Intranets - way back post

What a nice surprise to find the outline of a presentation I did on usable intranets (link) I did a while back still online. Thanks Micheal Sampson

household harmony - an 'everyday things' post

well my harmony universal remote passed the ultimate house guest usability test. I had a house guest who had previously professed to be a technophobe. He couldn't drive the 3 remote controls needed to watch TV (amp set to TV, set top box and TV set to AV) without help.

This visit, he arrived home before me and when he walked into the lounge, he noticed the remote lighting up on the arm of the couch (good experience - 'hey here I am')

He picked it up to see on the screen 'what would you like to do?' with 'Watch TV' being one of the 4 options on the screen.

He pressed the corresponding button next to 'Watch TV' and it told him to keep pointing the remote at the TV.

Outcome: he was able to walk in, press one button and get started immediately. No Struggle, no feeling helpless...

If that's not a testament to the good experience to be had through activity/outcome driven design, I don't know what is. The remote matched the goal in my Friends mind when it used the language of the outcome he was seeking, not the function(s) it had.

it reminds me of Alan Coopers thoughts on polite, helpful software in 'The inmates are running the asylum'. Reminding us to capture/analyse context and outcomes to be built in to instructional and interaction design.

Potential new tech uses for the Deaf Community

Well after getting my head around the new job, I thought I'd post. On and off I have been learning NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language). Seeing it was NZ Sign Language week, it got me thinking about how some of the technologies out there could enhance deaf culture and be used to leverage established social connections.

As a hearing person I have no idea if these things would be popular but had some ideas on how non-hearing people could leverage these technologies in their lives....

Deaf people have embraced text and visual mediums such as Facebook, text messaging, video and instant Messaging.

Keeping in touch

Deaf friends (and their hearing friends) could establish a social network using a closed Twitter network (so only friends can follow) to keep in contact anywhere there is data coverage.

On Wi Fi or a mobile device with 3G/data, they could potentially use it as a way to feel connected and stay in touch when in different locations.

With mobile carriers in many countries letting people use twitter on the SMS/Mobile network it would be interesting to see if there would be an uptake.

Media consumption

With a DVD converter that includes subtitles from the original DVD, deaf people could watch movies on a mobile device (e.g. iphone/touch). Its hopeful that some podcasts could include subtitles in the future transcribing audio to speech also.

With larger screen portable devices, reading subtitles would be more practical and comfortable.

Hopefully TIVO, like Freeview NZ will allow subtitles/teletext to be recorded also so people could take TV content with them on the move also.

Theory

With these mediums, all people are not constrained by the desktop computer or TV at home or work to communicate or consume media.

Perhaps there is work out there already on this? I'd be interested in learning about it.

Section 92 caned and UPA Feb

well sanity has prevailed section 92 seems to be canned.

And in other news if you are in Wellington New Zealand, be sure to go see Donna Spencer IA guru and wine connoisseur speak at UPA this Thursday April 2.

Details here

Sketchboarding .. I like

(is) there is no secret ingredient - the prototype is the requirements

I was reading UIE's article from Jeff Patton on the 12 best UX practices in Agile design (the related podcast is here for you non readers lol).

Unfortunately I can't say what the product is or who its for at this time, but I've started down the road of a new project and seeing elements of the practices outlined in Jeffs article in my first project here. Being the usability/UX/business analyst on the project, I'm going to see how we touch on these 12 elements Jeff outlines as we go through the project..(I'm going to ensure it will be as many as possible heh heh)

In keeping with practice 1 and 2:

"UX practitioners are part of the customer or product owner team"

"Research, model, and design up front - but only just enough"

(read the article and save me having to re-iterate them eh, I'm lazy)

we've:

• Defined our users, the work they are doing, the environment they may use our solution, discussed issues in play creating the opportunity for a solution
  
• Met and whiteboarded screen flows representing function/user requirements for this product based on tasks we've established for product x.
• Added priorities by tagging them on each screen or function area
• Stood back and agreed that was the main flow and function set we wanted to embark on.
  

Then yours truly:

• Took photos of each screen in the flow on my mobile phone
• Transferred them via blue tooth onto my laptop
• Imported them into Axure pro, wired up interaction, dialogs and controls, (I love that you can do alternative cases also to the same button e.g. behavior of the app according to roles) in a short space of time.
  

Hey presto we have a click through HTML prototype from a few white board photos, a meeting and requirements statement list hours before.

Its easier than flash too ! Whilst it may have limitations for complex interactions, it was quick and easy to start on the gross/overall approach.

The second session was spent exploring the prototype, confirming the scope and additional information (non functional and third party technical considerations) needed for deployment, training, documentation etc etc.

Time elapsed = 6-8 hours and we already have:

• Overall scope
• high level product behavior, user centric interface considerations and functionality
  
• Less chance of 'but I wanted xyz' from stakeholders as its visible and easy for non techies to grasp a working picture of an artifact not a long narrative where they have to imagine it from
  
• A sense of flow/whats happening on the application

What worked and saved us backtracking had we have done this in a linear fashion:

• Our technical people provided feedback regarding the feasibility of the work at white board stage.
  
• We avoided a traditional 'requirements' phase where non technical stakeholders would have been engaged first only to have to be returned to once technical people next in line found issues or technical constraints
  
• We also noted the additional 'back end'/platform and hardware factors raised by out techs that will also have to be elaborated on in future iterations.
  

Happily, it's still just buttons over a sketch, not much effort has been expended making it pretty and its design agnostic enough to still give designers/developers freedom.

I expect developers and stakeholders to give input as we elaborate each area in the subsequent execution of iterations required to develop and test the application a la agile process.

Now we're on to getting estimates of functions development effort and breaking the overall application into nice agile like chunks.. practice 3 beckons...(not that I'm saying its going to be sequential :)

Facilitating the upcoming sessions, yours truly should ensure that the elaborated designs are still usable, useful and on track. I want to start with user stories/scenarios to elaborate each area.

Benefits of participatory sessions combining stakeholders and developers in agile approaches include:

• Developers/programmers/designers can contribute and not feel they are being told to' just do it' according to the specification or interface mock up after the fact.
• Hopefully there will be less chance of subversion of the design during development by personal opinion, technical constraints or 'exploratory diversions' during coding because developers are involved in the modeling and agree to the direction there and then (or for ever hold your peace).
• Stakeholders can confirm requirements seeing them in the form of flow and functions in a prototype/model. Less room for interpretation of a narrative (really, how can a narrative explain an application that lives in a non linear way)
  

I'll let you know how it goes.. hopefully with elements of Jeffs outline on workshops and in keeping with 'agile' principles, we'll be light on documentation. Hopefully the artifact will be the 'specification' for the most part. (Axure also does some documentation generation, lets see if we need it).

Some UML sequence diagrams of back ground messaging may be needed. Use case diagrams and use cases can document complex interactions for developers too if we again, need it :)

We'll round this off with some user testing of the model and hopefully pre-deployment .. that's the plan at least..

This weeks work was fun, fast and my tech and non tech stakeholders reported finding it valuable.

Have a good weekend ..

So potentially:

workshop+stakeholders+tech reps = screen shots + axure + interaction +demo = all agreed on high level scope (functions) and flow (interaction): Agile requirements are go!

Webstock 09 update

Well if you are visiting Webstock 09 from outside Wellington or overseas, consider staying on the weekend straight after. The Cuba Street Festival is on Saturday 21st of February as well as the Petone Fair . Alternatively or the day after, take a winery tour in the Wairarapa Valley too.

I can't go to Webstock this year and very sad about it. My brothers wedding party is on Friday the 20th so I'll be in Melbourne. Thank goodness the nice folks at Webstock podcast the speakers, but I'll miss the community, great social events and being there.

Mighty Mighty in Cuba st and the Belgium Beer cafe near Featherstone street are great bars to check out, Lido or Felix near the town hall are great for breakfast or coffee!!! In fact, Wellington is a great city and very much like Melbourne! I'm not homesick.. honest...