I just found the ‘environmentally friendly’ bamboo memory stick that I was given at OZCHI 08 in my drawer.

I’ve never used it because:

1) It doesn’t look like a memory stick

But you can hang it round your neck!

2) It doesn’t fit

Phat USB - Please take all your other USB cables out. Oh and your video cable too!

Unless you use one of these…

A use for that cable at last!

I have another memory stick that was designed by a moron.

But it looks cool...

Both ‘oh, so creative’! Lucky they were free…

Writing a short report is one of the hardest things in my industry.  People often seem to think that the bigger the wad of PDF the better the usability report! But your clients don’t read that stuff!

I was invited in to a client’s office to present a report with Rebecca today. They wanted to hear it from the ‘horse’s mouth’ and ask us some more detailed questions.  I’m also sure that they wanted us to help them digest the info quickly and easily.

The report was short and to the point and not repetitive. It simply laid down the usability facts from the testing.  This meant that Rebecca could present straight from the Word document without having to waste time on a pretty PowerPoint preso.

Creating a pithy report requires you to be very organised before you get into the prose.

Rebecca and I used a mind map to debate and structure all of the content of the report. Then Rebecca simply used the framework we created to ‘fill in the blanks’ and focus on the insights required to inform and inspire our client.

She also chose the right report template up front.  That meant she wasn’t distracted from writing good content by the reporting ‘process’.

It’s interesting, if you use mind maps, collaborate with others and choose the right template first, you will get a much more successful deliverable than if you just started writing straight like crazy after the testing.

When you get prepared your attention can be placed on the content, voice, quality, findings and solutions that need to be communicated, instead of stressing about how to put the report together in a meaningful way.

Our client loved the report today, we chatted for an hour and they headed off to implement the changes we recommended immediately.

Other reporting writing articles:

• 1. Using spin
• 2. Report design tips
• 3. Don’t repeat yourself

Lately I’ve been seeing briefs for Rich Internet Apps (RIAs) that require a certain number of ‘wireframes’?

RIAs are characterised by multiple interactions on one screen without a full screen refresh. One screen has many different states - Drop downs, fly outs, sliders, changing grids, the list goes on. They are just like a desktop app.

I get worried because most people think a wireframe refers to a Visio or PowerPoint diagram that is a flat file and has limited simulation or clear description of how interactions work on the screen.  This is not sufficient as you need to create many very similar wireframes to show how the screen works. It can be done, as Steve Collins suggests, ‘You create lots and lots of wireframes, like a traditional cartoon animation, to show how all the screen states can change!’ A waste of time. 

The night before last, when I was at Interesting South, the problem with traditional wireframes was hammered home.  I was chatting to Twitter guru and coder, Brad Kellett (@bck) about how requirements get communicated to him. He basically said, ‘I usually get some crappy wireframes that leave too many options open. I am often unclear of how a client wants to put together.’

‘So how do you get an RIA right?’, I ask. ‘ Oh, it ends up in lengthy face-to-face interaction, while I try and work out what they need!’. He even said that he’d love a library of the hand gestures clients use to interpret how they think the RIA should be designed!

What he really needs is something much more detailed than just wireframes and interaction. The ‘wireframe’ has to realistically represent all the interactions that occur on one screen of an RIA! He needs a high res model of the interface.

Hi-res and Lo-res wireframes

Thanks to Steve Collins for putting this together for me.  Firstly, Lo-res wireframes are the same as the wireframes that I see referred to in briefs, but with an RIA they are just not enough to communicate to a developer what to do with them. They have a valid use:

• laying out core page functionality
• representing major navigation items
• validating major components and structure. 

Lo-res wireframes are critical to developing an understanding of potential application and site framework as well as building an understanding of major application interactions prior to developing hi-res wireframes. 

Hi-res wireframes build upon the lo-res wireframes, they are used to:

• instantiate and test the understanding of application and site flow
• show to clients and potential end-users exactly what they are getting
• describe every screen interaction in detail to application developers and graphic designers to aid in building the application.

Hi-res wireframes can also be used as the foundation of a functional prototype for testers, designers and developers to test assumptions against.  Testing against hi-res wireframes and prototypes can provide significant cost savings early in the project, militating against expensive and time-consuming changes late in the project lifecycle.

Axure have solved this problem with a fantastic tool that can be used to produce hi-res wireframes and is not much harder to use than Visio. You can even use it to run usability testing on the out put and it can be printed into a very clear spec document too.

I’ve seen many [usability] reports with an inordinate amount of repetition. A consultant might identify that users have trouble finding things, using the navigation of a business application, and then proceed to mention the issue in the:

1. Exec summary
2. Findings
3. Task specific data and
4. Heuristic (criteria) evaluation section. 

What a waste of time and how boring for the reader (and the author)!

Instead the report should be planned properly so that there is a maximum of two repeats:

1. In the report, and
2. Exec summary.

Our reports use lots of pictures and tables most of the time they don’t even have an exec summary!

In this post I describe how I use mind maps to organise my thoughts and arrange an efficient hierarchy of information. This is the best way to make sure you don’t repeat yourself. And you don’t leave anything out!

So far in this report writing series, you’ll be on the right track if you:

1. use some spin,
2. design it properly and
3. minimise repetitiion.

Clients are busy people and they never read long, text heavy [usability] reports. Design can be a useful tool to buy more time from them and make it easier for them to draw meaningful Nuggets from your documents.

Following on from my post about spin in report writing, here’s 12 report design tips to engage your time poor readers:

1. ‘Design’ your report template so that it captures your readers’ attention immediately and increases the likelihood of them reading your report. 
2. Use a designer to create the template. Don’t make the design up yourself, if that’s not your specialty, it will look silly.
3. Your report markets your brand, forever - Ask yourself, ‘Does my client feel proud of my report when they show their colleagues?’
4. Be consistent with your branding and design across documents so they can recognise/find them.
5. Be consistent with your branding and design within a document - That’s common sense really!
6. Use images that catch the eye  - we know a picture tells 1000s of words.
7. Put call outs (speech bubbles) on the images - they can be quick easy to read (if you say useful stuff).
8. Highlight the important messages with formatting and headings - so they are scannable and easily recognised.
9. Use a standard layout that highlights the priority findings on all pages - that way a people can choose the level of detail to read.
10. Use tables with images and icons - they may the report look shorter and allow easy comparison and scanning. However, you can fit lots of info in there if your smart!
11. If you have a design recommendation, don’t describe it, draw it! If you can’t draw then find an example and paste a screen shot in the report.
12. If you are using wireframes make them look ‘designed’ with some logos, curves, colour and shading. Plain black and white wireframes look amateurish!

i reckon we need to bring back the design into usability! It’s no longer about making things work, that’s a given. It’s about making them cool too!

When my staff or I are reporting findings from website usability testing there is always the challenge of knowing the right ‘tone’ of the document.

In the last month we’ve heard two interesting comments on projects for two different Agencies:

Agency 1 - “Can you be more BRUTAL?”

Agency 2 - “Can you make it all a bit more POSITIVE sounding?”

Both agencies had different needs:

Agency 1 was pitching to a new account and wanted to show the client that things weren’t right with the current site and it required more work.

Agency 2 built the site and wanted to look good so that the client could see all the opportunities to improve the site.

As usability consultants, I believe we need to objectively and accurately report what happened.  However, it can be done in a number of ways to meet the particular agency’s expectations.  For example:

Understanding the impact of your writing style is critical to your project’s success.  It can completely change how the report is received.  Some practitioners would say, ‘just report what you saw with no spin’; however, there is an opportunity to write the report in such a way as to achieve the best outcomes.
A good way to identify the ‘tone’ required is to find out what the agency is doing with the report and then check that they like your language at least twice during the reporting process.  As follows:

1) Conduct the test

2) Find out what the Agency is going to use the report for and plan it with them

4) Debrief the Agency at draft stage, and see if the language is right for their needs

5) Make amendments to the tone of the report if necessary.

I was just watching Demogirl’s screencast about user friendly websites below.

What is so compelling screencast is that it is really short and about really obvious usability issues.

Often I head off blogging about stuff that is just too complex and will appeal to a small percentage of net users who are in the usability industry.

If I want to promote usability to the broader population I need to Keep It Simple… Stupid!

Gary Barber has set me a challenge on twitter to blog about ‘Educating clients on User Centred Design (UCD) when they have big egos…’

This is something that I have become expert at over the last 8 years in the UCD industry

So I’ll start with some definitions:

Educating: Countless meetings to describe what you do. You must focus on the opportunities that UCD provides and case studies of things that you have done for clients before (even though they are hard to find because those people with big egos don’t always track the right data!)

- Make this easier by having stuff written up before hand.  Even get case studies from overseas and from big organisations that will make your clients listen.

Clients: The person who pays the bill. That is, the person about 2 rungs up the ladder from the ones who really care

- Find out who this person is and meet them.

UCD: Involving ‘people’ in the process - hopefully those who will use the system in the future. Best if done before any coding is even considered.

- Need I say more.

Big Egos: These people come in different flavours:

1. They think they know UCD after one training session on it.
2. They have time and budgetary requirements to meet, no matter what, and their project has already started.
3. And most importantly, they want to look good in front of their peers by showing that they are doing the right thing…

Solutions:
Big ego flavour 1: These people can be convinced of the best way to do things.
Have patience.

Big ego flavour 2: They need to be convinced to stop what they are doing and ask the person with the purse for more time and money. If you aren’t ‘in‘ with the big nobs already you will be on the back foot.  Stakeholder interviews at the start of every project help over come this hurdle.
Have patience.

Big ego flavour 3: This group is the best. Make friends with them (read - understand what makes them tick) and then tell them all the things that could go wrong if UCD isn’t used.
And have patience.

Card sorting is a useful tool for UX designers and is described here on Boxes and Arrows by Donna Maurer from Canberra.

Sam from Optimal Usability in NZ has created the online card sort tool Optimal Sort
It has been available for some time now and they have finally released it commercially! Well done guys!

It’s great for open and closed sorting in preparing your information architectures.

Open: You don’t know what the categories are that your content will go into.

Closed: You know the categories and need to put the content in them.

From the OptimalSort site:

A way to understand users
Card sorting involves users of a website ’sorting’ cards into groups that make the most sense to them. The stuff that is on the cards is the stuff that is on the website. This process provides insight into how users think about information.

Running a succesful sort:

At Objective Digital we use OptimalSort in a number of ways:

1. To manage a card sort in ‘live’ testing internationally. You just ask people where to put the cards and do it for them online.
2. To run remote card sorting and validate what you’ve found out in workshops  face-to-face

What other ways do you use it?

At the end of last year U.S.News rated Usability and User Experience Specialist as one of the top 31 jobs in the US.  The jobs were judged on Salary (US$98,800), Job Satisfaction, Training Difficulty, Prestige, Job Market Outlook. And they reckon you need a Masters Degree too!

So it’s about time the Universities listened up and created some more relevant courses for us to hire people from!