A version of this article appears in Feliciter (vol. 56, no. 5) the magazine of the Canadian Library Journal. It is posted here with their permission.
When we shop, read a book, drive a car, or visit a website, each of us forms an opinion of that product or service that leaves us with a negative or positive impression of it. This attitude comes from our unpleasant interaction with an indifferent store clerk, or when we visit a website that helps us quickly find, select, and complete a purchase with just a few clicks of a mouse. These positive and negative affects are the defining characteristics of user experience, and these experiences shape our perception of the organization offering the service.
Yet unlike a web application, RFID, or QR-codes, a user experience is not a tangible product. User experience (UX) isn’t really about technology at all; in fact, it is a design methodology that helps librarians, web designers, application developers, and product vendors understand not only what people want to do with their products, but to understand the user’s motivation for choosing the product in the first place. And perhaps most importantly, the study of user experience helps those providing library services understand how our patrons use the services we offer, and how they integrate them into their daily lives.
The social web, a.k.a., Web 2.0, is comprised of immersive, personalized web services that give users the ability to create, share, distribute, and consume information in ways that benefit their specific goals and aspirations. As librarians and information professionals, we have to consider these goals and motivations, and seek to develop (or purchase) solutions that help patrons process, absorb, and derive meaning from the content we provide. We have done this in physical libraries for years; however, as online delivery becomes widely available and as user demand increases, we will need to devote more of our energies toward making our websites and web applications appealing, enjoyable, and easy to use. User experience can help libraries develop a vision of where we want to go next with web services, where we want to be next year, and where we plan to be the year after that.
What is User Experience?
In his 2010 “State of User Experience” speech, Jesse James Garrett defines user experience as “the design of anything, independent of medium, or across media, with human experience as an explicit outcome, and human engagement as an explicit goal.” In other words, user experience seeks to create products that people will want to use, and to delight users in such a way that they develop a sense of loyalty to the product or service being offered.
User experience is subjective and intangible. Yet, if you were to watch five library patrons find and download an electronic book using your library’s catalogue, it would become clear that their experiences, while varied, are very real to them. We may not be able to touch these experiences, but they exist because our users exist.
UX is not usability. Usability means that your intended audience can successfully complete the task they set out to do. Usability is concerned with functionality of a specific product, whereas UX is focused on creating something of value that speaks to the user on a visceral, behavioural, and reflective level. Put simply: a pair of Clark’s Wallabies are usability, but a pair of shoes from John Fluevog are user experience. They’re both types of shoes, but as a consumer (and shoe addict) I’m more likely to have an enthusiastic reaction to the new pair of Fluevogs I just purchased rather than the utilitarian simplicity of a Clark’s walking shoe.
This is because the Fluevog shoe is designed to elicit an immediate reaction (“I must have these shoes!”) that with time and exposure, matches itself to my own behavioural patterns (“I never would have guessed I could walk 12 blocks in 3-inch heels before I bought these.”). As I become more attached to the shoes, they become part of the story of myself, or the image I want others to have of me (“Have you seen those orange slingback pumps of Cecily’s? She has such an impeccable sense of style!”).
These reactions influence user behaviour, drive decision making, and help increase user delight. When we are delighted by something, we become more receptive, focus our thinking, and become more curious and willing to explore. Focus and attention are crucial to online experiences, because when a user pays attention to the task at hand, their rate of success increases. When a user is pleased with a product or service, she is more willing to overlook and cope with minor problems with a website or product, especially if it is fun to work with (“I think I’ll pick up some blister pads this evening. I’m planning to wear my orange pumps with this new dress I just bought.”)
Characteristics of User Experience
User experience design has three main characteristics.
Direct User Input
The most critical aspect of user experience design is direct user input. Although gathering user feedback is not new, user experience design seeks to understand and assess users’ actual behaviour and performance, rather than their opinions and attitudes. We collect this user information by observing users in the field and in controlled settings as they interact with design prototypes, or we can simply observe them in their own environment as they work with a website or application. Using these two methods will help you uncover their goals, objectives and thought processes, and will shed light on the steps your patrons follow when trying to carry out a specific task.
Traditional methods of assessment such as focus groups and surveys are not useful when attempting to measure user behaviour. In focus groups and surveys, people’s responses can be unreliable. Paul Sherman, a user experience consultant based in Austin, Texas, writes that these methods should be discounted because “in general, people ‘lie’; that is, they don’t self-assess their performance well, and they unknowingly generate inaccurate explanations for their behaviour and attitudes.” (Sherman 2009) Most of us have had the experience of expressing an opinion about something that runs counter to how we actually use it. For example, when I was in the market for a new car five years ago, fuel efficiency was a key priority, and I chose a model that met my stated needs. In reality, I keep the trunk of my car full of stuff, added a heavy bike rack to the undercarriage, and I’m a bit of a lead foot. These behaviours all undermine my car’s fuel efficiency even though I said it was an important factor when choosing a vehicle.
A Clearly-Defined Development Process
Another important characteristic of UX design is having a well-defined development process with discrete stages that move from more abstract ideas to more concrete issues such as layout and design.
Recently, the Web Team at Vancouver Public Library implemented a process that outlines the stages of the design life cycle and identifies the tactics used at each phase. During the earliest phases, we seek to discover user needs, and find out how developing a website or deploying a third-party solution will meet those needs. We combine surveys with contextual observation to outline features and functional requirements that the website must support. As we move through our process, we construct the information architecture and navigation systems of the website. By this time we’ve moved from abstract ideas toward building the website, so we develop task flows or use cases that capture detailed descriptions of how a user goal might be accomplished on our website. We do all of these things before we even think about developing wireframes or building a web-based prototype. It is only when these early stages are completed that we pass our designs on to the graphics technicians and web developers.
Following a clearly-defined development process reduces the risk of producing a design that is doesn’t meet the users’ needs or one that gets in the way of their interaction goals. It also reduces the likelihood that a completed design will need to be re-worked.
Design Iterations
Most of us are familiar with the adage “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” That’s the theory behind the last aspect of user experience: iterative design. We improve designs incrementally by repeatedly exposing prototypes to users while asking them to complete real-world tasks using these mock-ups. We assess user performance and success rates, and refine our designs based on these results.
We may be tempted to add features at this stage to increase the likelihood of user success, but this may not be the best approach. Making a design more complicated by adding alert messages, explanatory text, instructions for operation and other ‘helpful’ features may actually make the design more frustrating for the user. Whenever something competes for the user’s attention, their focus is taken away from the task at hand. This can make errors happen more often. Instead of adding features, iterative design may reveal that subtracting features might be in order.
The iterative design process can be used for everything from making small changes such as changing the labels on buttons to a complete overhaul of a web application interface across several generations. The keys to making iterative design work are repetition, exposure, and refinement, regardless of the size of the project.
Final Thoughts
In his book Designing the Obvious, Robert Hoekman, Jr. tells the story of being at a dinner party and overhearing friends talk about their frustrations with web sites. It occurred to Hoekman that web application design is really about designing the obvious, e.g.,“understanding the principal activity your product is meant to support so you know what to build, and more importantly, what not to build.” This understanding, he writes, comes from “knowing how people use computers, and having the ability to create something that works with users instead of against them.” (Hoekman 2006) Developing a user experience strategy that embraces direct user input, a formalized development process and iterative design will help us reach this understanding.
Design is subjective, and web technologies are a moving target. The reality is that our technological landscape shifts so rapidly that we may feel as if we’ll never quite keep up.
We have to keep moving.
The landscape will shift beneath our feet, and we might be tempted to plant our feet and dig a trench in response. We must remain flexible and committed to change, and be able to anticipate changes as they appear on the horizon. Our landscape may shift, but one thing that remains constant is our ability to adapt to a changing environment. Librarians can and do adapt to changes, and so can our patrons, if we guide them along the way.
References
Brewer, Peter and Joshua Porter. “52 weeks of UX.” http://www.52weeksofux.com .
Garrett, Jesse James. 2003. The elements of user experience. Indianapolis, IN.: New Riders
Hoekman, Jr., Robert. 2006. Designing the obvious. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Norman, Donald A. 2004. Emotional design: why we love or hate everyday things. New York: Basic Books.
Sherman, Paul. The User Experience Team Kit: How to Hire a UX Team and Incorporate User-Centered Design Methods into Your Software Development Lifecycle Process. ShermanUX, 21 February 2010. http://www.shermanux.com.