Updated slide deck for SharePoint Saturday NYC 2012
TRANSCRIPT
How to Make a SharePoint Site Intuitive The Science of “Easy-to-Use”
Presented by Marcy Kellar
SharePoint Saturday New York City #SPSNYC
Your Speaker: Marcy Kellar • SharePoint Solution Architect at Perficient
• Co-author of Beginning SharePoint Designer 2010 (Wrox, October 2010)
• Professor, Art Institute, Intro to User Centered Design” and “Usability Testing.”
• Specialties include
– SharePoint – Over 6 years experience – User experience design (UX) – SharePoint Branding and UI customization – Information architecture – Web content management – usability testing
About Me: Marcy Kellar Diverse background in life sciences, psychology, data management and technology Over four years experience in SharePoint architecture planning and implementation Over twenty years experience in fine art and visual design Tell Story 4 min
• How to articulate and define “easy-to-use” (and how to measure it)
• Why your users do what they do
• Fundamentals and best practices in usability
• How to take advantage of current web conventions and patterns
• The relationship between “easy-to-use”, psychology and user adoption
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What You Will Learn Today How to articulate and define “easy-to-use” (and how to measure it) Why your users do what they do Fundamentals and best practices in usability How to take advantage of current web conventions and patterns The relationship between “easy-to-use”, psychology and user adoption What you will notice – I don’t mention SharePoint much at all. After nearly 7 years of working with SharePoint, I’ve realized on of the fundamental flaws that I see in SharePoint design and usability is letting the technology drive the design. Technology will provide functionality or constrain but it should not define.
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This is what we are here today about. � Who has ever seen this requirement for a website redesign? Who knows what’s wrong with this requirement?
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Can anyone be successful with this requirement? No. It’s very open to interpretation and is measured by individual metrics.
3 Things Must Be Defined For a Site To Be “Easy To Use”
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Things Must Be Defined For a Site To Be “Easy To Use” As you can see, it takes a User + Task + Metrics
This Sink Should Be Easy to Use
Sink, 33rd floor, Hard Rock Hotel, Chicago April 2012
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This sink looks like a
Define the User to make it “Easy to Use”
Sink, 33rd floor, Hard Rock Hotel, Chicago April 2012
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Usability means thinking about how and why people use a product
Define the Task
Photo Courtesy icanhascheezburger.com
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Define the Task This cat is using this laptop so it’s usable, right? Its easy to use, right? No. it’s not being used as intended. How will the site be used What tasks will be done What is the intended use What steps should user follow?
Defining Metrics
• What are you measuring? – Time to Task? – Completion? – User Satisfaction?
• Be Specific – % – Seconds
• How will you test? – Feedback – Survey – Logs – Usability Testing
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Defining Metrics This is an intimidating phrase. Do some searches on the phrase to learn more. Qualitative – Users Report and provide anecdotal evidence Value added testing Roll your own type testing Not out to prove anything Get insights from participant to improve Informal, unscientific Quantitative – You, like House, assume all users lie. Get some data to back user statements up. Like scientific experiements Very rigorous Consistent Test Protocol Minimal User Interaction Conclusions Statistically Significant Measure SOMETHING meaningful before you start changing things
USABILITY Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.
First Law of Usability
• Don’t Make Me THINK!! • Thought Bubbles = The
Moment When User is Pulled Out of Task
• Buy Steve Krug’s book, “Don’t Make Me Think”
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Why your users do what they do When is the last time you were on a website you remember thinking, “Wow, this is so easy to use!!!” Users don’t like to think Anytime a “guess” is brought into the equation you are adding unnecessary thought bubbles above the users head. The more challenging a website is for a user to use, the less likely they will use it.
Effectiveness – Did you do what you said you were going to do? Efficiency ISO 9241 defines efficiency as the total resources expended in a task. Engaging -An interface is engaging if it is pleasant and satisfying to use. Errors - Make it difficult to take incorrect actions. Make it difficult to take invalid actions. Easy to Learn – This one is the part people spend too much time focusing on. So if your users have to think – make them only think one time. Easy to learn can still be usable.
Effectiveness – did you do what you said you were going to do? completeness and accuracy with which users achieve specified goals. It is determined by looking at whether the user’s goals were met successfully and whether all work is correct. Efficiency can be described as the speed (with accuracy) in which users can complete the tasks for which they use the product. ISO 9241 defines efficiency as the total resources expended in a task. Efficiency metrics include the number of clicks or keystrokes required or the total ‘time on task’ Engaging -An interface is engaging if it is pleasant and satisfying to use. The visual design is the most obvious element of this characteristic. The style of the visual presentation, the number, functions and types of graphic images or colors (especially on web sites), and the use of any multimedia elements are all part of a user’s immediate reaction. The design and readability of the text can change a user’s relationship to the interface as can the way information is chunked for presentation. Errors - Make it difficult to take incorrect actions. Design links and buttons to be distinctive, use clear language, avoiding technical jargon, and be sure that dependent fields or choices appear together. Make it difficult to take invalid actions. Limit choices when possible to those which are correct, provide clear examples for data entry, present only appropriate navigation options. Make it difficult to take irreversible actions. Provide the ability to back track, provide means to undo or reverse actions, avoid dead-end screens. Don’t indiscriminately use confirmations – users become insensitive to them. Plan for the unexpected. Allow for users to add new entries, take exceptional routes through the interface or make choices you did not predict. Be polite about "correcting" mistakes that may arise from this lack of foresight. Easy to Learn – This one is the part people spend too much time focusing on. So if your users have to think – make them only think one time. Easy to learn can still be usable.
Testing Those Metrics
• Qualitative – Users provide anecdotal evidence; Informal; “feedback”
This is an intimidating phrase. Do some searches on the phrase to learn more. Qualitative – Users Report and provide anecdotal evidence Value added testing Roll your own type testing Not out to prove anything Get insights from participant to improve Informal, unscientific Quantitative – You, like House, assume all users lie. Get some data to back user statements up. Like scientific experiements Very rigorous Consistent Test Protocol Minimal User Interaction Conclusions Statistically Significant Measure SOMETHING meaningful before you start changing things
QUESTION: What 3 things should be defined to successfully make a site “Easy to Use”
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As you can see, it takes a User + Task + Metrics
Better Requirement Definitions • Efficient - "The system will improve user performance on expense
tasks by 3 minutes"
• Effective - "Less than 5% of the registrations will have errors, omissions or inconsistencies requiring a follow-up contact by the staff."
• Engaging - "At least 80% of employees will express comfort with using the online system rather than visiting the HR office."
• Error Tolerant – "The system will validate all housing, meal and tutorial choices and allow the user to confirm pricing for these options before completing the registration."
• Easy to Learn – "Users will be able to successfully complete a benefits calculation without needing any external instruction or help screens."
Better Requirement Definitions for “Easy to Use” • Authors will be able to upload content daily without
complaint
• Content authors will report no more than 2 errors per month with content uploads
• Email Servers will reduce load by 50%
• Users will be able to complete expense reports 100% of attempts.
• Users will be able to complete expense reports without errors after receiving training.
HOW USERS REALLY USE THE WEB
What You Design For…
Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
The Reality…
Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Questions Users Ask
• What type of site is this? • Have I experienced a site like this
before? • Have I been to this site before? • Where am I? • Where have I been?
Questions Users Ask
• What type of site is this? • Have I experienced a site like this
before? • Have I been to this site before? • Where am I? • Where have I been?
The answers to these questions are generally first conveyed to the user through visual design.
Intuitive = Readily learned or
understood
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Webster’s dictionary states that Intuitive means readily learned or understood. How do you determine what is readily understood? Is it the same for everyone?
Defining the Intuitive Factor
What Your Users Already Know
What You Want Your Users To Do
Target Knowledge
Current Knowledge
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Defining the Intuitive Factor To make something more intuitive you must understand what your users alerady know and what you want them to do.
Defining the Intuitive Factor
What Your Users Already Know
What You Want Your Users To Do
Target Knowledge
Current Knowledge
GAP
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Defining the Intuitive Factor The more intuitive a site is, the smaller that gap is
Intuitive Sites
• Intuitiveness is based on the user’s current knowledge
• Design around users expectations
• Learn Design Patterns
• Follow Visual Design Best Practices
• Be Consistent
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Intuitive Sites The intuitiveness of a site is based on the user’s knowledge If user base has already been using SharePoint, consider this before moving Site Actions, Search, etc If you don’t have user information follow web conventions for where to place items, follow visual design guidelines and consider usability Consistency
Get Inside Users Minds
Photo Courtesy iStock
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Get Inside Users Minds Talking Point: If you get inside the users mind, Will you like what you see? Henry Ford: If I li Have a plan for what to do with this information
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Henry Ford
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“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Know When To Make An Executive Decision
Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience
Users spend most of their time on other sites
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Ask Question: How can you Apply this To SharePoint?
What Users Expect: Conventions
Found at Universal Usability Guidelines
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Follow Web Conventions to Better Meet User Expectations and Make Site Intuitive
Users don’t like to feel dumb How Does This Apply To SharePoint?
Discussion/ Whiteboard
“We find that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone.”
Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility, ~
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You can make a site more intuitive by designing for what a user sees first. They see shapes and colors and objects. Use them to your advantage by following design patterns
Creates a center of interest that attracts the viewer’s attention Creates a sense of order and balance Establishes a pattern of movement to guide a viewer through a composition
