The Top 10 things that UX people get obsessed about

© Rufus Leonard, 2015

Hello! My name is Andy Marshall, I’m Head of UX at Rufus Leonard.

@andy__marshall

When I was asked to give this talk, I gave some thought to the topic.

And then it came to me…

The more we learn working in UX design, the more we start to see the world

through the lens of UX.

This is where obsessions with everyday things begins.

And people working in UX can obsess about some unusual things.

And so I had a thought…

And so I had a thought…‘Why not create a top 10 of things

we get obsessed about?’

So here it is…

The top 10

The top 10 (not necessarily annual)

The top 10 (not necessarily annual) things that UX people

The top 10 (not necessarily annual) things that UX peopleget obsessed about

10 Stationary

For people who work predominantly in producing stuff online we spend a lot of

time producing stuff offline.

We. Love. Stationary.

Mmmm…. Adjustable, aluminium

pencil.

http://www.uistencils.com

http://www.uistencils.com

Thanks UI Stencils for fuelling our desire for stationary we never knew we needed.

Not just any ruler…

http://www.uistencils.com

Not just any ruler… This one measures in pixels.

http://www.uistencils.com

So which is the single piece of stationary to rule them all?

The humble Post-It.

Can you have too many?

https://plus.google.com/+originalartiste/posts?pid=5999657580888958402&oid=111541287404252539466

It’s competition time. Spot the UX family at the park.

http://www.etsicommunication.fr/blog_etsi/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Swiss-Cancer-Foundation-Post-It-Man-03.jpg

It’s competition time. Spot the UX family at the park.

http://www.etsicommunication.fr/blog_etsi/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Swiss-Cancer-Foundation-Post-It-Man-03.jpg

Obsession rating: Dangerously expensive

Stationary

9The Definition of UX

Each year I ask each member of my team to give me their definition of UX.

And each year they give me slightly different answers to the previous year.

We continually evolve our definition, refining to ourselves what we do.

It can get very philosophical.

Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of people talking about this obsession…

Google results for the “difference between UX and UI”. The high number results comes as no surprise…

So let’s have a look at a few of the definitions that are out there.

On one hand, UX is fuzzy.

http://www.slideshare.net/MaryWharmby/great-ux-portfolios-39212601

http://www.slideshare.net/uxcrank/the-ux-umbrella

On the other hand, it’s nicely articulated with this metaphor; the UX umbrella.

“UX Design” is an awkward umbrella term for things that already have names: interaction design, information architecture, visual design, user testing.

I don’t know what a UX Designer does.

Although according to Peter Merholz, it’s an ‘awkward umbrella’.

http://www.peterme.com

Peter Merholz

Further evidence there is no such thing as “UX Design” Read the 15 answers from “User Experience Experts” to the question “What is UX Design?” And then come back and tell me if there is actually such a thing as UX Design. I suppose there might be 15 things as UX Design…

And this is verging on existentialism.

http://www.peterme.com/2015/09/24/further-evidence-there-is-no-such-thing-as-ux-design/

Peter Merholz

“User Experience is a commitment to developing products and services with purpose, compassion, and integrity.

It is the never-ending process of seeing the world from the customers' perspective and working to improve the quality of their lives.

It is the never-ending process of maintaining the health of the business and finding new ways to help it grow sustainably. It is the perfect balance between making money and making meaning.”

Thanks to Whitney Hess for this eloquent definition. Should we all agree to stick with this one?

https://whitneyhess.com

Whitney Hess

…the concept of user experience attempts to go beyond the task-oriented approach of traditional HCI by bringing out aspects such as beauty, fun, pleasure, and personal growth that satisfy general human needs but have little instrumental value.

Therefore, when compared to basic usability, enjoyability plays an essential role in user experience. The extent to which an interactive product is enjoyable to use is referred to as the product’s hedonic quality.

No, we shouldn’t. You’ll always discover new definitions. To continually redefine means we question, understand, and evolve what we do.

http://www.academia.edu

Marc Hassenzahl

Obsession rating: Obsessed with ourselves

The Definition of UX

8Dashboards

You may not have become obsessed with dashboards, yet.

But you should. Because clients love them.

enterprise-dashboard.com/img/tim-oreilly-dashboard.jpg

This is where I go whenever I’m feeling down… I literally have no idea what this is telling me.

What’s worse than a pie chart for visualising information?

http://dashboardspy.com/img/Sales-Dashboard-ERP.jpg

What’s worse than a pie chart for visualising information?Yes, that’s right. A 3d pie chart.

http://dashboardspy.com/img/Sales-Dashboard-ERP.jpg

http://www.liesdamnedlies.com/...DashboardImage2%5B8%5D_2.gif

This one has it all. Pie charts. Skeuomorphs. Tons of wasted real estate…

Fortunately there are some thought-leaders in visualising information, guiding us in the

world of dashboard design.

First came Edward Tufte, one of the forefathers and pioneers of visualing information.

http://www.edwardtufte.com

Edward Tufte

Stephen Few’s book Information Dashboard Design is an absolute must read for enthusiasts.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effective-Communication/dp/0596100167

Stephen Few

“A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance.”

Noah Iliinsky is also on the recommended reading list, particularly Designing Data Visualisations, co-authored with Julie Steele.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Designing-Data-Visualizations-Noah-Iliinsky/dp/1449312284/

Noah Iliinsky

Having been through the dashboard obsession myself, I’d like to share a little

dashboard nugget I picked up along the way.

When presented with a spreadsheet and asked to make some kind of judgement or decision based on the numbers we see, we use our working memory to hold individual pieces of data as we make sense of it, and as we process our decision.

But working memory has limited capacity (to three of four items, by modern thinking).

So we expend effort in just making sense of the data. And this is inefficient.

Holding pieces of data in our working memory is like spinning plates, where you can only ever get three or four plates spinning at once.

Working memory

Add a new plate, and one of the other plates falls off.

Working memory

Iconic memory Working memory

But if you visualise the data, you engage the reader’s visual systems. This is very powerful as it alleviates effort from our working memory in making sense of the data.

Iconic memory Working memory

And this frees up working memory to help us focus on the decision making. As a result, this leads to better decisions. Beautiful.

Long term memory

Obsession rating: A slippery slope

Dashboards

7Signage

It’s easy to slip into this obsession. We’re constantly surrounded by signage,

and working in UX seems to hone our ability to spot poor signage.

An instruction for a light switch. Notice the instructions have been added as an afterthought. Not that this really helps.

http://www.globalnerdy.com/

If you visit this lavatory, be sure to allow plenty of time to read the door instructions. Failure to do so could lead to embarrassment…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/keithbraithwaite/3545334842/

I’m pretty sure the first floor is rarely found in the basement.

We don’t know if we’re coming or going with this one.

Twitter/Snickers/BBDO

And can anyone explain this?

http://www.findsigns.com

Obsession rating: I’m starting to annoy myself

Signage

6Customer Service

Working in UX can be an odd education in customer service.

On most projects we spend at least some time with the customer.

And even when this can’t happen, we still strive to deliver the best possible

experience for the customer.

It’s perhaps this constant attention we give customers that makes us more aware of our own customer

service experiences.

© 2015 Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

And we rarely need much prompting to share our experiences. We practically feel obligated to feedback to those providing a service where they would benefit from improvements!

Obsession rating: You can’t switch off!

Customer Service

5Every Hardware

Interface We Encounter

Our obsession with hardware interfaces is not new. Ever heard of the ‘blinking twelve problem’?

www.mentalfloss.com/

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/386254105516822997/

Car parks hide some of the worst culprits in hardware interfaces. At this point you may want to consider a different car park.

http://develion.co.uk/article/2011/01/17/the-design-of-everyday-items/

And just don’t bump against the dial of the washing machine, unless of course you don’t actually want your clothes washed.

Obsession rating: Anorak.

Every Hardware Interface We Encounter

4Reducing Complexity

I’m always surprised to hear people ask for ‘simple’, and ‘clear’ in briefs.

I’m pretty sure this is part of the job description. We certainly don’t set out to create complexity.

https://choin519.wordpress.com/blog/health-care-visualization/

Of course, complexity is never far away, so I can understand why people crave ‘simple’.

qwikspot.com/e/design-ideas-3515179/

Our brains are pattern seeking machines. We naturally seek simplicity and regularity. We know, and leverage this in UX.

But our obsession with reducing complexity can sometimes take us too far, creating

products that may not work.

Simplicity versus complexity is about balance.

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/42-66800717/airbus-a320-cockpit

The cockpit of a plane reduced to a single joystick may still fly, but pilots also need to be able to monitor the plane’s systems. Sometimes complexity is inherent.

Obsession rating: Obsessively compulsive

Reducing Complexity

3Forms

Forms.

Not the most exciting topic.

Yet this is an area we easily become obsessed with.

eggcupwebdesign.com/web-design-usability-best-practice-support-your-users/

Well designed forms look effortless, yet this is fiendishly hard to achieve.

We constantly have to push for fewer form fields (and sometimes this can be a hard sell!).

There are the affordances of form fields to consider because not all form fields are equal.

And if we’re really keen we get into fixations and saccades.

Designing great forms is difficult.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about form design, it’s this: Luke Wroblewski knows everything.

Web Form Design is compulsory reading.http://www.lukew.com

Luke Wroblewski

http://www.ict4u.net/databases/paper-forms.php

And once armed with a thing or two about form design, paper based forms start to look hilarious. You’ll wonder how we coped before the web!

Obsession rating: Geek.

Forms

2Social Proof

static1.squarespace.com/.../90-billion-burguers.png

Social Proof, which describes the way we tend to follow the behaviours of others, is incredibly persuasive.

When we first discover Social Proof, we feel empowered.

It’s like we’ve discovered the silver bullet to persuading people to do anything.

http://www.influenceatwork.com/

But we soon learn there’s much more to influence than Social Proof alone.

Robert Cialdini's best selling book ‘Influence’, introduced many to ‘the big six’ elements of influence.

Reciprocity Social Proof Commitment and consistency Authority Liking Scarcity

From Cialdini’s six elements of influence, you quickly slip into a world of psychological principles, heuristics and biases. From this…

Reciprocity Social Proof Commitment and consistency Authority Liking Scarcity Concession Curiosity Status Achievements Humour Effect Value Attribution Limited duration Familiarity Bias Proximity Peak-End Rule

Self-Expression Sequencing Serial Position Effect Visual Imagery Status Quo Bias Sensory Appeal Limited Access Duration Effects Chunking Priming Recognition Over Recall Set Completion Variable Rewards Commitment and Consistency Contrast Loss Aversion

Need For Certainty Limited Choice Reputation Uniform Connectedness Framing Feedback Loops Ownership Bias Conceptual Metaphor Anchoring and Adjustment Gifting Positive Mimicry Pattern Recognition Endowed progress effect Fear appeal Reflection effect The Overjustification Effect

…to this. And much more.

Obsession rating: A super black hole

Social Proof

Let’s recap on the top 10 so far.

The top 1010. Stationary

9. The Definition of UX

8. Dashboards

7. Signage

6. Customer Service

5. Every Hardware Interface

4. Reducing Complexity

3. Forms

2. Social Proof

1. …?

So what is number one?

1Door Handles

faniereynders.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/some-api-best-suggestions.html

Yes, door handles.

image.slidesharecdn.com/.../basics-of-interaction-design-training-slides-12-638.jpg

Door handles.

www.andhrafriends.com/topic/569592-construction-failures/page-2

Door handles.

www.epicfail.com/2013/05/17/door-design-fail/

Door handles.

cheezburger.com/7074511360

Door handles.

cheezburger.com/5774468352

Door handles.

Door handles are our number one obsession.

And this can be credited to just one person…

http://www.jnd.org

Dr Donald Norman. Co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, who popularised the term ‘User Experience’ in the mid-1990s.

http://www.influenceatwork.com/

Norman’s seminal book, ‘The Design of Everyday Things’, is the top of many a UX recommended reading list.

And a significant chunk of the book is a narrative from Norman describing a day in his life, where he analyses the design of the things he comes into contact with.

He discusses alarm clocks, coffee pots, light switches, door handles (of course), and so on.

Norman’s insights and his own obsession engenders obsessiveness in all of us to look

at everyday things in a new light.

Most people working in the field of UX at some point read The Design of Everyday Things.

This equates to a lot people obsessing about door handles.

Obsession rating: Without them, there’s no escape

Door Handles

The top 1010. Stationary

9. The definition of UX

8. Dashboards

7. Signage

6. Customer service

5. Every single hardware interface

4. Reducing complexity

3. Form design

2. Social proof

1. Door handles

Thank you

© Rufus Leonard, 2015