When it comes to carrying out mobile usability testing there’s a variety of well documented solutions, for example Harry Brignull’s usability testing sled made for a fiver, Nick Bowmast’s variation on a theme, and Lokion Interactives pimped sled beautifully monogramed and made by Ponoko. There’s also a great slide-deck from this years IA Summit which summarises the different approaches that can be taken, including the pros and cons of each.

What would MacGyver do?

At first I considered copying an existing solution, especially as there’s so many good ones already floating around. However, I had several requirements that I didn’t feel previous sleds had answered completely enough. I wanted to create a testing sled that was:

• Unobtrusive for the person using it – this isn’t easy by any means but I wanted to try and stay out of the way as much as possible, meaning the sled and camera had to be small, lightweight (light enough to hold in one hand) and have minimal impact on the participants field of vision.
• Of a professional standard – as I work in a commercial context the sled had to represent my client and agency in a professional way. I’ve seen some solutions that rely on Blu Tack or sticky-tape to hold them together, which is a perfectly fine solution but something I personally wanted to avoid.
• Adjustable and interchangeable – I wanted the ability to alter the camera position (to allow for lefties and righties) as well as accommodate multiple devices without too much fuss.
• Easily duplicated and disassembled - heading up a rapidly growing UX team at the time the rig had to be remade easily and consistently within a short time frame. To accommodate different devices and testing in multiple locations it had to be in kit form.
• Made from widely available parts – to allow for future duplication I wanted the rig to contain no expensive, limited edition or bespoke parts.

The ingredients

I shopped around for affordable parts that were readily available so I could make more in the future if everything went to plan, and if something went horribly wrong I could source replacement parts easily. I managed to get everything, including the camera, for a little under £42 (including postage). I used:

• Hue HD USB webcam
• A cheap flexible iPhone case
• 1.8m USB extension cable
• Black cable ties
• Adhesive Velcro patches*

* Initially I planned to use superglue, but instead opted for small adhesive Velcro patches so that it could be disassembled if necessary

The only tools used were a scalpel and a Sharpie (to mark where to cut), MacGyver would have been proud.

Making the sled

Firstly I had to attach the webcam to the case, in a way that wasn’t permanent but was secure and stable. The Hue HD webcam comes with a USB stand, but it wasn’t necessary as the USB on the camera could be plugged directly into the extension lead.

Four small cuts were made in the back of the iPhone case, the space between them equal to the width of the USB extension lead. Two cable ties were passed through, horizontally to the case, and left untied.

Then the USB lead was placed between the cable ties, which were tightened to secure the lead in place. A small square of adhesive Velcro was placed just above the USB port with the other half stuck to the webcam’s USB plug. This meant that once the webcam was attached to the USB port the Velcro held it in place and stopped it from moving around, or detaching under it’s own weight. Initially I was worried that the Velcro wouldn’t hold the weight of the camera but it actually worked well and was pretty solid. Finally the iPhone was clipped into the case.

The end result

The camera was attached so that it curved up from the bottom of the phone and therefore didn’t obstruct the users view too much, it also meant that the cameras built-in mic was close to their mouth. Once the camera was attached and the phone was in the holder the USB lead could be attached to a laptop, which in this instance was equipped with Morae testing software. By using Morae, we could position a second webcam (we used the laptops built-in webcam) to capture the participants facial expressions and body language.

It took a little bit of tweaking to get the camera positioned correctly so that it was in focus, and the webcam did add weight to the phone and unbalance things a little, but without hands on experience of other testing sleds I can’t say whether this was better or worse than other solutions. We also found that, if we didn’t get the position perfect, occasionally the camera was susceptible to wilting to the right or left but only very slightly and not to the extent that it was noticeable to the participant or detrimental to the recording.

That said for only £42 (not including the recording software license) and only taking 30 minutes to build from scratch I was really pleased with the end result. It was straight forward to adapt for other devices (e.g. iPad and Android devices) and very convenient to transport. I’d recommend it as a solution, and it definitely worked for me, but without trying out alternatives I couldn’t say how it compares.

If you have a go at recreating this sled I’d be really interested to hear about it, whether the experience is good or bad.

Intelligent defaults

In short, the point Michael made was that sites providing the ability to sort content without setting a relevant default are missing a trick.

An example of how ASOS don't set a default 'sort' state

Michael used the example of ASOS. Although they include a sort feature with the options ‘what’s new?’, ‘Price High to Low‘ and vice-verse they don’t explicitly set a default state. This raises the question of how the products are currently sorted, is it editor-defined, chronological, alphabetical or something else entirely?

Although this is a valid issue and something, as User Experience professionals, we need to be aware of it’s a relatively quick fix. The complexity is in understanding what the sort says about the website in the first place.

What does a default sort say about a brand?

Recently I had a conversation with a travel destination client about this exact issue. During a workshop intended to cover off the finer points of a prototype a heated debate started around what the default ‘sort’ state should be for holiday search results. Should it be an ‘editors choice’ or be sorted by more neutral means;  location, accommodation type (lodge, chalet, etc), availability, or price.

After much discussion everyone agreed that, based on our knowledge of the customer, price was the best option. But then came the question; should we sort high to low, or low to high?

By preselecting ‘high to low‘ you communicate that you are a higher-end brand and that quality, rather than cost, is a priority for your customers.

Conversely, by presenting items ‘low to high‘ you align your proposition with affordability, value, and competitive/budget pricing rather than the sense of exclusivity or luxury.

Sorted

For the travel brand it came down to making a fundamental decision about themselves that, surprisingly, they hadn’t openly discussed or defined before; are we a value/budget brand (such as Butlins or Easyjet) or is money not an issue for our customers and therefore focused on quality, closer aligned to brands such as Mr & Mrs Smith or Kuoni? Once we posed this question to them it was an easy decision to make and helped drive other decisions across the site.

Its safe to say, with hindsight, that this was an issue we should have had clearly defined at the start of the project as part of a wider strategy. In actual fact it was, but with so many stakeholders in the room it became apparent that it was not a shared view and certainly not something that had been openly discussed.

The default state of a sort isn’t going to dramatically change people’s perceptions but it’s this kind of little detail in my opinion that really matters as it can help to provide a cohesive and consist experience.

With a clearly defined experience strategy these sorts of decisions should be straight forward and not open for debate (e.g. “we’re a value brand appealing to families therefore the only logical answer is to provide our customers with the cheapest options first.”), without this the experience can end up feeling disjointed and can lead to conflict.

In short, do sweat the small stuff, but be clear on your strategy and proposition so that you keep the sweat to a minimum.

• Launched a new portfolio – After about a year of procrastination, and with a little help from Matt Budd‘s coding skills, I finally relaunched my personal portfolio website. A lot of  work has gone into it and I’ll hopefully blog more about it soon.
• Exciting projects in the pipeline – The first half of 2011 has been an exciting time for Redweb and the UX team has been kept busy with some very interesting, and challenging, projects. There’s a lot of things I’ve learnt while working on these projects that I’d like to share but I’ll wait until the website’s have gone live before I do.
• A baby on the way – We’re expecting our first baby later this year, which I’m understandably stoked about. I can’t wait to become a Dad, and although I know it’ll have a profound effect on me I’ve made the decision not to write about my personal life from now on so I’ll be trying my hardest not to mention it again.
• Made a big decision – after 6 years at Redweb I felt it was time I set myself some new challenges and move on. It’s been great to witness Redweb grow and evolve over the years and I feel privileged to have played a part in it. But, as of this week, I’m joining SapientNitro as an Information Architecture Manager.  I’m really looking forward to the challenges this will bring and hopefully I’ll share them on here (if I get the chance).

This means there’s now a UX-shaped hole at Redweb. Although, initially at least, they’re not directly replacing me they are looking to recruit a new User Experience Consultant to help bolster the team.

Before leaving I worked closely with the team to make sure the quality of the UX offering and the way it permeates through the agency is not lost or negatively impacted. I have the utmost confidence in the team I leave behind and I’ll be watching them with interest over the coming months. The vacancy is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to work on the south coast as part of a professional, well established and award winning team with some interesting and varied clients.

Sound interesting? Take a look at the job description for more details. Alternatively feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions you’d like to ask.

I can’t take credit for the league table as it originated on uxbookclub.org and is updated on an ongoing basis. I thought it would be worth capturing it for posterity and to see how it changes overtime, which books have gained the most interest over the last year and which have been forgotten. Hopefully this is something I’ll remember to compile each year from now on.

It’s worth noting that this league table is not based on opinion, it is a record of the books read over the last 2 years by UX Book Clubs around the World. If you feel there are books missing that should be included please feel free to add a comment below, however as it is based on the number of appearances at UX Book Clubs the only way to get books added to the league table is to attend a book club and suggest it there.

User Experience book league table

Sketching User Experiences

by Bill Buxton, published by Morgan Kaufmann
Read by Sydney, Melbourne, London, Israel, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver (Colorado), New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Twin Cities, Washington DC, Helsinki, Edmonton, Zuid-Holland

Don’t Make Me Think

by Steve Krug, published by New Riders
Read by Canberra, Memphis, Los Angeles, Boston, Milwaukee, Edmonton, Bristol, Wroclaw, Belfast, Hamburg, Glasgow

Mental Models

by Indi Young, published by Rosenfeld Media
Read by Boston, Brisbane, Canberra, New York, Portland, Auckland, Denver (Colorado), Brighton, Zuid-Holland, Rome

Designing for the Social Web

by Joshua Porter, published by New Riders
Read by Sydney, Chicago, Denver (Colorado), Glasgow, Edmonton, Brattleboro, St Albans, Warsaw, Wroclaw

Subject to Change

by Peter Merholz et al, published by O’Reilly
Read by New York, Richmond VA, Boston, Sydney, Toronto, Portland, Copenhagen

Web Form Design

by Luke Wroblewski, published by Rosenfeld Media
Read by Ithaca, Warsaw, Toronto, Atlanta, Wroclaw, Sydney

The Design of Everyday Things

by Don Norman, published by Basic Books
Read by Edmonton, Bristol, Portland, Wellington, Vancouver, Glasgow

A Project to UX Design

by Russ Unger & Carolyn Chandler, published by New Riders
Read by Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, Edmonton

The Back of the Napkin

by Don Roam, published by Marshall Cavendish
Read by Silicon Valley, Portland, Melbourne, San Francisco

Emotional Design

by Don Norman, published by Basic Books
Read by Brisbane, Toronto, Auckland

Communicating Design

by Dan Brown, published by New Riders
Read by Bristol, Denver (Colorado), Rome

Design is the Problem

by Nathan Shedroff, published by Rosenfeld Media
Read by Washington DC, Auckland, Switzerland

Designing Interactions

by Bill Moggridge, published by MIT Press
Read by Atlanta, Calgary, Glasgow

The Creative Habit

by Twyla Tharp, published by Simon & Schuster
Read by Chicago, Dallas

Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages

by Alex Wright, published by Cornell University
Read by Canberra, Sydney

Designing for Interaction

by Dan Saffer, published by New Riders
Read by Austin, Melbourne

Designing Gestural Interfaces

by Dan Saffer, published by O’Reilly
Read by London, Los Angeles

Designing for the Digital Age

by Kim Goodwin, published by Wiley
Read by Seattle, Melbourne

Nudge

by Richard H. Thaler, published by Penguin
Read by Los Angeles, New York

Measuring the User Experience

by Thomas Tullis & William Albert, published by Morgan Kaufmann
Read by Washington DC, Warsaw

It’s possible this list may be a little flawed as it’s not clear how often the official league table is updated, but I thought it was worth sharing it again and noting the differences a year on from my original post regardless. If you’re interested in the original league table to can find it on the UX Book Club wiki. Alternatively, if you have any comments please feel free to share them below.

This month the UK Usability Professionals’ Association (UK UPA) has introduced 4 new roles into the committee to help reduce workload and share responsibilities. In my opinion this is a great idea, especially as the roles are so clearly defined, allowing each person to have a very specific focus and function.

UK Liaison

Of particularly interest to me is the position of UK Liaison, a role designed to represent the UK UPA outside of London and support new and existing regional UX communities. The main requirements of the position are to:

• Provide the main point of contact for and lead UK UPA activities around collaboration with other UX/Usability groups outside of London
• Build relationships and liaise with existing and potential UK chapters
• Be the first point of contact for all UK chapter queries
• Make members aware of related events, and advertise London based UK UPA events to other UK  groups
• Take a lead role in ensuring that speakers and resources are shared across other groups events where possible

History

Although I think the UK UPA does a great job I believe this is a role that has been lacking for some time. Back in August, during the main committee elections Jane Austin (now Vice Chair) asked for questions to be posed to candidates.

Although I work for a ‘regional’ agency our clients are spread far and wide and naturally a portion of my time is spent working in London. It’s because of the amount of time I spend in London that I’m able to engage with the UPA and attend events, but I know many people who aren’t so fortunate. I’ve felt for some time that the association is not fully representative of the UK, and focuses a disproportion amount on London.

Following Jane’s request I posed the question, how candidates would support UPA members and the wider industry outside of London. I was surprised by the level of discussion this raised and soon realised I wasn’t alone in my opinion.

Since, then it’s played on my mind and I’ve wanted to do something to help support regional communities, but haven’t really known in what form to express this. So it was great to find out that the UK UPA were creating the new role. Although, I’m sure my chances are slim I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t stand. So last week I submitted my nomination for the post of UK Liaison.

Voting opened on Monday 22nd November and I now have a nervous wait until 15th December when we find out the results.

The quality of competition I face is high, with nominations coming from both Bunnyfoot and Flow Interactive, two agencies I have the utmost respect for. Although I personally don’t know the other candidates, Nick and Greg, I’m confident that if I’m not successful the position will be in very good hands.

Vote

Having said that, please vote for me! Unfortunately only UPA members are eligible to vote, if you are a member please consider my nomination. You can find out more about my nomination as well as the other candidates on the election page of the UK UPA website and you can cast your vote on SurveyMonkey.

If you’re not a member I’d still really appreciate your support. Although voting is only open to members UK UPA, events are open to all so it’s important that everyone has a say in it’s future.

Back in April the nice people at UXBooth asked me if I’d like to write a blog post for them.

At the time having noticed a lot of great looking books on the horizon from the likes of Donna Spencer and the boys from ClearLeft, Cennydd Bowles and James Box, I thought I’d put together a post about New UX Books to Look Out for in 2010.

It seemed to get quite a good reception so this week I wrote a follow up post aimed at people new to UX. You can read the post User Experience Books for Beginners on UX Booth.

About My Vote as seen on BBC News (photo courtesy of @randomapricot)

With the General Election only a couple of weeks away the website I designed for the Electoral Commission, aboutmyvote.co.uk, has received quite a bit of news coverage.

As I mentioned in my previous post, at the end of last year we were the proud recipients of a BIMA award for Best Informational Website beating the likes of the BBC, British Gas and Channel 4. It was an awesome feeling to win the award but its been far more rewarding to see the site being used successfully and generating positive feedback.  On several occasions we’ve received emails forwarded on to us by the client that they in-turn have  received from users of the site commenting on how easy to use it is, and they’re not all from my mum either! I find it quite surprising that people are motivated enough by a good experience to email a government department  about it, and I’m certainly not going to complain about it!

Making a difference

In May I’m getting married to a Cardiac Nurse.  It’s amazing to hear some of the stories she comes home with at the end of each day, matters of life and death,  which always makes it slightly harder to complain about the lack of fresh muffins in the studio or a slightly slower than usual internet connection, any such comments usually lead to questions asking me if my diamond shoes are too tight as well.

But in all seriousness it’s something that I’ve always struggled with in my career; how am I helping other people? I think that’s one of the key contributing factors that lead me to User Experience as a discipline, the ability to make things better for people. Seeing the success of About My Vote and the part its playing in the General Election has helped me to feel like I have, in some small way, made a difference.

Pride and ugly babies

I take great pride in my work, as cheesy as it sounds I do find myself thinking of each site as though it was a newly born baby, I just sometimes wish I could dis-own some of the uglier ones, drown them or at the very least make them walk 100 metres behind me at all times so no-one see’s us together.  But thankfully that’s not the case with About My Vote, I’m quite happily taking the role of the proud and slightly embarrassing parent, hence this blog post!

As well as the kind words the Electoral Commission has received from their users we’ve also been able to collect quantitative data during the run up to the Election.

Tangible success

“The biggest recipient of UK Internet traffic from searches for ‘register to vote’ last week was About My Vote… As a result, visits to the site increased by 252%.”
Robin Goad, Hitwise

So far there have been around 1.8 million visitors to About My Vote over the run up to the election. Around two in five visits have been by 18-to-24 year olds which was classed as a minority group, and a key objective, when we first undertook the redesign. Before the 6 May announcement was made the site received around 22,000-25,000 registrations per month. In the last month the site has had just under 500,000 registration forms downloaded from it, which is an increase of around 1900%.

Obviously this is to be expected in the run up to an election and in itself isn’t an indication of success, but I’d like to think with the increase in traffic and press coverage if the experience of using it was poor we would have seen a lot more negative comments and I’m sure fewer people would have been promoting on Twitter.

Gradual Engagement

I’d  like to think that the perceived simplicity of the process has helped with its advocacy. Back in December, shortly after our BIMA success I wrote a post for the Redweb blog on the approach we took. In it I compared the the new site with its predecessor. By involving users in our approach and simplifying the process we managed to reduce the bounce rate to only 12% and increase conversions by approximately 87%.  To find out more read my post Gradual engagement: removing barriers for voters.

About My Vote press coverage

• Latest rush of people registering to vote – BBC news
• Has the web registered? – BBC news
• Online voter registration - Hitwise Intelligence
• Facebook, TV and the web get thousands more to register to vote – ComputerWeekly
• Thousands flock online to register to vote – Webuser
• More people download voter-registration forms  - ComputerActive
• Late rush of young people registering to vote – NUS

Web Designer Magazine (October, issue 163)

We didn’t want to choose something obvious or easy. We wanted to challenge ourselves by picking a website that was well known within the UK, on some level successful and then look to improve upon it. We’re both strong advocates of the adage ‘good designers redesign, great designers realign’ so wanted to show how our chosen design could be iteratively changed to best meet the needs of its users rather than just redesigning it based on an emotional response to aesthetics. We recorded the process we went through to highlight each iteration and help us to write about it later!

With Damian responsible for the visual design I took lead on the user experience and UI design.  The split in responsibilities and iterative approach seemed to suit a blog post double bill, starting with this one which covers our initial thoughts through to a new prototype UI. Damian has then taken up the baton and run flat out to the finish line leaving tales of visual design, brand development and our final solution in his tracks. No doubt his post over at Randomapricot will be far better than my atrocious metaphor!

Picking a bad design

Having asked friends, family and the wonderful world of Twitter to come up with suggestions we settled on what we felt was the ideal example of a bad yet successful website, enter MoneySavingExpert.com.

According to Hitwise MoneySavingExpert has been the number 1 UK Business & Finance website since 2006. This year it ranked as the 100th most visited website in the UK whilst the forum ranked as the 10th most popular social network. It receives over 7.5 million unique visitors a month, supports 25 full-time staff and annually raises over £100k for charity, in fact raising enough money that they’ve setup their own charity just to handle the administration of the money, and yet this is all achieved without displaying adverts or charging users.

Current situation

With 3 million email subscribers and over 1/2 million forum members they have a social obligation to make the site perform as efficiently as possible. Its clear that there is a large and active community around the site but the design is flawed enough that it hinders rather than helps its users. In effect MoneySavingExpert is successful in spite of its design.

MoneySavingExpert.com - before

Clarifying the proposition

In their own words MoneySavingExpert’s proposition is to “save you money on anything and everything by finding the best deals and beating the system… based on detailed journalistic research and cutting edge tools.” They do this through several channels, the main being a weekly email.

The proposition is nowhere near clear enough, the importance of the email is lost amongst the crowded design and confused by the heaviness of content. Similarly the unique way in which they’re funded isn’t immediately apparent.

Simplicity and reducing noise

Following our initial research we wanted to show that with minimal effort we could noticeably and positively impact on the design. One of the biggest problems we faced was the amount of visual noise cluttering the design. with this in mind ambiguous icons and unnecessary graphical elements were removed, the usability of basic elements (such as calls to action) were enhanced and all instances of repetitive content were taken out. Instantly the design seemed cleaner and clearer as well as giving us a better idea of what we had to work with, what content and functionality we had to focus on and how far we could push the design.

Spring cleaned current design

Improving structure and layout

noise Once the initial clean up was complete we soon realised that, intentionally or not, the design was roughly built on a five column grid. Our first iteration was tweaked to fit and the foundations of our design started to take shape. I also took the opportunity to further improve the layout. Graphical text was replaced, the number of colours used reduced and primary navigation simplified.

Optimised design with grid

Back to the drawing board

With the content stripped back and a basic structure applied, I switiched to my trusty layout pad and started sketching out new solutions. To help retain familiarity with the existing design I kept the prominent right column and grid system but made it more focused by dividing up the content based on whether it was financial advice or related to the site itself (e.g. about Martin Lewis, how MSE is funded). The latter, being less important, was placed within the right column so as not to distract from the main content.

Sketched wireframes

MoneySavingExpert is described not as a website with an email, but more an e-mail with a website, with this in mind I treated email subscription as a primary function so moved it away from the right column and placed it in a more prominent position.

Global elements were next on my agenda. Search was moved up into the header and the primary navigation made more consistent by subtly changing things like the labels, order and spacing.

Within the main body money saving features were grouped together and placed below the email signup to help reinforce the benefits of subscription and support regular visitors looking for the latest financial advice.

Martin Lewis, the man behind MSE, has written several money saving books all of which can be purchased via the site. As the proceeds go straight to charity they were worth highlighting but not at the expense of the sites main objectives so they were placed together below the financial advice and offers. Beneath the book shop went any additional supporting content such as free tools and the visitor poll.

Wireframe (Axure prototype)

Although it seemed like I’d made loads of changes to the wireframe it still felt familiar.

A new visual design

Once happy with the wireframe I handed across to Damian to work on the visual design. Part 2 of this post explains Damian’s approach and reveals the final design. Read part 2 on Randomapricot now.

But before you go, I’d love to hear what you think. Better? worse? Rubbish approach? Please feel free to leave a comment, as always any feedback is really appreciated.

With .net describing the article as “demystifying the process (UX) behind web design and development’s fastest-growing and potentially most important industry” I thought it would be worth me posting my responses to some of the questions I was asked.  Enjoy!

.net magazine (December 2009, issue 196)

What does user experience mean, as far as you’re concerned?

To me user experience is all about the way in which people interact with a product or service and how they feel about that interaction. It’s about providing a great experience that successfully meets the needs of the people who use it. UX design can often be confused with user interface design but its so much more than that, it encompasses the complete experience someone has with a product and the organisation responsible for it, from the initial handshake right through to the happy ending.

Why does user experience matter? What are the benefits?

Taking a user centered approach to design results in a far richer and more rewarding solution when compared to more traditional methods. For users it means increased productivity and success and in turn gives a company greater advantage over their competitors.

The benefits speak for themselves really. Focusing on the user experience leads to increased revenue (or conversions), helps to reduce cost and promotes customer loyalty. If users are more efficient and effective their chances of converting are far higher. A good example of this was a recent redesign Redweb completed. As part of the redesign we looked at their reservation system and carried out usability testing throughout the project. This resulted in an increase in bookings of 123%.

Costs can be reduced both in the development of the product but also in regards to customer service. By carrying out sufficient research early on the whole team, including the client, are clear on what needs to be achieved and it also limits the chances of unexpected requirements cropping up towards the end.

Once deployed if the product is easier to use then customers have less reason to contact you. If the users are successful and therefore happier they become more loyal, and loyalty generally spreads to friends and family which in turn leads to increased revenue.

How do you approach user experience when creating websites and working with clients?

For me the most important aspect of starting any project is to first educate the client to the importance of a user centered approach. Sometimes clients can be overly keen to see something tangible straight away whereas we first need to fully understand the requirements of the business and the needs of the users. There are many research techniques Redweb use such as collaborative workshops with stakeholders or contextual interviews with  users. We like to continue the same level of openness we show early on throughout the project and involve our clients throughout to help them feel as much apart of the decision making process as possible.

Do you make use of process flows, wireframes and other diagrams, and prototypes? If so, how and why?

Project deliverables differ depending on the brief. Ultimately we like to work collaboratively as a team and openly with our clients and produce artefact’s wherever necessary. As a team Redweb focus on creating a functional prototype that we can use as a base of reference which can also be tested directly with end users and seen and played with by the client. Having said that, any prototype always starts with hand-drawn sketches.

Likewise, do you create user journeys and experiences/work with personality persona’s?

In the early stages of a project Redweb focus very heavily on understanding who the users are and how they’re most likely to interact with the system we’re designing. Personas can be a great tool to focus both the team and the client throughout the life-cycle of a project.

How do you test user experience/interaction and information architecture? What should you look for?

There are many ways to test the effectiveness of an information architecture but it’s as much about knowing what to leave out as it is what to leave in. It’s very easy to take on board everything that a user has to say but a lot of the time its not necessarily what they say but what they do that’s important. It’s about looking at the wider view. Its not so much about concentrating on the little details but trying to understand what they mean on a more global scale; is the tone of voice wrong throughout? Does the site poorly address the users mental model?  Their frustrations may not necessarily be with the interface that you’ve designed but the process they’re being made to go through; 20 questions when 4 will do, or highly personal questions that don’t seem relevant to the task.

What can designers do regarding testing if they have a really small budget?

These days there are so many options available to designers working to small budgets, you really are spoilt for choice. There are loads of services to help designers with remote testing, from apps like Websort, Treejack and Survs to iRise and ‘The 5 Second Test’. But I wouldn’t recommend relying purely on remote tools. With the growing popularity of remote testing designers can too easily overlook the benefits of meeting and speaking to users first hand. It doesn’t have to be in the form of lengthy and extensive lab based usability testing, it could be as simple as setting up a laptop in a coffee shop and offering people a free drink if they give you 5 minutes of their time to look over your latest design, it can provide invaluable feedback and if you pick a coffee shop with a rewards scheme and speak to 4 users you’ll have earned yourself a free coffee by the end of it!

What do people get wrong regarding UX in web design? What common mistakes do you see or misunderstandings do you find are rife?

From a designers point of view at times it can be easy to focus too much on the little details and neglect the bigger things about how a user arrives at the site, what task are they looking to complete and how do they go about achieving their goal. It’s always worth asking yourself ‘have I done enough to help them?’

With regards to clients they are becoming far better educated than they previously were but sometimes a little knowledge can be more damaging. They can form an opinion on a particular subject and it can be very challenging to move past it. The ’3 clicks or less’ issue is a good example of this. Although the rule is a commonly held belief there is no scientific proof to support it. A study conducted in 2003 found there to be no correlation between the number of times users clicked and their success in finding the content they were looking for. Analysis showed that there wasn’t any more likelihood of a user quitting after 3 clicks than after 12.

What do you think the next big development in UX will be?

Usability testing relies on people telling us what they’re thinking either whilst they’re working through a task or explaining their actions in exit interviews. It helps us to understand ‘why’ they acted in certain ways but its not the most effective why as it doesn’t uncover subconscious actions or problems that they may have been too embarrassed to admit to. Eye-tracking can be very effective at uncovering what people are focusing on, the priority in which they look at things and the length of time they concentrate for but again it doesn’t satisfactorily tell us how the users feel about their experience and at what points their emotive responses are strongest. I think the next big steps will be in finding ways to measure this sort of response effectively.

Case study within the .net article

If you made it through this far thank you for taking the time, and well done! I’d strongly recommend reading the full .net magazine article if you can get your hands on it as it’s far more interesting and well worth it. If you have any comments on anything I’ve said please add them as I’m always interested in receiving feedback.

Note (added 13 January 2010): Craig Grannell’s article has now been added to TechRadar. Read the article “The Web Designer’s guide to User Experience” on TechRadar.

Contributed to Web Designer Magazine

Web Designer Magazine (November, issue 163)

Back in November I contributed to the cover article of Web Designer Magazine along with Damian Proctor (Head of Design at Redweb). We were asked to pick and redesign a truly bad website. Our work was showcased along side the likes of Carsonified, which we both felt pretty honoured by.  We picked MoneySavingExpert.com and were really pleased with the results, even if I do say so myself. We treated the redesign as a real project and documented our process along the way. We’re currently working on complimentary blog posts to explain our thinking behind the redesign so keep a look out for mine in the New Year.

Interviewed by .Net Magazine

.net magazine (December, issue 196)

Much the same as buses you wait ages to be asked to contribute to a magazine and then 2 come along at once. Shortly after the Web Designer magazine article I was interviewed by Craig Grannell (@CraigGrannell) for the .net magazine cover story ‘Build the ultimate user experience’. I was amazed to see some of the other people interviewed for the article and really pleased to be have the opportunity to be a part of it and help promote UX design.

Won a BIMA Award

Redweb entered the BIMA Awards for the first time this year and were lucky enough to get 2 nominations, one of which was a website I designed for the Electoral Commission. A bunch of us headed along to the awards under no illusions that we stood even the remotest chance of winning. The Electoral Commission site, ‘About my vote’, looked like the outsider from the start, running up against entries from BBC, British Gas and Channel4.  Amazingly we slayed Goliath and came home with a shiny new BIMA. I wrote about the project on the Redweb blog. If you’re interested you can read the post here.

Cheated on Short Bored Surfer

Talking of the Redweb blog I have a confession to make. I’ve been cheating on Short Bored Surfer. I didn’t mean to do it, it just sort of happened… more than once. But it didn’t mean anything, honest. I’ve written 3 posts over the last couple of months on the Redweb blog:

• Usable standards: an introduction to the COI usability toolkit
• Usability is for life not just for World Usability Day
• Gradual engagement: removing barriers for voters

Redesigned my portfolio

A preview of the Joystik redesign

Like most designers I haven’t been happy with my design portfolio since launching it. The problem I’ve been having of late is that I seldom do conceptual design work any more so there seemed little point in redesigning it. I’ve finally found the motivation and come up with something that I feel successfully represents my work. You can take a sneaky peak at the concepts on Flickr but unfortunately you’ll have to wait until the New Year to see the finished thing.

(And finally…) Planned the final Meetdraw of the year

Although it doesn’t seem like a year since we gave birth to Meetdraw the fourth and final event of 2009 took place in early December. Once again the turn out was fantastic and in my opinion the best event yet. We’ve got some great plans for Meetdraw in 2010 so make sure to check out the new Meetdraw website designed my StrawberrySoup.