UX Karma IAS 16

UX Karma: Designing for the people we become | IA Summit 2016 @LaurenTGC
UX Karma
Designing for the people we become
Lauren T. G. Colton | @LaurenTGC
Gravity Works Design & Development

The UX Karma Incentive
If you design for the average user, you’re doomed to fail.
If you want to see “not average”
just consider yourself.
Read more:

Karma: Your actions now shape your future fate.
1.You are here
2.You’re part of a bigger system
3.You inﬂuence others
4.What you’ve done will inﬂuence you

“It would limit design options.”
“Our target users don’t have disabilities.”
“We don’t know how to make this universal.”

Life happens

Americans age 18-64 with significant vision loss
www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm
16.2
million
Injury-related ER visits in the US in 2011
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ahcd/nhamcs_emergency/2011_ed_web_tables.pdf
40.2
million
US smartphone owners have a cracked screen
http://motorola-blog.blogspot.com/2015/10/cracked-screens-and-broken-hearts-2015.html
30%

You won’t see your future self coming.
What people will change your life?
What layers of yourself will change?
How can you interact with the world?

Create Good Karma:
Flexibility
Signifiers
Error Management
Evolution
Governance

Flexibility
Does the structure support
multiple contexts?
Read more:

Is this design “universal”?
Flexibility

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
Flexibility
Perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust?

Don’t depend on a single physical ability.
Mobility
2.1.1
Sound
1.2.2
Sight
1.4.1, 1.4.3
Cognition
2.4.2, 3.2.4
Flexibility

Don’t depend on a single channel
Laptop
1.3.1, 3.3.3
iPhone through VoiceOver
1.1.1, 4.2.1
Android tablet
1.3.2
With gestural input
2.2.5
Flexibility
A car dashboard
3.2.5

Don’t depend on an ideal situation
Language
3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.5
Fear
3.3.4
Anxiety
3.3.2
Embarrassment
1.4.2
Flexibility

An interface is flexible when:
The structure can be interpreted across contexts
The interface can be used across contexts
Flexibility

Is this design “universal”?
Reduce the barriers to entry and completion
Flexibility

Signifiers
Is your meaning aligned?
Read more:

Can someone have a successful experience without
knowing what the element indicates?
Signifiers

A signifier offers perceived affordance when:
People can act on the element
They can guess the result of that action
Their interpretation matches the designer’s
Signifiers

Signifiers
Let’s get metaphorical

Signifiers
Can you see the pattern?

Signifiers
What is this?

Signifiers
Should you clarify?

Photo by John Maeda
Signifiers
Is the signal hidden
behind a manual?

Can someone have a successful experience without
knowing what the element indicates?
Translate signifiers if they afford something
essential.
Signifiers

Error Management
Can they safely explore?
Read more:

If this error can’t be avoided, is it a permadeath?
Error Management

Error Therapy: safe spaces and closure.
Group actions into sequences
Error Management
Define next steps
Let them change their mind
Give explicit completion

2. A mistake
3. A lapse
1. A bad design decision
Error Management
The designer wasn’t perfect
The user lacked the knowledge or skill
A user’s memory or attention slipped

Common or risky error?
Error Management

Visible system status
Error Management

“We will take your money
(and send herring)”
Error Management

Ctrl + Z
Error Management

Respectful error messages.
Use clear, plain language
Error Management
Be relevant
Explain the problem and solution

Cause The directory where the Deployment Manager
is installed is not speciﬁed.
Solution Specify the directory where the Deployment
Manager is installed.
Details CLFRP0003E: Deployment Manager is
not selected!
http://ibm.co/1SRqkrf
Error Management

If this error can’t be avoided, is it a permadeath?
Explain what happened, what can be done, and
how to live in their comfort zone
Error Management

Evolution
Does past activity restrict future behavior?
Read more:

Did we add or remove elements because of how
a person was identified by our system?
Evolution

Evolution
Recommendations
are social mirrors

Evolution
That might
not suit us

The shift could be abrupt,
It might be an active choice,
Evolution
or gradual.
or outside your control.

Is this identification relevant?
Evolution
Is it necessary to the solution?
Or just a barrier for the user?

We enable evolution when:
People aren’t constrained by your vision or their past
They can understand and shape the filters
Evolution

Did we add or remove elements because of how
a person was identified by our system?
Let people find and adjust their attributes
Evolution

Governance
Can you find and address issues?
Read more:

Do we know what needs to happen, and who
can do it?
Governance

Commander’s Intent
Chip & Dan Heath
Governance
“You can lose the ability to execute the original
plan…but you never lose the responsibility of
executing the intent.”
A concise statement of an operation’s goal

“We want more sales”
Does the brand inspire trust?
Governance
Is the cart not responsive?
Are the product descriptions clear?

R
A
T
S
I
Governance
esponsibility
uthority
ask
upport
nformed

Do we know what needs to happen, and who
can do it?
Give access and authority for scheduled,
intent-based improvements
Governance

Create Good Karma
Flexibility
Signifiers
Error Management
Evolution
Governance

Let’s play a game: name this song

Listeners & Tappers
Dr. Elizabeth Newton
Tappers expected: 50%
Listeners guessed: 3%
Are we tapping experiences our users can’t follow?

We’re tappers right now
We’ll stay listeners
It’s a huge responsibility
Design for a world where Future You could live

Resources
Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath.
2007. Made to Stick. New York:
Random House.
Hinton, Andrew. 2014.
Understanding Context.
Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media.
Maeda, John. 2006. The Laws of
Simplicity. Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Press.
Meyer, Eric A., and Sara Wachter-
Boettcher. 2016. Design for Real
Life. New York: A Book Apart.
Newton, Elizabeth. 1990. “Overconfidence
in the Communication of Intent,” Ph.D. diss.,
Stanford University. Unpublished.
Norman, Don. 2013. The Design of Everyday
Things. New York: Basic Books.
Rose, Todd. The End of Average. 2016. New
York: HarperOne.
Welchman, Lisa. 2015. Managing Chaos.
New York: Rosenfeld Media.
The brains and patience of Adam Colton,
Joe Sokohl, and the ever-brilliant GW team.

What did you want to get out of this talk?
Too shy to ask? I bet you have interesting ideas.
Let’s chat: @LaurenTGC
Questions?

UX Karma IAS 16

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UX Karma IAS 16