postcard patterns : an agile user interface pattern creation process
TRANSCRIPT
An Agile User Interface
Pattern Creation Process
Ian SwinsonLead UI Designer
Jason WintersUI Manager, Applications
Safe Harbor Statement
Safe harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This presentation may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If any such uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions proves incorrect, the results of salesforce.com, inc. could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking, including any projections of subscriber growth, earnings, revenues, or other financial items and any statements regarding strategies or plans of management for future operations, statements of belief, any statements concerning new, planned, or upgraded services or technology developments and customer contracts or use of our services.
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Agenda
1. Salesforce: A Brief History
2. Patternforce V1: A Cautionary Tale
3. Patternforce V2: A New Beginning
• Who is our audience?
• How do we deconstruct our application?
• How do we document our application?
4. Workshop: Time to Play
5. Presentation: Show us your “Postcard”
6. Wrap Up: Thank you!
With the power of Salesforce applications and the Force.com platform, you can run your entire business on the Internet.
“
”
43,600+Customers
1,000,000+
Subscribers
150 Million
Transactions Each Day
2004
<100
2
1
1
Feature Teams / Waterfall
2008
500+
28
12
8+
ADM / Scrum
R&D
User Experience
Locations
Applications
Process
1 12Databases
“Houston, we have a problem…”
Quality Assurance
Documentation User Experience
ProductManagement
Development
Customers & Partners
Popular Pattern Libraries
Apple Tidwell Yahoo! Welie Oracle
Structure of a Single Pattern
This can get complicated
Scale of a Single Pattern
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
How Did We Do?
2* in 6 months
<5 percent*Note: They weren’t even done
The Realization
Define Our Audience
Our Customers
Pattern LibraryPattern Library
User Experience TeamUser Experience Team
DevelopmentDevelopment
CustomersCustomers
PartnersPartners
User Experience CommunityUser Experience Community
Product ManagementProduct Management
What Did We Learn?
Development has some unique requirements:
To avoid writing HTML
To avoid creating new UI
To re-use code (components)
To avoid reading lengthy, detailed, convoluted specifications
What Did We Learn?
Everyone wants: An online, centrally located, easy to access and easy to
share library of common design elements Up to date information A shared vocabulary Improved communication
A more efficient process
More visuals and less text
Get new hires up to speed rapidly
What Did We Learn?
User Interface Designers want:
To spend time doing design work
Deconstructing Our Application
Organize the Data
Organize the Data
Create affinity diagram to identify themes
Create categories and sort the cards
Our Structure
FlowsFlows
PagesPages
Page ModulesPage Modules
Pop-ups & Overlays
Pop-ups & Overlays
Messages & Dialogs
Messages & Dialogs
Widgets & Controls
Widgets & Controls
Patternforce Taxonomy
We ended up with a large,but relatively flat, list.
Postcard Pattern Creation
A Postcard Pattern
Why It’s Agile
Satisfy the customer – Postcards are easy and quick to author, and answer 80% of the highest priority questions.
Changing requirements – Easy to create, means easy to edit and iterate.
Face-to-face – The most productive authoring sessions involved a half-dozen team members “blitzing” in a room together, all crafting patterns. Meetings with developers are more efficient with visual aids.
Simplicity – Easy to create and easy to read. If you have a question get face-to-face with the author.
Self-organizing teams – Choose which pattern you author. Keep the taxonomy fluid and all documents completely transparent to the team.
Reflection – Regular meetings to check progress, priorities, innovations, holes, deprecations, etc.
What Makes a Good Postcard Pattern?
Use the “Goldilocks” Principle
If the pattern doesn’t fit on a single page, consider breaking it apart or reducing the amount of detail
You can always add detail later
If the pattern doesn’t fill a single page, consider grouping it with other similar elements – e.g. common web form elements
You can always break it apart later
Rule #1: Must fit on a single 8.5” x 11” page
Pattern - Anatomy of A Pattern
Title
Summary
Category
Author &ModificationDate
Variations(optional)
Candidacy:Redesign?Componentize?
GraphicsScreenshotsIllustrations
Does it Work?
Before
After2
43
6
3
<5
95
# Mo %
Workshop!Vacation postcard
Workshop!
Some Pointers Paper is not interactive - You’ll have to use your memory
and imagination for the examples.
Audience – You and your new team are the audience.
Taxonomy – Don’t worry about it at this point. Work up to it.
Pattern – Choose something relevant, interesting or challenging.
“Postcard” It – Keep it on one page.
Have fun!
LinksPattern Libraries Apple
Yahoo!
Oracle
Jenifer Tidwell
Martijn Welie
Tools FreeMind
Google Spreadsheets
Omnigraffle (OSX)
O’Reilly: Designing Interfaces
Browser Look and Feel Guidelines
Apple Human Interface Guidelines
Welie.com
Yahoo! Design Pattern Library
freemind/sourceforge.net
Google Docs
The Omni Group - OmniGraffle
Links
Resources The GUI Bloopers series
Johnson, Jeff
10 Commandments of DesignRams, Dieter
Eight Golden Rules of Interface DesignShneiderman, Ben
The 10 Commandments of Information DesignBuchholz, Garth A.
Eight Golden Rules (link)
10 Commandments of Design (link)
http://www.gui-bloopers.com/
10 Commandments of Info Design (link)