhaps you are developing a DVD for grade 3 maths, try visiting a grade 3 maths class  Perhaps you are developing a website for selling pet accessories, try visiting a pet store

Create personas  A persona is an imaginary person whose characteristics match a particular type of user  You can create personas to represent different types of users  Create the personas after you have already used other techniques to get to know your users  The personas are representative of the type of users you have encountered

Using the personas  Mount the personas on a poster board and display them where the design team can easily see them  Surround them with objects that represent the persona’s needs and wants  The design team can discuss these personas as though they were real potential users throughout the design process  Thinking about these personas might help you think of more answers people might give to a survey or more issues for your product  Thinking about these personas might help in brainstorming sessions

Analyse possible tasks  What tasks need to be performed?  How often are these tasks performed?  Which tasks are possibly the hardest to perform?  Which might be the hardest to learn?  In what environment will the tasks be performed?  How will the user learn to perform the task?  Think about system tasks … e.g. keeping passwords secure, keeping data secure

Yahoo: keeping personas alive  approach-to-keeping-personas-alive/ approach-to-keeping-personas-alive/

Unleash the users 

More companies  Aivea  Viewfarm

About today’s lab  Applying the techniques  2 marks for today’s lab  Make sure to read the suggestions on the website regarding things you could do by the next class