INTRODUCTION TO USER EXPERIENCE

What is user experience design?

User Experience design is design that is user centered. The goal is to design artifacts that allow the users to meet their needs in the most effective and satisfying manner.

How UX Design Process looks like?

Step1: Requirements Gathering

Understanding the user and his goals.

Step2: Design Alternatives

Developing various design options that will improve the user experience.

Step3: Prototyping

Techniques for modelling the novel designs before a final version is produced.

Step4: Evaluation

A set techniques for ascertaining that your design meets the needs of the user.

Ad. Step1: Elements of Requirement Gathering

Types of data

There are two main cathegories of data: quantitative and qualitive. Quantitative data can be thought of as information that can be transcribed numerically that we can analyze using descriptive statistics. Qualitive data, on the other hand, is more easily thought of as providing us with thematic information. In other words quantitative data give us the what about the user and qualitative data give us the why.

Types of users

Primary stakeholders are the people who use the design directly. These are the users that designers most commonly interact with, they’re called the end users.

Secondary stakeholders do not use the design directly, but may do so indirectly because they get some kind of output from it.

Teritiary stakeholders may not use the design at all, but are directly affected by the design in either a negative or positive way.

i.e.

Designing a new system to keep track of wear on running shoes. The runner would be primary stakeholder, because he iswearing the newly designed shoe, she is the end user.

The runner is member of a track team. Here, the coach for the track team would be considered a secondary stakeholder. Because he would be the one that monitors the data about the runner’s shoes and makes decision about they have to get a new pair of sneakers.

A teritiary stakeholders inour example maybe the project manager of the company that builds the shoes. He may get a bonus if the new design increases sales or he’ll get a cut in the budget if it doesn’t.

Discovery Technique Overview

• Naturalistic observation

In naturalistic observations, we simply observe the user as he goes about completing his task.

• Surveys

When we use the survey method, we get the user to fill out a questionnaire and report on what they do and why they do it.

• Focus groups

In the focus group we have formal conversation with five to seven users about their practices.

• Interviews

In interview the designers has a one-to-one interaction with the user.

Ad. Step2: Design alternatives

The goal of the alternative design phase is to develop interfaces or systems to do a better job of meeting the needs of the user than their existing practices. In particular, our job is to hone in on what problems we want to solve. This is the design space.

Ad. Step3: Prototyping

Prototyping literally sits literally and figuratively between design and evaluation. We prototype to evaluate aspects of our new design and to check if the design is meeting the desired outcomes.

Prototyping is important for a variety of reasons. First they allow us to manage precious resources such as time and money. This is because they are just models of our designs so they don’t require for us to engage other highly trained professionals, such as software engineers or graphic designers. Second, because we can build these models quickly, it allows us to iterate on the design and move closer to our desired goal of meeting the user’s needs.

Ad. Step4: Evaluation

The goal of the novel design is to provide and improve user experience over the previous design. But how do we know we’ve accomplished this goal? Evaluation is the answer. It allows us to ascertain that we are improving the user experience. Evaluation requires that you collect data. This may be either quantitative data based on objective measures of performance or subjective measures of preference, or it may be qualitative data based on interviews.

---