To celebrate World Usability Day on November 10, 2011, we’ll discuss how user-centered design (UCD) and usability can be a strategic advantage in eLearning.

The discussion will cover:

• Business case and justification for user-centered design and usability
• Ten user-centered design techniques for increased usability
• Examples of web sites, web applications, and mobile applications

Presentation and Resources

User-Centered eLearning Defined

The Business Case

Increase Revenue

• Attract more customers
• Differentiate from competitors
• Retain customers
• Easy and fun to use (satisfaction)
• Reduce support costs

Improve eLearning Impact

• Increase learning or learnability (effectiveness)
• Increase user productivity (efficiency)
• Decrease user errors
• eLearning for safety

Reduce Development Costs

• Quicker to market
• Litigation deterrence
• Increase accessibility, design for inclusion

Top 10 User-Centered Design Techniques For eLearning

References

Alsumait, A.A. & Al-Osaimi, A., 2010, Usability Heuristics Evaluation for Child E-learning Applications, Journal of Software, 5(6), p. 654.

Cooper, Alan (1999).  The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity 1st edition hardcover.

Garrett, Jesse James. 2002. The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web. 3rd Ed: Peachpit Press.

Johnson, Jeff.  2008. GUI Bloopers 2.0. Common User Interface Design Don’ts and Dos. 2nd Ed: Morgan Kaufmann.

Kantner, Laurie, and Stephanie Rosenbaum. 1997. Usability Studies of WWW Sites: Heuristic Evaluation vs. Laboratory Testing. Paper read at SIGDOC 97, conference proceedings, at Snowbird, UT.

Krug, Steve. 2006. Don’t Make Me Think. 2nd Ed: New Riders Press.

Levi, Michael D., and Fedrick G. Conrad. 1996. A Heuristic Evaluation of a World Wide Web Prototype. Interactions (July-August):50-61.

Howles, Les. Learning Styles: What the Research Says and How to Apply it to Designing E-Learning. Paper.

Minović, Miroslav , Štavljanin, Velimir,   Milovanović, Miloš, and Starčević, Dušan. 2008. Usability Issues of e-Learning Systems: Case-Study for Moodle Learning Management System, in On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2008 Workshops. Springer Berlin.

Nielsen, Jakob. 1993. Usability Engineering. San Diego, CA: Academic Press Professional.

Nielsen, Jakob. 1994. Enhancing the Explanatory Power of Usability Heuristics. Paper read at CHI 94, conference proceedings : Celebrating Interdependence, April 24-28, at Boston, MA.

Norman, Donald. 1990. The Design Of Everyday Things. Paperback: Basic Books.

Shneiderman, Ben. 1998. Designing the User Interface, Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. 3 ed: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.

Wickens, Christopher D., Sallie E. Gordon, and Yili Liu. 1998. An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering. New York, NY: Longman

World Usability Day 2011

• Global Celebration
• Arizona Events at Paypal

Have a visual communication issue you want to explore?

Come to our inaugural MasterMind session – the theme is  visual expression and business. Connect with entrepreneurs and designers, spanning different fields of expertise. The goal of the MasterMind is to share, have fun, support and help one another prosper in business and life.

What is a MasterMind group?

Nope, we’re not talking about a secret club out to take over the world. A mastermind group is an informal get-together for individuals dedicating themselves to a helping each other in a specific goal.

The inaugural experience …

Three people present their issue and the rest of us are there for support, feedback, and constructive criticism.

• Each presenter gets 30 minutes
• 5 mins for the introduction, 20 mins for discussion, 5 mins for wrap-up
• A projector is available if needed, connected to a laptop with Powerpoint and Keynote
• Topic should be related to visual communication. For example:
• A tangible product for review and feedback
• An industry dilemma or opportunity in times of change
• A new visual service or product at any stage in its development
• This first get together is an experience experiment. Let’s make it great and hopefully it will evolved into an ongoing event

Agenda

• 6:00 – Tour of our green studio (details)
• 6:05 - Welcome and introductions (Brenton Elmore)
• 6:15 – What is a master mind group? (Thomas Nielsen)
• 6:30 – Session 1 (open)
• 7:00 – Session 2 (open)
• 7:30 – Session 3 (open)
• 8:00 – Wrap up

• The registration fee includes hors d’oeuvres, wine, and beer.
• $20.00 entry fee, payable at the door.
• We still have three sessions open!

- Thomas Nielsen & Brenton Elmore 

If you are in the tech industry, please join us at Azinno on Thursday, September 15, 2011 for an Arizona Technology Council Mixer.  Drop by anytime between 5:30 and 7:30 pm for hors d’oeuvres and wine. Come catch up with your friends and make some new ones!

Details

• AZ Tech Council members, free; Guests; $20
• Directions to Azinno

RSVP Now

• Space is limited, so please register via the Tech Council site. We look forward to seeing you!

User Experience and User-Centered Design

Contextual Design Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt (1997). 1st edition paperback. A good primer on how to conduct field research data to understand whole systems and evironments. Topics include interdependencies between people, computer systems, environments, and objects (artifacts) people use to accomplish tasks. The book contains some useful chapters including one on how to understand and design work models.

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity Alan Cooper (1999). 1st edition hardcover. The inmates explains succinctly why a lot of software is not user friendly. Cooper describes traditional problems with software development, and how to develop solutions with the user in mind. Favorite discussions include goals versus tasks, user personas, and how developers are different from users. This favorite gets 5 stars.

	The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web Jesse James Garrett (2002). 3rd edition paperback. Azinno has been a fan of Jesse’s “Elements of User Experience” diagram (available here in .pdf) for years. This book lives up to expectations and accurately make distinctions between the UX process for web browsing and web applications.

	IDEO Method Cards: 51 Ways to Inspire Design IDEO (2003). Cards in a box. Method cards are a collection of easy to digest user experience and design methods (one method per card). IDEO presents the methods in a descriptive, non-technical language. For example, the card “Activity Analysis” is a good summary of a “High-Level Task Analysis”.

	GUI Bloopers 2.0. Common User Interface Design Don’ts and Dos Jeff Johnson (2008). Revised paperback. GUI Bloopers is highly recommended because it accurately conveys best practices in designing user interfaces, and is very entertaining. It covers both web and application errors.

The Art of Innovation Tom Kelley (2001). 1st edition hardcover. This book tops our 5 star recommendation list because we share it with every client and colleague. Everyone talks about innovation, but this book shows how to do with with examples, insights and stories. Chapters to live by include: Innovation Begins With An Eye, The Perfect Brainstorm, Prototyping Is The Shorthand Of Innovation, and Creating Experiences For Fun And Profit.

	Don’t Make Me Think Steve Krug (2006). 2nd edition paperback. A reference and how to guide for people that want to design usable web sites. This book does a great job of summarizing user experience data. For example the chapter Usability testing on 10 Cents a Day, is a useful overview for usability testing.

	Mobile Usability, How Nokia Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone Christian Lindholm, Turkka Keinonen (2003). Paperback. A must read for anyone involved in designing for mobile solutions or products that combine hardware and software. The book contains a balance of insights on research, case studies, cultures, design, and usability testing.

Designing Interactions Bill Moggridge (2007). 1st edition hardcover. Interactions is an awesome collection of stories and history of User Interface (UI) design. This book is a UI bible… In the beginning there was the mouse created by Doug Engelbart, then Bill Atkinson came along and designed the Apple Lisa with proportional fonts! Topics include the personal computer, play, the internet, multimedia, and leaders in the field.

	Usability Engineering Jakob Nielsen (1993). 1st edition book. The authoritative source for usability engineering, written by Jakob Nielsen who is probably the most quoted usability expert. This paperback includes excellent sections on usability heuristics and usability testing.

The Design Of Everyday Things Donald Norman (1990). Doubleday/Currency paperback reprint edition. The Design of Everyday Things shaped our careers as user expereince designers. This work has been published in several different forms for more than a decade, but it remains incredibly insightful and relevant. A key concept is the discussion of mental models and the relationship between the designers model, the users model, and the system image/technology.

	The Invisible Computer Donald Norman (1999). MIT paperback. This book clearly illustrates the case of how companies can (and should) move from making “technology-centered” to “human-centered” products and services.

Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers Colin Robson (2002). 2nd edition paperback. A manual on conducting “real world” research. It discusses strategies for designing any type of field research, how to collect the data, and how to analyze the data. Azinno especially likes the chapters covering case studies, ethnographic methods, and analysis of qualitative data.

Designing the User Interface, Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant, Maxine Cohen, Steven Jacobs (2006). 5th edition hardcover. This historic resource covers everything designers need to know about user interface design. It is an Azinno favorite because it begins with theory and principles. It give practical advice on the design process, user requirements collection, UI design, components, strategies, and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

	Envisioning Information Edward R. Tufte (1990). Hardcover. The authoritative word on information design. Tufte presents examples and explains information theory. The content is simultaneously visual and conceptually complete.

	Measuring The User Experience Tom Tullis and Bill Albert (2003). Softcover. Tullis and Albert provide insightful details on how to collect, analyze, and present usability metrics. The book is a must-read for usability practitioners, and has a useful chapter on selling the value of usability.

	An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering Christopher D. Wickens, John D. Lee , Yili Liu , Sallie Gordon-Becker (2003). 2nd edition hardcover. Everything you’ll need to know about human factors is in this book including: methods, human perception and cognition, displays and controls, biomechanics, physiology, safety, and specialized discussions about industries including transportation.

Related Topics

A partial list of books on business, leadership, branding, and entrepreneurship.

Good to Great, Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t Jim Collins (2001). 1st edition hardcover. Peter Drucker probably said it best, “This carefully researched and well-written book disproves most of the current managament hype”. Azinno agrees! It included invaluable concepts like finding the right people to be in an organization, then finding the best role for the “right people” and knowing the vision and strategy will fall into place.

	The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything Guy Kawasaki (2004). 1st edition hardcover. A how to guide for entrepreneurs starting up a product, service, or organization. This gem is chalked full of practical advice.

	A Whole New Mind, Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual AgeDaniel Pink (2005). 1st edition hardcover. Pink’s thesis is we are moving from a logical and linear information age to an empathic, inventive conceptual age. Pink presents “six senses” that are needed to make the transition.

	Word of Mouth Marketing, How Smart Companies Get People Talking Andy Sernovitz (2006). 1st edition hardcover. Sernovitz shares a potpourri of ideas on how to market anything using word of mouth techniques. The format is cool because anyone can start with an idea or two, test it, measure it, and then try out more ideas.

Come enjoy drink, appetizers, and networking.

Topic

The Power of Field Research and Personas

• Personas are a powerful and concrete way of communicating needs, goals, behaviors, and preferences for real audiences and users. Personas are great at summarize ethnographic field research conducted for a specific target audience.
• Personas put a personal human face on otherwise abstract data about an audience. By thinking about the needs of a persona, designers and communicators may be better able to infer what a real person might expect. Such inference may assist with brainstorming, feature definition in products, optimizing web sites, and customizing messages.
• We’ll look at some real design personas, and go through a 5 phase process for creating them:
  • 1. Plan
  • 2. Research
  • 3. Synthesize
  • 4. Create
  • 5. Communicate

Agenda

• 6:00 – 6:15 – Arrive, get snacks
• 6:15 – 6:45 – Talk: Power of Field Research and Personas
• 6:45 – 7:00 – Q & A follow-up session
• 7:00 – 8:00 – Networking / Tours: Kevin Howard will tell the story about this amazing green/solar powered office

Location and Details

• $20, members; $25, guests; $18, students
• RSVP-Let IABC Know You’ll Attend & Pay Online
• Directions to Azinno

About the presenter

Brenton Elmore, IDSA
Brenton is a user experience leader who drives innovative experience and design development for people-centered solutions. He has a degree in Industrial Design, and masters in Research and Interaction Design. Brenton has expertise in enterprise software, web applications, mobile platforms, and corporate branding. This includes research, human factors, industrial design, interaction and interface design, web design, and usability.

Presentation References

• Case Study: Linksys EasyLink Advisor
• Long, F (2009) ‘Real or Imaginary; The effectiveness of using personas in product design‘, Proceedings of the Irish Ergonomics Society Annual Conference, May 2009, pp1-10 Dublin.
• Portigal, S (2008) Persona Non Grata

• Chapman, C.N, and Milham, R. P (2006) ‘The persona’s new clothes: methodological and practical arguments against a popular method‘ Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 50th Annual Meeting, pp. 634 –636.
• Cooper, A (1999) ‘The Inmates are Running the Asylum’, New York: Sams Publishing.
• Cooper, A and Reimann, R. (2003) ‘About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design’, Indianapolis: Wiley.
• Ji-Ye Mao, Vredenburg, K, Smith, P. W, & Carey, T (2005) ‘The state of User-Centred Design Practice’, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp 105-109.
• McCloud, S (1994). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Perennial.
• Moraveji, N, Li, J, Ding, J, O’Kelley, P and Woolf, S. (2007) ‘Comicboarding: Using Comics as Proxies for Participatory Design with Children’, Proceedings from CHI 2007, April 28-May 3, San Jose, California, ACM: pp 1371 – 1374.
• Mulder, S (2007) ‘The User is Always Right; A Practical guide to using Personas for the Web’, California: New Riders.
• Nielsen, J, (1993) Usability Engineering, Boston: Boston Academic Press.
• Nielsen, J and Landauer, Thomas K (1993) ‘A mathematical model of the finding of usability problems’ Proceedings of INTERCHI’93 Conference, 24-29 April 1993,Amsterdam, The Netherlands: ACM pp. 206-213.
• Nielsen, J, & Mack, R. L (Eds.), (1994). ‘Usability Inspection Methods’ New York: John Wiley & Sons.
• Pruitt, J and Adlin, T(2006) ‘The Persona Lifecycle, keeping people in mind throughout product design’ San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman.
• Pruitt, J and Grudin, J (2003) ‘Personas: practice and theory’, Proceedings of the conference on Designing for user experiences, June 06-07, San Francisco, ACM pp 1-15.
• JG5D8T2RHAXB

Q: How is it pronounced?

A: Ah-Zin-Know.

At Azinno, we design complete user experiences using our toolbox of methods and process. We’ve always believed that user personas and scenario designs help in creating great experiences.

Bruce Temkin of Forrester Research provides some data related to this methodology, “Lessons Learned From 1,001 Web Site Reviews“.