oneux | designing experiences

Experience Maps

 

The Experience Map is a model that illustrates the complete experience a person might have with a solution, application, etc.

It has its origins in, and has been used extensively in Service Design where customers are interacting with a number of touchpoints. We use experience maps in defining and designing multichannel retail experiences. We have borrowed elements from examples published online  and added elements we feel help us better define these  experiences.

There are  four elements to the experience map:

1. Customer type / persona we are designing for  and their current response to the brand 
2. The journey across all touchopints
3. The Customer's emotional / gut response to each part of the journey 
4. The business response to each element of the journey 
5. Any changes affected to the customer's perception of the brand + how the experience maps against the business principles 

opt in, not out

 image by Tenisha Rawlin on flickr

A recent article in DarkPatterns, discusses how online businesses use trick questions to get users to either agree to sharing their information with them (Wired) or inadvertentdly buy a service (Ryan Air). A more benign, yet sneaky approach employed by online marketers is the use of opt-out communication/registration questions. Typically this takes place when marketers wish to collect users' personal information to later contact them with offers, etc. The opt-out usually takes the form of a check box with negative text, something like: 'tick here if you do not wish to...' see example from Wired: 

 

 Why  is this approach insidious? Firstly it breaks the heuristics governing a check box, specifically that a selected check box equates to a positive, true statement. That is, by selecting a checkbox a users makes a positive statement, which in the marketing world would be that they opt in, agree to a business sharing their information, contacting them, etc.

Secondly, a key feature  of asking users to opt in - apart from legal requirements - is that all emals, materials, letters, any communication made is anticipated by the user. It confirms that the user wants to receive it, which makes it quite different to unsolicited advertisements. 

Finally, opt out questions take advantage of our tendency to not fully read online but rather scan text. Basically they rely on us not noticing and inadvertently opting-in.

All in all this does not make for an honest and fair start to a relationship. Is this really how online businesses want to engage with their customers?

this is real multichannel (with all its challenges of course)

 A recent New York Times article describes how Nordstrom increased sales and inventory turnover by linking its on-line inventory with that of its 115 stores. A integrated inventory allowed on-line customers to buy a product even though it was not available on-line: 'if the Web warehouse was out of that bag, it did not matter. Inventory from Nordstrom’s 115 regular stores is also included. Maybe there was just one handbag left in the entire company, sitting forlornly in the back of the Roosevelt Field store — it would be displayed on-line and store employees would ship it to the Web customer.' As a result of the inventory changes there were significant improvements in stock management and eventually sales and earrings: 'we can sell more without having to buy more inventory,' Mr Nordstrom said. 'That plays through to margins and, ultimately, earnings'.

Having worked on retail sites, one major challenge that comes to mind is that how certain is  Nordstrom that the bag that appears to 'sitting forlornly in the back of the Roosevelt Field store' is actually there and not  a)misplaced and impossible to locate, b) stolen,  c) in good condition, and d) sold but never accurately registered. This is not to say that integrated inventory cannot work, quite the opposite; customers view a brand as one entity not separate touch-points.  There are however, challenges in communicating to customers how reliable  stock availability actually is.

my country needs me

Transactional Greek websites...hm definitely a misnomer.
Here is my tale: I am travelling to Athens in November and my wife found out about a dance performance by Dimitris Papaioanou, the guy behind the Athens Olympics ceremonies. So I though I'll book tickets. Off I go to the National Theatre's website and after 20 minutes literally fighting with the website and booking process I think I booked 2 tickets. I say 'think' because I have yet to receive an email confirmation. Some highlights from my online mini ordeal:

• The service offered by  www.ticketservices.gr randomly assigns seats. I could not select my own seat, though i could see plans of the auditorium
• The selection is valid for 15 minutes regardless of whether you need to register your details or not
• Once details have been entered you have no option to make changes, for example give another telephone number or correct a mistake
• It is not clear whether tickets are posted to you or whether you can collect them at the box office. Actually I had to call them and ask!
• There is no way of logging out which means you need to clear the browser's history to avoid others accessing your details
• There is no indication as to whether the site is secure (other than the https:)
• After you or rather I have naively shared my credit card details, you get a minimal confirmation of no real use
• There is no email confirmation

I  could go on and on but it simply makes me mad. I now know why Greece lacks transactional websites. It is becasue the concept of customer experience and user centred design is unknown to the agencies building web services. No wonder Greeks are suspicious of e-retail, I do not blame them.

Off to call my credit card company to make sure my account has not been emptied by some wise guys in downtown Athens

Designing for the extremes

There seems to be an increase in products designed specifically for the elderly (IHT Sept 7th).  Apparently populations are aging and the elderly (what does that mean exactly?) have more cash to spend so designers and manufacturers are after a slice of the grey dollar, pound, yen, or euro. Ok, this is good, though the motive: make more and more money, is not what I would have wished. In the IHT article experts talk about how firms want to ‘know how to adapt their products’ and that there is a clear need to create ‘senior-friendly’ products. This is where I get confused.

Can you really adapt a product designed for one type of user to suit the needs of a different user? As Alan Cooper said many years ago, sand a chair as much as you like, it will never turn into a table.  Rather than try to adapt a product why not do the unthinkable and start by looking at people’s needs, motivations, and experiences and let this insight drive the design?

Which leads me to the second point: ‘senior- friendly products’? What the …  does that mean? Does it mean creating products based on a designer’s assumptions of ‘elderly’ people’s needs, which will certainly result in a product patronising its users? Products for the elderly do not need to be targeted to the ‘elderly’ or look like they are made for them. OXO and Smart Design are making beautiful objects that anyone would like though they can be based on the needs of a specific user group.

My final point is that grouping users by age may work for marketers but not for designers, grouping users by needs, abilities, motivations, etc, that makes sense

Life at the airport

Alain de Botton’s done it again. The author, cultural commentator, and philosopher-cum-ethnographer has just published his new book: ‘A week at the airport: A Heathrow Diary’, offering a unique, I hope, insight into the fascinating world of air travel. As Heathrow’s writer in residence, de Botton spent a week at terminal 5 at Heathrow observing, commenting and reflecting on the world of travel. More on this soon as I am expecting the book to arrive in the post in the next few days.

you decide not your users

Recently as part of reviewing a design for a client, we asked users to have a look at different versions of specific pages. The aim was to get users to help us decide which version to adopt. Naturally there were two different camps among the designers and the client each supporting a different design and each hoping users will prove them right.

Getting users to help designers make a decision is not a bad idea, hanging on to their every word and always adopting the most popular design definitely is. Users' reasoning for selecting a particular design is more important than the choice itself. Why is it they they voted for version A? is it familiarity, an attempt to appear forward thinking, traditional, knowledgeable, or is it that version A is the most appropriate and efficient version of the task at hand? getting to understand the reasons behind each choice will help designers make the right decision. 

Users are their to help us do the best we can, they are not their to make decisions on our behalf. We certainly listen to what they have to say but we then analyse, evaluate,  and apply our own expertise to make those choices.

do not ask...observe

Here is a good example of how unreliable users can be when asked a question. I was observing a usability session the other day and the facilitator asked the participant about his web experience. 'I've been using the Internet since the late 80s ' was the response.

Dumb question I agree but it does show that we are not good at answering questions around frequency. Questions on specific events are always better at providing insight into users' behaviours.

Here is an even better example: during a diary study on mobile phone use, a participant reports that she deletes her voicemail after listening to it. After meeting her for an observation session it transpired that the she was deleting the voicemail notification, not the voicemail itself. Two different findings providing potentially different design recommendations.

tickets, receipts, and inspectors

It is always useful to get a fresh perspective on interactions we tend to get used to. My niece recently visited from Greece and used the Heathrow Express to central London. Once at the airport she paid and collected her ticket from one of the automated ticket machines and then made her way to the train. Once on her way to paddington she handed the ticket to the inspector, only thing, that wasn't a ticket she had collected form the machine, but a receipt.

Long story short, after paying for her ticket and though the screen informed her to collect her ticket, the first printout the machine delivered was the receipt, which my nice quickly took and run to the train waiting on the platform. Thanks to an understanding ticket inspector and her not that perfect English she got away with it. 

• Why not stick to what your screen informs users?
• Why not print the ticket first? after all the ticket is more important than the receipt (those users expecting a receipt will make sure they  get it before travelling)
• Why not make the receipt look different to the ticket, possibly print it on a different colour paper?

user observations. making sense of it all: After the sessions

So, all the sessions are now complete and you have a wealth of notes, pictures, blog posts, recordings, and even video footage. Now what? How do you make sense of it all? This can be quite a daunting experience especially when you jump from session to session without any time to reflect on the findings.

In my experience, an effective way to deal with a mountain of data is to prepare for the analysis during the fieldwork:

• Debrief after every session: Always make sure there is sufficient break between sessions. You will need about an hour to go back through the session and identify key points and areas. if you do this after each session you will see patterns emerging that will help with preparing for subsequent sessions
• Compare notes with partners and observers: During those debrief sessions make sure you compare notes with other researchers and clients to make sure that you have not missed anything and that your understanding of what took place during the session is correct.
• Write up stories at the end of each day: This is probably the most crucial element of getting ready for the analysis. Stories will help with creating personas and also help define areas of interest

If you start the analysis having clearly and concisely documented what happened in the field will help focus on developing your deliverables, whether they are mental models, personas, user journeys, etc.

user observations. challenge #6: observation not appropriate

There are times when while you are all prepared to meet users and gain great insight, you realise that the situation forbids you from any useful observation. There can be a number of reasons for that:

• No space for observation. Here I mean physical space and you can read more on this in a previous post.
• Participant not properly briefed . It is true that sometimes, for whatever reason, participants have not been properly communicated the purpose and format of the  session. As a result you are faced with a situation where you simply cannot observe.
• Atypical behaviour. This is an interesting one. You may come across users that represent extreme cases of the subject matter you are researching. This is absolutely fine if you are looking at extreme cases - this sometimes can be extremely useful  -

Despair not. While you may need to abandon any hopes of observation, you can still use the time available for an unstructured and flexible interview. During a project in Europe, I came across a participant who invited us to meet him in town and brought some of his friends along. While the situation did not facilitate meaningful observation we used it as an opportunity to conduct an extended couch session. There is no need to tell participants that you need to adapt your approach, at best they will feel bad and at worse, offended.

So, some ideas:

• Adapt your approach
• Small talk helps
• Flexible  interviewing. Not standardised
• Allow participants to join in time outs

user observations. challenge #5: Sesions in an other language

I know I know... one of  the key principles of ethnography is that the ethnographer speaks the language of the people he is observing and does not use translators, ideally yes. However, when you do research across locations you need to ensure a) continuity and b) consistency on the method and approach, which more than not means that a researcher is present in all locations, even though he may not run all the sessions.

In my experience I was responsible for the research approach and results across multiple locations across countries and languages. Not being a polyglot, meant that I had to rely on local facilitators to extract knowledge. What is important here is that I worked with researchers not mere translators. My role was to ensure continuity and consistency and guide/help the local facilitator, not run the sessions.

Not knowing the language freed me to observe different things to the locall facilitator and regular time outs allowed us to compare notes and ensure we are on track. While not speaking the language I was still able to tell if the local facilitator was following the approach. For example, if the facilitator talks more than the participant, then you know that is something is not right. 

Anyway, one of the side effects of being present in sessions that were conducted in a language other than English, was that some participants were keen to talk in English. here are tips on how to deal with this:

Participant not fluent in English

• Thank them
• Encourage them to speak in local language
• Local facilitator has language skills
• It is ok to ask a question in English and have the participant reply in local language

Participant  fluent in English

• Do not force local language on them, it may insult them
• Ask them to use local terms where they need
• Do not pretend you understand everything they say
• Ask for clarification if necessary
• Local facilitator is there to help

user observations. challenge #4: Group discussions

Sometimes it is useful to conduct couch sessions and the end of the observation. These usually take the form of informal chats  around the coffee table with the participants and a few friends or family. Couch sessions help clarify observations and give you the chance to talk to others apart from the participant. Keep it informal and allow all to discuss new issues or go back to issues that have been raised during the observations.

Some guidelines:

• Couch sessions help clarify observations
• Chance to talk to friends and family
• They allow participants to raise new issues
• They support flexible interviewing
• Bug lists are participants’ favourite subject
• Do not invite more than 3-4 participants
• Incentivise main participant
  
• Clarify purpose of visit
  
• Be clear about offering food, drinks etc.

user observations. challenge #3: Too many observers

or 3 is a crowd as it is otherwise known. In a typical observation scenario there would probably be a team of two doing the research; that would be the lead researcher and possibly either a local facilitator, in international research, or one observer. However, there will be times when the end client, the people who commission and pay for the research, would like to send representatives to some of the sessions. While I would definitely advocate inviting clients to visits, always be aware that not all participants live in spacious houses or flats. I have been to a session where three of us were struggling to share the space with the participant and her baby son.  We overcrowded the flat making observation close to impossible, it could have been worse, we could have made the participant feel uncomfortable and completely waste a session. In that instance we abandoned the idea of oservation and opted to a converstaion round the kitchen table enjoying a nice drink.

So,

• Always confirm with participants before visiting
• Be aware that participants may feel uncomfortable

user observations. challenge #2: Observers that like to talk

I would highly recommend inviting clients around to the sessions. It is a great way to to get buy in on the process and create advocates of UCD. However, this is not without its challenges. Some clients would see the sessions as an opportunity to get as much information as they can from the user, after all it is not that often that they get to spend time with some of their customers. They will jump straight in there with a barrage of questions eager to get the users' response. However, the questions are more likely to be leading and out of context. It is important they do not take over the session. as you probably gathered this is your responsibility. Provide clear written instructions before the sessions. Send them an email with a list of Dos and Don'ts. It may sound quite strict and officious but it will help set expectations and it will make ot easier fr you to intervene during the session if necessary. Make sure they know that only one person, the facilitator asks questions and all questions need to be cleared with him/her. Observers can make a list of questions during the session and pass them on to the facilitator during a time out. That way everyone can focus on the session and the client gets the chance to have some questions asked. whatever you do , do not let the client take over, it may feel that you are doing them a favour but you could potentially harming the research.

So,

• Only one facilitator asks questions
• All questions ‘cleared’ by main facilitator
• Provide instructions list prior to fieldwork
• Use Time Outs as a way for the client to get some questions to the facilitator

user observations. challenge #1: Male facilitator – female participant

This s a tough one.  The key is to make sure the participant is feeling comfortable. If you are observing / interviewing in their home, make sure a female observer is present or that the participant is not home alone.  If possible, ask to meet the participant in public. This is the option I went for when interviewing a young participant in Paris. Observation was not important so we asked her to meet us at a café. Furthermore, we made sure she had already met the local facilitator.

So,

• Provide ‘space’
• Visit in public if possible
• Useful if participant has met facilitator prior to fieldwork
• Make sure a female observer is present

user observations. with the user: Running the sessions

#1 Allow time to settle in. Initial icebreaker is necessary, make small talk

#2 Build rapport. Participants will be more forthcoming with useful information

#3 Then focus on research. Make clear when small talk ends and observation / discussion begins

#4 Resist feeling like you are paying a social visit, especially if you are visiting users at home

#5 Do not hesitate to bring participants back by reminding them of domain of interest

#6 If all fails take ‘time-out’

#7 Use a small notebook

#8 Take loads of pictures

#9 Use video or audio recording only if you have time to analyse footage

#10 Ask open ended, not leading questions

#11 Allow for silences, they can be uncomfortable but encourage participants to talk

#12 Encourage more details by repeating participants’ last words

#13 Avoid making judgments

#14 Avoid agreeing or disagreeing with users, just nod in understanding

#15 Avoid talking about ‘typical’ tasks, actions, days, etc.

#16 Ask for examples: ‘when was the last time you...’

#17 We like ‘why’ especially five of them as they help drill down to needs and goals

#18 Do not forget to recap: ‘As I underhand it....’,’From what I can gather....’

user observations. getting ready: Getting recruitment right

#1 Recruiters need to know the research question and what you try to achieve. They can then take the initiative to make adjustments to the screener as they are familiar with the culture and understand the general area you will be researching

#2 Confirm details with participants before visit. Call them on the day of the session to confirm it is all happening

#3 Ensure local partner has all details, including directions, maps, etc.

#4 Opt for public transport than taxis or hired cars. It will give you the opportunity to observe local attitudes

#5 Release forms is local responsibility

#5 Incentives to be paid at the end of the session not later

#6 Brief participants before sessions. Let them know what the visits are all about without revealing end goal of the project. Informed participants will be more than happy to help. Visits with badly briefed participants are less productive and more stressful for all parties

user observations made easy

 I know, unimaginative title, but I am afraid that is it until I come up with something more intelligent. I thought I’ll share my experiences of running international user research, mainly observations and contextual interviews. What I am listing in following posts is a series of guidelines. In the future I aim to expand the list with examples and other evidence. I am dividing my posts into three groups:

• Getting Ready: notes on preparing for the user sessions
• With the User: what to look out for during the user sessions
• Manking sese of it all: how to best manage all the finding and coming up with a clear message for the client.

I will also post ideas on how to overcome potential challenges when running the sessions.

wireframes, wireframes, wireframes...

A fellow UE  came across an age old question (paraphrased here) the other day: 'how many wireframes can you do in a day, I need an estimate for the project'. You can image what happened: the estimate was considered to be too high prompting the following response (again paraphrased): 'even I can do x number of wireframes in a day'.

I promised myself not to get involved in such inane arguments again, but here I am at a cafe early morning, getting ready for a meeting... I just couldn't resist. So I  suggested the following exercise for our dear 'I can do this' friend:

• Estimate how long it would take to draw a map of let's say Covent Garden in London. Would it take 10’, 15’, half an hour? I guess 10’ - 15 ‘ would be enough.
• Draw it
• Then ask yourself a few questions such as: Can a tourist use the map to find her way around?  Can she use it to locate other interesting landmarks like the British Museum, which is nearby? Can the land registry use it to create an official map? Can the Covent Garden Market manager use it to know which stall is where and who to charge? ... well, you get my drift.  I guess the answer to most if not all the questions would be be something like: ‘nice drawing but a bit of a useless map’
• Then estimate how long it would take to draw a map that answers those questions: a day, two, a week?  You will need to talk to tourists, understand their needs, check other similar maps, visit the area, measure things, etc, etc. etc.

The point?

Of course anyone can draw boxes in Visio, well, you do not even need a beige box or a fancy Mac; just pencil and paper would do. However, this is not what we are talking about, at least I hope it is not.