Lesson 2 - User Experience Process & Techniques

Question 1

Identify

? and ?? are, understandably, two terms that are commonly confused. The distinction is subtle but important.

2 words each

Answer 1

• User Interface (UI)
• User Experience (UX)

Question 2

Fill in the blanks

One way to think of the difference is to say that a product’s ? is how it looks, and that the product’s ?? is how it makes you feel.

Abbreviation

User Experience

Answer 2

• UI
• UX

Question 3

Identify

?, in his excellent book UI is Communication, defines UI as what connects users to a product’s underlying technology, and UX as the entire experience users have with a product.

2 words

User Experience

Answer 3

Everett McKay

Question 4

Enumerate

(4) UX Process lifecycle template

User Experience

Answer 4

• Analyze
• Design
• Implement
• Evaluate

Question 5

Identify

? Create interaction design concepts

1 word

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 5

Design

Question 6

Identify

? Realize desgin alternatives

1 word

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 6

Prototype

Question 7

Identify

? Verify and refine interaction design

1 word

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 7

Evaulate

Question 8

Identify

? Understand user work and needs

1 word

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 8

Analyze

Question 9

Identify

The primary objective of the overall ? is to keep moving forward and eventually to complete the design process and make the transition to production.

2 words

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 9

lifecycle process

Question 10

Enumerate/Understand

(4) However, for the work in a project to flow among the UX process activities, the team must be able to decide:

For essay

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 10

• when to leave an activity;
• where to go after any given activity;
• when to revisit a previous process activity; and
• when to stop making transitions and proceed to production.

Question 11

Understand and give the gist

Choosing a process instance for your project: Increasingly, the need to rush products to market to beat the competition is shortening development schedules and increasing the number of product versions and updates.

For essay

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 11

• Products are rushed to market to stay competitive.
• This shortens development schedules, leading to frequent updates and versions.

Question 12

Identify

Web applications must be developed in “?.”

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 12

Internet time

Question 13

Understand and give the gist

Ponderous processes and methods are abandoned in favor of lightweight, agile, and flexible approaches intended to be more responsive to the market-driven need for short product versioning cycles.

For essay

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 13

• Heavy, slow processes are replaced by agile, flexible methods.
• These methods help meet market demands for quick product versioning.

Question 14

Understand and give the gist

Abridged methods not withstanding, however, knowledge of the rigorous UX process is an essential foundation for all UX practitioners and it is important for understanding what is being abridged or made agile in choices for the shorter methods.

For essay

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 14

• While agile methods are efficient, practitioners must understand the original, complete UX process to make informed adjustments.

Question 15

Enumerate/Understand

(6) Among the many possible factors you could consider in choosing a process to instantiate the lifecycle template are:

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 15

• risk tolerance;
• project goals;
• project resources;
• type of system being designed;
• development organizational culture; and
• stage of progress within project.

Question 16

Enumerate/Understand

(6) Among the many possible factors/project parameters you could consider in choosing a process to instantiate the lifecycle template are:

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 16

• risk tolerance;
• project goals;
• project resources;
• type of system being designed;
• development organizational culture; and
• stage of progress within project.

Question 17

Enumerate/Understand

(4) process parameters

UX Process lifecycle template

Answer 17

• Development activities to do
• Level of rigor to use
• Methods and techniques to use
• Iteration; whether needed, how much, for what purpose

Question 18

Understand and give the gist

The lifecycle diagram from the ISO 13407 standard
* Plan for UCD (Start | Not in loop): include usability in the project plan
* Specify context of use (In loop): who will use the program and under what conditions?
* Specify requirements (In loop): what are the business and user goals for this program?
* Produce design solutions (In loop): prototype the design, building from initial concept to complete design specifications
* Evaluate designs (In loop): test the design with users, to ensure that it meets business and usability goals

For essay

More About UX Lifecycles: ISO 13407 standard

Answer 18

• Identify who will use the product, the environment, and the tasks it will support.
• Define what users and the organization need for an effective, usable design.
• Create design concepts, prototypes, and progressively refine them.
• Continuously test designs with users to ensure they meet requirements and are usable.
• Repeat each stage as necessary; improvements are made based on user feedback.
• The entire lifecycle is centered on creating a usable, effective product.

Question 19

Understand and give the gist

The most valuable lesson for a UX designer has been that the ways users interact with a product and the experiences they have with it vary wildly depending on their backgrounds and life situations.

For essay

Seeing through user’s eyes

Answer 19

• Users’ interactions vary based on their backgrounds and life situations.
• UX designers must recognize these differences.
• This awareness helps design products that are inclusive and accessible.

Question 20

Understand and give the gist

Users’ degree of familiarity with new types of technologies and interfaces is only one key factor you have to always be thinking about. The different needs and desires of different types of users, as well as the different types of businesses and organizations you’re designing for, must also be top of mind.

For essay

You’re designing to serve needs.

Answer 20

• Consider users’ familiarity with technology and interfaces.
• Keep in mind varied needs and desires of different user types.
• Design should also address the specific needs of businesses and organizations.

Question 21

Identify

?, formulated the codification for the key things on striving on your designs.

You’re designing to serve needs.

Answer 21

Jakob Nielsen

Question 22

Enumerate

(5) Jakob Nielsen describes the essential components of a quality user experience as the following:

You’re designing to serve needs.

Answer 22

• Learnability
• Efficiency
• Memorability
• Errors
• Satisfaciton

Question 23

Identify

Interviewing and observing users in the location that they use the website/app, to understand their tasks and challenges. This information feeds our understanding of why users might behave as they do.

2 words

UX Techniques

Answer 23

Contextual Enquiry

Question 24

Identify

A fictitious identity that reflects one of the user groups for whom you are designing. This technique captues the who of our definition of UX.

1 word

UX Techniques

Answer 24

Personas

Question 25

Identify

A narrative describing “a day in the life of” one of your personas and how your product fits in to their lives. This usually covers the what, when, and where from our definition.

1 word

UX Techniques

Answer 25

Scenarios

Question 26

Identify

A rough guide for the layout of a website or app. it could be low-fidelity, communicating rough layout information, or high-fidelity, with visual polish. It could be static images or sketches, or an interactive prototype, with clickable elements that simulate that product in use. ? and prototypes explore how someone will use the product

1 word

UX Techniques

Answer 26

Wireframes

Question 27

Identify

Observing people while they attempt to complete tasks using your product or prototype, and thinking out loud while they do so. These sessions may validate design decisions, or (more likely) reveal additional information about why users behave as they do. Processing these learnings will influence future iterations of the product.

2 words

UX Techniques

Answer 27

User Testing

Question 28

Fill in the blanks

Wireframing software: ? is a desktop wireframing tool that runs on both Windows and Mac. A single-user license costs $79, and it’s very easy-to-use. I’ve found the ability to export clickable PDFs to be a very powerful way of creating portable interactive prototypes that can be emailed to stakeholders and other team members.

2 words

Recommended Software UX Tools

Answer 28

Balsamiq Mockups

Question 29

Identify

? This is the magical missing ingredient that can turn your humble laptop into a portable usability testing lab.

3 words

Recommended Software UX Tools

Answer 29

Screen recording software

Question 30

Fill in the blanks

My usability testing app of choice is ?. It’s a very simple tool that costs around US $70, but it works well and is easy to use. Unfortunately, it’s only available on the Mac.

1 word

Recommended Software UX Tools

Answer 30

Silverback

Question 31

Fill in the blanks

Windows users shouldn’t fear though ? is a good option. It costs a little bit more, but that’s because it’s more than just a screen recorder you can also use it to create and edit professional-looking screencasts.

2 words

Recommended Software UX Tools

Answer 31

Camtasia Studio

Question 32

Identify

? is my tool of choice when it comes to creating diagrams (sorry, it’s Mac-only). Microsoft Visio, bundle with the Office suite, is an adequate tool for diagramming; at a PowerPoint.

1 word

Recommended Software UX Tools

Answer 32

Omnigiraffe

Question 33

Identify

? If you’re working on a web redesign project, there’s a 90% chance that Google Analytics has already been installed for you. And for good reason there are other analytics packages that do some things better, but there’s no question that Google Analytics is a seriously powerful tool for gaining anonymous insights about visitors to a website. Plus it’s free!

2 words

Recommended Software UX Tools

Answer 33

Analytics software

Question 34

Identify

? Sublime Text or TextEdit on the Mac, BBEdit Notepad on Windows

1 word

Recommended Software UX Tools

Answer 34

Text editor

Question 35

Identify

? Whether you choose the Microsoft suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint), the Apple suite (Mail, Pages, Numbers, Keynote) or one of the free or open source alternatives out there, what’s important is that they don’t get in the way of doing your job. If you’re having a hard time exchanging documents with your team members because they’re all using Microsoft Excel and you’re using Numbers, it may be easiest to just bite the bullet and switch across.

3 word

Recommended Software UX Tools

Answer 35

Standard office software

Question 36

Identify

(8) Levels of UX Maturity

The Various States of UX Maturity

Answer 36

• User-Driven Corporation
• Integrated User-Centered Design
• Systematic User-Centered Design Process
• Managed Usability
• Dedicated UX Budget
• Skunkworks User Experience
• Developer-Centered User Experience
• Hostility Toward Usability