THE USER-CENTERED DESIGN OF DIGITAL PRODUCTS

SOLUTIONS

Current state

Future state
Write user-centered
It stands almost complete
and finished in my mind so
requirements specifications
ABSTRACTION

that I can survey it like a fine

picture or a beautiful statue. Research user interface topics
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, from
Information Design, edited by Robert
Jacobson Create user interface style guides
An ounce of action is worth CONCEPTUAL Conceptual and detailed design
a ton of theory.
MODEL of user interfaces
Friedrich Engels (1820 - 1895)

Review and test usability

USE Information architecture
CASES “An architect is defined as
for large bodies of content
someone who forgets to put
in the staircase.” Write and edit documentation
Gustave Flaubert, French novelist
(1821-80), Dictionnaire des idées
reçues (1881).

CONCEPTUAL
Dilbert: “Your user require- DESIGN
ments include four hundred
features. Do you realize that
no human would be able to
use a product with that level
of complexity?”
“Rules are sparse; we forget Feature Creep: “Good point.
them. Stories, being rich in I’d better add ‘easy to use’ “If you want to know what
details, are multiply index- to the list.” happens when you throw
able...Moreover, if a rule fails,
Dilbert as quoted in Paper a stone into a pond, it is infi-
it can be reassessed only
Prototyping, Carolyn Snyder nitely better to make a trial
with great difficulty because
and film it than to attempt
rules hang in the air, unat-
to theorize about it.”
tached to experience. But if “Igloo: an indigenous home
the lesson attached to a spe- René Thom, Physicist
constructed of local building
cific story fails, the events of materials. Bavarian castle:
the story can be reassessed a home constructed to impress
to figure out why the lesson
failed and what other lesson
MOCK-UP the neighbours. Space station:
a mobile home with a view.”
might have been drawn.”
SCENARIOS Donald C. Gause & Gerald M. Weinberg,
Tell Me a Story, Roger C. Schank
USER OF USE Exploring Requirements: Quality Before
Design
REQUIREMENTS FUTURE STATE

I’m going to kill myself.

I should go to Paris and jump USABILITY
off the Eiffel Tower. I’ll be
dead. You know, in fact, if CONTENT “I write scripts to serve as TEST “Just wait, Gretel, until the
moon rises, and then we shall
I get the Concorde, I could
be dead three hours earlier, INVENTORY
skeletons awaiting the flesh
and sinew of images.”
PROTOCOL see the crumbs of bread
which I have strewn about;
which would be perfect. Or Ingmar Bergman, NY Times 22 Jan 78 TAXONOMY they will show us our way
wait a minute. It – with the
time change, I could be alive
SCENARIOS “Our burgeoning digital cul-
ture is heading for oblivion, AND METADATA
home again.”
Hansel and Gretel
for six hours in New York but
dead three hours in Paris.
OF USE and fast…future anthropolo-
gists will find our pottery but
CURRENT STATE
I could get things done, and
I could also be dead.
not our e-mail.”
James Gleick, Faster: the
INFORMATION
Woody Allen (one of the greatest Acceleration of Just about
Everything
ARCHITECTURE
personas of the 20th century… good
thing he didn’t take the plane to
Paris)
“Technical work needs “Break it, stretch it, bend it,
reviewing for the same USABILITY crush it, crack it, fold it.”
“Regulations [are] written for
the obedience of fools and
reason that pencils need
erasers: to err is human.” TEST Bruce Mau, Lifestyle the guidance of wise men.”
Anonymous. Featured in the film
Freedman and Weinberg, Handbook Reach for the Sky (UK, 1956).
of Walkthroughs, Inspections and
Technical Reviews EXPERT GRAPHIC
PERSONAS REVIEW STYLE
DESIGN
“Those things that hurt,
GUIDE
TEST instruct.”
Ben Franklin
REPORT

“Sight, even though used by

all of us so naturally, has not COMMUNICATION PLAN
yet produced its civilization.
Sight is swift, comprehensive,
simultaneously analytic and
RESEARCH synthetic. It requires so little
energy to function, as it does, DETAILED
REPORT at the speed of light, that it SPECIFICATION DOCUMENTATION
FIELD permits our minds to receive
and hold an infinite number
STUDIES of items of information in
a fraction of a second. With
Observation The men of experiment are “First, the taking in of scat- “He who every morning plans “To determine whether or not
sight infinities are given at
“A little manure on the boots like the ant, they only collect tered particulars under one the transaction of the day a spark is being delivered to
once; wealth is its description.”
may disturb city folks, but in and use; the reasoners Idea, so that everyone and follows out that plan, the spark plug, hold a spark
requirements work, you learn resemble spiders, who make Caleb Gattegno, Toward a Visual understands what is being carries a thread that will plug wire approximately 1/4
cobwebs out of their own Culture talked about…Second, the guide him through the maze inch away from the cylinder
not to mistake appearance
for value.” substance. But the bee takes separation of the Idea into of the most busy life. But head as the engine is cranked
Donald C. Gause & Gerald M. the middle course: it gathers parts, by dividing it at the where no plan is laid, where with the starting motor…If a
Weinberg, Exploring Requirements: its material from the flowers joints, as nature directs, the disposal of time is surren- spark is noted from each of
Quality Before Design of the garden and field, but not breaking any limb in dered merely to the chance the wires, the trouble is not
transforms and digests it by half as a bad carver might.” of incidence, chaos will soon likely to be with the ignition
a power of its own. Not unlike Plato, Phaedrus, 265D reign.” system.”
this is the true business of Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885) from Ford’s 1941 Deluxe and Super
philosophy (science). Deluxe Reference Book (Ford did not
caution the reader against getting
Francis Bacon
shocked or performing this quick-fix
Current state

while standing in a puddle.).

Future state

COMMUNICATION PLAN
A document describing the scope and the
planning of the communication project: what
is to be communicated, for whom and how;
where the challenges and opportunities lie.
CONCEPTUAL DESIGN
A set of sketches illustrating the main interaction
concept of a digital product. The conceptual
design starts with paper and pencil.
Deliverables Activities
CONCEPTUAL MODEL
The concepts that the design must communicate
in order for the user to understand and operate
the product. The conceptual model
differs from the technical model, which is the
way the developer understands the product.
It also differs from the mental model, which is
the concept that an individual user develops
in order to understand the product.
CONTENT INVENTORY
A structured list of all content (documents, digital
assets, information chunks, etc.) that must be
considered for publication in a digital product.
DETAILED SPECIFICATION
A detailed specification describes the compo-
nents and behaviour of the user experience
in sufficient detail for the developer, and may
include the design rationale.
DOCUMENTATION
The final deliverables of a documentation
project. Usually the writing process of docu-
mentation takes three iterations: draft version,
pre-final version, and final version.
EXPERT REVIEW
During expert reviews, a number of experts
review a product, first individually, then in
a group, noting issues and recommending
remedial action. Experts readily use rules of
thumb (heuristics) but challenge each other’s
accepted wisdom.
FIELD STUDIES
Observing users in the environment in which
they will work with the digital product that is
being designed.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
The design of the look and feel of the digital
product. The graphical design usually consists
of a specification of standard colours, icons, the
location of graphical elements and typography.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Document describing the information architec-
ture of a digital product. In some cases, the
information architecture specification offers
two perspectives:
• User’s side: what the user sees —the taxonomy
and structuring of the information on the pages.
• Authoring/Storage side: describing the author-
ing and storage of the information, workflows,
metadata, topics and information types.
MOCK-UP
A more or less realistic simulation of the user
interface that combines the scenarios of use
with the conceptual design into real-life stories
of use. A mock-up can be created in such
a way that it can be used in usability tests.
PERSONAS
Personas are lively descriptions of typical users.
They are based on patterns and findings
gathered during field studies. Using personas
prevents designers from drifting towards an
idealized view of users that lacks nuance.
RESEARCH REPORT
A document that expresses the findings of a
research project. Creative and rational at the
same time, it provides insight into murky territory.
SCENARIOS OF USE
[current state/future state]
An engaging, richly textured story of one or
more users who use tools to achieve goals.
Current-state scenarios cover how users
accomplish those goals now, before introducing
the new product. Future-state scenarios explore
how the envisaged product would affect the
storyline.
STYLE GUIDE
A document describing the formal conventions
to be followed within a family of digital prod-
ucts. Conventions can be lexical (what are the
codes, both visual and linguistic) and syntacti-
cal (how the codes can be assembled to form
practical wholes).
TAXONOMY AND METADATA
Design of the information structure, the labelling
and the terminology that will be applied to the
content of a digital product. The information
structure is usually a tree or a matrix (faceted
classification).
TEST REPORT
The report summarizes the results of the usabili-
ty tests, identifies the design issues that need to
be re-considered, and offers recommendations
for improvement.
USABILITY TEST
A method by which users of a product are asked
to perform tasks in an effort to measure the
product’s ease-of-use, task time, and the user’s
perception of the product.
USABILITY TEST PROTOCOL
The protocol describes scope, goals, settings,
instructions and tasks to be performed by
a test participant.
Design by Jean-Marc Klinkert and Sander Vermeulen - Photo credits: Geert Allegaert, Joannes Vandermeulen and Karolien Taverniers - Thanks to Alain Schiffeleers and Andreea Chelaru
TIME
USE CASES
A use case defines a set of use-case instances
in which each instance is a sequence of actions
a system performs that yields an observable
result of value to a particular actor, often a user.
USER REQUIREMENTS
User requirements are a formal expression
of the desired functions and qualities of the
future digital product. Not only product features,
but also non-functional requirements, such
as reliability and usability, are included.
NAMAHN
Minding the user throughout.
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B-1210 Brussels T +32 2 209 08 85
info@namahn.com www.namahn.com