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Well, when I think about products for everybody I think of facebook for example. It has a vast number of users so this is enough "everybody" for a beginning interaction designer I think. Though strangely, Facebook started with a very restricted target group: Students of the Harvard University. Slowly and controlled it was opened to more people. First Students of other elite US universities ("Ivy League"). Than all other US universities. Than Highschool students, employees of several big companys and finally it was open for everybody. I don't want to put them on a pedestal for great interaction design. I just want to illustrate that they are successful and did not "desgin for everybody". | Well, when I think about products for everybody I think of facebook for example. It has a vast number of users so this is enough "everybody" for a beginning interaction designer I think. Though strangely, Facebook started with a very restricted target group: Students of the Harvard University. Slowly and controlled it was opened to more people. First Students of other elite US universities ("Ivy League"). Than all other US universities. Than Highschool students, employees of several big companys and finally it was open for everybody. I don't want to put them on a pedestal for great interaction design. I just want to illustrate that they are successful and did not "desgin for everybody". | ||
What this illustrates as well is that it is always easier to add features. Removing them if you note that they don't help you is very hard. You can do so but nobody likes it. What if a function that you particularly use would disappears after an upgrade of your | What this illustrates as well is that it is always easier to add features. Removing them if you note that they don't help you is very hard. You can do so but nobody likes it. What if a function that you particularly use would disappears after an upgrade of your favorite software? People suffer incredibly if you take something away, even if the most of them would be better of it what they had would have never existing anyway. Strange, but thats the way it is. | ||
If you release a successful 1.0 Product you can still extend it in the 2.0 version even with features that are not very-super-crucial. But I write this to help you to release a successful 1.0 version so I did put emphasis on the simplicity. | If you release a successful 1.0 Product you can still extend it in the 2.0 version even with features that are not very-super-crucial. But I write this to help you to release a successful 1.0 version so I did put emphasis on the simplicity. | ||
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* Getting inspiration | * Getting inspiration | ||
You may think that it is not necessary to do research as you are a clever person who knows already a good bunch of stuff about what you design for. | You may think that it is not necessary to do research as you are a clever person who knows already a good bunch of stuff about what you design for. Cognitive Psychologist and UX Professional Don Norman rightly says: "we tend to project our own rationalizations and beliefs onto the actions and beliefs of others". In other words:You think others are like you. But the interesting thing is: they are not the same. So you need to find out via research. | ||
In the beginning of your Project the main research activity will be doing user research and getting to know the goals and problems of your users. Later on you will probably solve more specific problems and use more books and online | In the beginning of your Project the main research activity will be doing user research and getting to know the goals and problems of your users. Later on you will probably solve more specific problems and use more books and online resources to solve these problems. | ||
It is important to get to know what your users what to archive – what their goals are. Goals are not activities like using a feature in your product. | It is important to get to know what your users what to archive – what their goals are. Goals are not activities like using a feature in your product. | ||
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==Use what is already out there== | ==Use what is already out there== | ||
The easiest (though least exiting) way to get insights is researching for | The easiest (though least exiting) way to get insights is researching for resources you can use. Using existing resources is useful in later project stages when you need to solve specific problems and already know about your users goals. | ||
If the topic you want to work on is new for you it might be a good start to start with a book that offers an overview on the field of interest. It will help you as well to get to know the special terms that are used in a more specialized topic. This can be crucial: I often searched for papers of | If the topic you want to work on is new for you it might be a good start to start with a book that offers an overview on the field of interest. It will help you as well to get to know the special terms that are used in a more specialized topic. This can be crucial: I often searched for papers of other resources on the web. What often took the most itme was getting to know the name of what I was actually looking for. For a recent project on online collaboration in design I googled a lot about "Open Design", Collaborative Design" etc. finally I found out, that the term that gave me some interesting links was "open source design" – which was not what I would have guessed initially. | ||
This leads us to the very common possibility to use a search engine to find interesting sites on your topic. The UX community blogs a lot and there is a lot of stuff out there. | This leads us to the very common possibility to use a search engine to find interesting sites on your topic. The UX community blogs a lot and there is a lot of stuff out there. | ||
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In case you have a specific problem you can consider scientific papers. If you need an answer on questions like "what do people remember about their documents?" or "is bimanual interaction an advantage for navigating in virtural space?" than you should go for science! | In case you have a specific problem you can consider scientific papers. If you need an answer on questions like "what do people remember about their documents?" or "is bimanual interaction an advantage for navigating in virtural space?" than you should go for science! | ||
Reading papers may feel difficult | Reading papers may feel difficult when you start and often they contain graphs and numbers that tell you nothing at the first moment. But you will see that they all follow a common structure so after you got this you will easily find the parts that are of an interest for you - most likely the introduction telling what the paper is about and the conclusions about what they found out. | ||
What is especially cool about scientific papers is that the authors quote other authors findings and that the paper is again quoted by other researchers. So everything is connected – and once you found a paper that you like and find useful you get connections to all sorts of related papers. | What is especially cool about scientific papers is that the authors quote other authors findings and that the paper is again quoted by other researchers. So everything is connected – and once you found a paper that you like and find useful you get connections to all sorts of related papers. | ||
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Before you start brief tell again what the interviews are for. Some people may feel kind of "tested" on computer literacy or something like that. | Before you start brief tell again what the interviews are for. Some people may feel kind of "tested" on computer literacy or something like that. Tell them they don't need to worry and that hearing about problems will help you as much as anything else. | ||
The interview should be | The interview should be pleasant for the interviewee, so don't stretch it too long. Being a attentively and a good listener will help as well. | ||
The first steps are the most difficult but once the interviewee talks it usually runs smooth.So it is a good idea to start with some questios that are useful for you to know and have clear and simple answers like the profession, years of experience etc. | The first steps are the most difficult but once the interviewee talks it usually runs smooth.So it is a good idea to start with some questios that are useful for you to know and have clear and simple answers like the profession, years of experience etc. | ||
The important thing about the interview is that you ''don't'' ask specific and direct questions but open ones. So the answers you should | The important thing about the interview is that you ''don't'' ask specific and direct questions but open ones. So the answers you should aiming for are not "yes" or "no" but e.g. the ones the user can tell you experiences or explains you something. Often it will be useful to follow up something the user said. Asking why a decision was made in a specific way or how something works can reveal important facts. | ||
Here are some open Questions as an example | Here are some open Questions as an example | ||
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After doing so you should try to put your key findings in a few short sentences. An example is: ''"The goals of our potential users are to improve their CVs and to get known.'' | After doing so you should try to put your key findings in a few short sentences. An example is: ''"The goals of our potential users are to improve their CVs and to get known.'' | ||
Write down common problems as well so you | Write down common problems as well so you know which traps to avoid and where new solutions are needed. | ||
These key findings will guide you when you | These key findings will guide you when you create your designs, because you now know what you need to concentrate on. | ||
=Designing= | =Designing= | ||