Designing the User Experience
This “Designing the User Experience” poster illustrates the path to more usable products.
Starting from the beginning with defining the users and their requirements to the conclusion with usability testing, a complete user-centered design process is laid out, using a game board metaphor with “ladders” to help you jump ahead, and “chutes” for places where a good process was not followed.
The process of designing the user experience is divided into four phases:
- Analysis
- Design
- Implementation
- Deployment
There are suggested activities for each phase. Additional text around the poster defines key concepts in user-centered design.
Poster Text
The activities on the poster are:
Analysis Phase
- Meet with key stakeholders to set vision
- Include usability tasks in the project plan
- Assemble a multidisciplinary team to ensure complete expertise
- Develop usability goals and objectives
- Conduct field studies
- Look at competitive products
- Create user profiles
- Develop a task analysis
- Document user scenarios
- Document user performance requirements
Design Phase
- Begin to brainstorm design concepts and metaphors
- Develop screen flow and navigation model
- Do walkthroughs of design concepts
- Begin design with paper and pencil
- Create low-fidelity prototypes
- Conduct usability testing on low-fidelity prototypes
- Create high-fidelity detailed design
- Do usability testing again
- Document standards and guidelines
- Create a design specification
Implementation Phase
- Do ongoing heuristic evaluations
- Work closely with delivery team as design is implemented
- Conduct usability testing as soon as possible
Deployment Phase
- Use surveys to get user feedback
- Conduct field studies to get info about actual use
- Check objectives using usability testing