10 Guidelines for Creating a Good User Experience

When I think about user experience, (UX), in training and performance applications, I think about screen-based experiences, that optimize information access, and/or directly support the adult learning process, in at least two important ways:

1. Structuring the user interface and information architecture for optimal access and minimal cognitive dissonance

2. Making an emotional connection, by creating UI and content that entices a person to interact and spend time

As a visual designer the challenge is to put yourself in the place of the user, and then to make decisions on how to organize buttons and information to best help accomplish the task at hand. The best designs are protective of the user experience, keeping ambiguity, misunderstanding, and frustration out, and allowing the focus to be on the most important content, and the tasks to be done. Here is my list of 10 things that get in the way of a good user experience for technology-based training and performance support, (along with some ways to avoid them):

1. Not knowing where you are: When organizing digital information, we are creating virtual landscapes for the user to travel through. Providing signs and easy to follow paths help users navigate confidently. Visual cues such as color-coded menu items, status bars, and visual organizers help users form a mental picture of where they are within the content space.

2. Not knowing where you have been: Having a “visited” state for menu items is an important sign post for navigating a digital landscape. This convention is deeply rooted in HTML linking standards and has become an expected convention.

3. Not knowing what is in front of you: Adult learners want some control over how they progress through a technology-based training solution. One of the first steps is setting expectations, such as how long it will take, and the recommended sequence (if any) that they should follow. Providing an estimate of time that sections or topics will take to get through, and providing visual cues like page x of x, along with a progress bar are all ways of letting someone know what’s in store.

4. Not knowing what a button is for: Much of UX design comes down to optimizing the way someone interacts with digital content. Whenever someone finds themselves scratching their head about the function of something on screen, we have placed a barrier to the flow of the experience. Details such as the how well a button looks like a button, or the icon chosen to clue the user about its function, are all potential barriers, or facilitate a satisfying experience, that you don’t mind spending some time with.

5. Too many options: Too many choices can paralyze. Steve Krug says “Don’t make me think” in his book of the same name on web usability. One of the most commercially successful models of UX design is the iPhone and iPad. In large part, I believe this comes down to an approach of deciding what not to let someone do on a given screen. Essentially limiting the options, and in turn making for an intuitive and comfortable digital environment for many people. This is the opposite approach of the venerable Windows Mobile OS that ran my Palm Trio, in which it was all about how to make this OS as similar in features as the desktop version.

6. Unconventional design patterns: In a post web 2.0 world, millions of people navigate videos via YouTube; text; post photos, videos, and comments; use IM; and generally interact with digital environments for a large portion of their day. In the same way that people have come to expect books to have an index, certain design patterns have emerged around digital media. Design patterns are conventions that we come to expect when interacting with certain kinds of media. Using conventional design patterns lets you inherit meaning and focus users on content or a specific action.

7. Unconventional placement of UI: We get used to looking for UI in certain places. There is a familial and often ergonomic component to this. For example we generally expect to have an exit function tacked to the top left or right hand corner of a screen. When interacting with a smart phone, it is often with one hand, (either left or right), and there is an optimum placement for buttons and menu items relative to the comfortable “reach” of the thumb. To learn more about designing good user experiences for devices like the iPhone, take a look at the very accessible and insightful book Tapworthy by Josh Clark.

8. Unconventional use of iconography: Icons are meant to communicate meaning quickly and therefore intuitively. To do this successfully, it helps to reference a guide of symbols. One such book is an oldy but a goody called Handbook of Pictorial Symbols by Rudolf Modley. You won’t always find what you are looking for, but it can help get things started.

9. Too much visual emphasis on the chrome: when I talk about chrome here, I am referring to user interface chrome, or the elements that frame or act as containers for your content. Many a digital artist has been seduced by this seeming playground where you can set your artistic expression free. Tread lightly… The UI is a key part of user experience, and ultimately needs to support the mission of encouraging and guiding a user. There is an emotional aspect to this for sure, and it requires a sophisticated dance between utility and aesthetics.

10. Forgetting the banana…: From Seth Godin’s book The Big Red Fez: How to Make Any Web Site Better. Seth uses an analogy of training a monkey (that happens to be wearing a big red fez) to jump into a vat of lime Jello. To do this, you place a banana in the middle of the Jello. Take away the banana, and the monkey won’t jump. From a UX perspective it is all about figuring out what you want someone to do at any given time within your digital environment, and designing around that, emphasizing the primary action you want someone to take. If everything on screen has the same relative visual importance, it is hard for me to know what to do.

In this post, I have considered UX in the context of digital training and performance support applications. These ten points emphasize clarity and sensitivity to cognitive load. As with all rules, they don’t hold up in all situations, and can at least serve as a point of departure.

#UI #UX #Design