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User Experience Design - Posted By Graham (amusedtodeath) on 26th Jun 10 at 10:48pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience_design

Has anyone designed using this method?

I was at a conference for work yesterday and we were treated to trying this method of design by two User Experience Designers - Jason Buck and Simon Nixon. We began by consdering a Travel Company and how to design it from a user experience perspective so we (in 4 groups of 6) created a 'persona' of a typical user - so for example we had a married mother of two who was a teacher, looking for a short break in the UK.
We took into consideration the various aspects of this persona (her internet experience level, the time she had to do it, what she was looking for from her holiday) etc. We then combined each groups' personas and looked for similarities in their needs/expectations and began to create a concept for a site based on the requirements- taking it from an accessibility and usability viewpoint rather than an aesthetic one.

It was a great method of designing and it taught me a lot about how on many occasions the usability of a site is neglected because a designer/company has concentrated more on aesthetics. It's also very similar to User Centered Design. What are people's views on this method?

Re: User Experience Design - Posted By Michael (wrighty) on 27th Jun 10 at 5:05pm
This is definitely something that keeps coming up within my current job. Many times the boss and I have sat down and gone through the site and tried to put ourselves in others positions. Also good that we have a vast network of people who will test for him/us and feedback to us before we go live.

Definitely the best thing to {Smile}

Re: User Experience Design - Posted By dog199200 (dog199200) on 27th Jun 10 at 7:34pm
I've heard of it and I often ask for the opinions of people who are viewing the site in order to improve what I am working on.

Re: User Experience Design - Posted By Graham (amusedtodeath) on 27th Jun 10 at 8:22pm
Posted By dog199200 on 27th Jun 10 at 7:34pm
 
I've heard of it and I often ask for the opinions of people who are viewing the site in order to improve what I am working on.


It's not really doing it during the process, it's more doing it before and making the user an actual part of the design process -think of web design tied in with the Social Interation side of Psychology {Smile}


Re: User Experience Design - Posted By webmaren (webmaren) on 6th Jul 10 at 1:31pm
I wouldn't say I go as far in depth as you guys are talking about, but I do follow several rules for improving UX.


Re: User Experience Design - Posted By Michael (wrighty) on 6th Jul 10 at 1:35pm
 
I wouldn't say I go as far in depth as you guys are talking about, but I do follow several rules for improving UX.

  • Everything important should be within three clicks of the main page.
  • Really important things should be as close to the top as possible.
  • Secondary items should be off to the right edge of the page because they don't get in the way.
  • If some guy I pulled off the street can't find what he's looking for within 30 seconds of landing on the main page, and it's not arcane, I'm doing it wrong.
  • The difference between navigation, content, and advertising should be obvious.



I agree. {Smile}

A lot of the main things should be "above the fold", and the site shouldn't require you scroll a hell of a lot to just get to the content - another thing to add!