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1 TandemSeven Inc. 2009 tandemseven.com | 508.746.6116 tandemseven.com | 508.746.6116 Interaction Design in Industry Lawrence J. Najjar, Ph.D. [email protected] 5th Annual Regional HFES Student Chapter Conference California State University, Long Beach February 27, 2010

Interaction design in industry

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Defines user interface interaction design in industry, describes the interaction design process, and provides some insights into the pros and cons of a career as an interaction designer.

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Page 1: Interaction design in industry

1 TandemSeven Inc. 2009tandemseven.com | 508.746.6116tandemseven.com | 508.746.6116

Interaction Design in Industry

Lawrence J. Najjar, [email protected]

5th Annual Regional HFES Student Chapter Conference

California State University, Long Beach

February 27, 2010

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Agenda

Who am I?

Why is this talk relevant?

What is interaction design?

Interaction design process

The good, the bad, and the ugly

What I’ve learned

Summary

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Who am I?

Ph.D. engineering psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology

27 years experience including:

Campbell Soup Company employee intranet HomeDepot.com US air traffic controller user interface Wearable computer for poultry plant quality assurance inspectors

Over 50 professional publications and presentations (see http://www.lawrence-najjar.com)

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Why is this talk relevant?

Most human factors jobs are in industry1,2

Industry is different from academia

Want to give a sense of what interaction design in industry is like

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What is interaction design?

Field that designs the interface between people and machines, such as computers

Focuses on the way user interfaces work, not the way they look

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Interaction design process

Goals

Stakeholder & user interviews

Personas

Functional requirements

Wireframes

Usability feedback

Specifications

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Goals

Business

User

Application

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Stakeholder & user interviews

One interviewer, one note-taker

Talk to stakeholders for 1 hour

Talk to representative users in their work environments for 1 hour

Ask specific and open-ended questions

Summarize findings

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Personas

Use interview notes to create 5 or fewer textual descriptions of major representative users

Include background, goals, needs, tasks, priorities, challenges

Used for requirements and to guide design decisions

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Functional requirements

Based on prior tasks, identify high-level user interface requirements for functions & content (if applicable)

Focus on what users do, not how they do it

List and prioritize each requirement

Possibly scope the requirements

Move some requirements to later phases

Iteratively review with client

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Wireframes

Minimal graphics, minimal color drawings of the user interface for a page

Focus on how the user interface works not how it looks

Show page layout, placement of data elements & controls, navigation

Helpful for refining requirements & task flows

Iterate with client

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Usability feedback

Get small sample of representative users

Work with one user at a time for 1 hour

Ask how the user would perform important tasks

Show wireframes for each page

Look for ways to improve the design

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Specifications

Include image of each wireframe

Describe how the user interface controls work

Allow developers to bring the user interface to life

Provide information for quality assurance testing

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Interaction design process

Goals

Stakeholder & user interviews

Personas

Functional requirements

Wireframes

Usability feedback

Specifications

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Interaction design in industry: The good, the bad, & the ugly

The good

More job opportunitiesSlightly higher payGreater design creativityProbably more impact (short-term)Shorter delay of gratification

The bad

Less work outside of software user interface designFewer opportunities for trainingFew opportunities for researchFew opportunities for publishingFaster paceMore time pressure

The ugly

More layoffs

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What I’ve Learned

Easy is hard

User interaction design is an art and a science

No one gets it right the first time

Users are bad designers but good reviewers

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should

Several iterative designs of a static, low-fidelity user interface are more effective than one version of a dynamic, high-fidelity user interface prototype

No one takes the training. No one reads the Help.

Air traffic controllers don’t want a “Help” button on their keyboards

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Summary

A career in interaction design in industry has pros and cons

Focus is on doing good work fast

Major cost and time pressure

Gratifying work

Fun

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1. Peres, S. C. & McCloskey, L. (2009, July) HFES 2009 salary and compensation survey. Human Factors Bulletin, 52(7). Retrieved from: http://www.hfes.org/web/HFESBulletin/July2009SalarySurvey.html

2. Usability Professionals’ Association (2009, August 18). UPA 2009 salary survey. Retrieved from: http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/surveys/2009salarysurvey_PUBLIC.pdf

References

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Lawrence Najjar

[email protected]

http://www.lawrence-najjar.com/

Contact me