Information Design Garrett, 2003

Information Design

Garrett, Jesse James. “User Experience and Why It Matters.” The Elements of User Experience Design. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2003. 6-19.

& “Meet the Elements.” The Elements of User Experience Design. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2003. 20-36.

CH 1

User Experience-how the product is used and behaves in the real world.

The website is a self service

Content needs to communicate info as effectively as possible

User experience has a huge affect on customer loyalty

Conversion rate = "converting" users to the next level. (i.e. users sign up for a newsletter, become a member, or customize their space on your site.)

When people cannot use technology they blame themselves. This makes them feel stupid therefore harming their user experience.

Efficiency is key---(USER CENTER DESIGN!) Efficient for the user not the creator.

CH 2

5 Planes

1. Surface - series of webpages; clicking performs function; visual treatment of text, graphics, and navigation; how the site "looks and feels."
2. Skeleton - Placement of buttons and tabs for optimization of understanding and functionality
3. Structure - how people get to a page and where they go afterward. Defines user interaction and task flow.
4. Scope - Determines features and functions necessary to meet user needs
5. Strategy - What creators and users want to get out of the site

Information Design Norman, 2004

Information Design

Norman, Donald. “Prologue” and “Attractive Things Work Better.” Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books, 2004. 3-33.

(The Three Teapots as I remember it)

Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things

The emotional side of design may be more critical to a product success than its practical elements.

3 aspects of design

1. Visceral -appearances - Nana Teapot
2. Behavioral - pleasure and effectiveness - Tilting Teapot
3. Reflective - rationalization and intellectualization - French Masochist Teapot

An object isn't valuable until we deem it so. Your photos of a ski trip would mean nothing )or not as much) to someone else, but you find them valuable because of an emotional tie (i.e. it was the last time you saw your best friend). Objects possess the meaning they bring to our lives.

Emotion affect how we feel, behave, think.

Affective system= Judgement especially snap judgments or choices between two or more evenly rational things.

Cognitive= interprets and makes sense of the world.

He used a color computer screen to see what all the fuss was about and after determining that it had no rational value to the computing process, he still refused to return it.

People with brain damage to the "affective area" of their brain were tested and they were not able to make decisions between two rational choices that were of preference. "What color do you want?" "Rice or beans?" neither is actually better than the other so it is the affective system that makes the choice.

Ch 1 Attractive Things Work Better

When people are anxious they narrow their thought process. (Using websites for example.)

When coming to a difficulty they are more likely to try again rather than trying a new way.

When people are happy they are more likely to look for alternative solutions and are often more tolerant and dismissive of experienced difficulties during the process.

Emotions or the Affective system physically alters brain functions and controls muscles. (Gut feeling; fight or flight)

Three brain levels

• Visceral
• Lizard
• Only lives and hunts based on the needs it feels and things it sees.
• Behavioral
• Dog
• Can be trained to do certain things, but has no ability to reflect on those actions.
• Reflective
• Human
• Can rationalize and reflect on choices and inform others to do the same.

At times these can be at war with each other (i.e. roller coasters visceral fear of falling and reflexive pride of accomplishment).

We can guide affect by getting in a good mood when it is time for brainstorming in order to open our minds and think alternatively with small gifts, music, or scents. Conversely we can push ourselves into negative affect when we need to focus with bright lights, loud noises, and extreme hot or cold).

Information Design Redish Ch 3, 2007

Information Design

Redish, Janice. “People, People, People.” Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content That Works. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kauffman/Elsevier, 2007. 11-28/

——, “Starting Well: Home Page.” Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content That Works. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kauffman/Elsevier, 2007. 29-51.

People People

1. Audience analysis is the first thing that you should be doing when creating a site. What type of language will they know and use?
   Who will come?
   Why?
   What are their goals?
   Identify users as you speak about them as people not businesses or departments.
2. Gather info about the audience in something like a mini ethnography. Go watch your target audience using the site you are attempting to revamp or others like it. What do they get hung up on? Are they asking questions?
3. List major characteristics for each audience. Content for angry or frustrated people needs to be particularly clear and simple.
4. Gather audience questions, tasks, and stories.
5. Use the info to create personas. Refer to the persona by name rather than "user."
6. Include persona's goals and tasks.
7. Uses your info to create scenarios for the site. All content should be able to be related to a scenario created for your personas.

Ch 3: Starting WEll: Home Pages

Home pages can be content rich, but not wordy at the same time. It is good to have your logo on the homepage, but not your mission statement.

The home page sets the sites tone and personality.

One way to determine your sites personality is to ask yourself what adj. you would want to describe your site.

Be instantly clear on what the site is about as soon as someone clicks.

Should have mostly links and descriptions.

Put most popular forms on the main page and high on the page so you don't have to scroll.

Keep in mind low resolutions screens and users with slow access.

Put "search" near the top of the page

Don't force people to fill out forms before they are granted access to your site.

Write effective links that make sense.

Use the site visitor's words and vocabulary.

Information Design Krug, 2000

Information Design

Krug, Steve. Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. Berkley, CA: New Riders, 2000. 2-95.

Krug really focuses on user ease. He encourages the designer to think less like a designer and more like the user. Ultimately he asks designers to understand that just because you put it there, it does not follow that someone will read it, click it, or know how to innately use it.

I feel that Krug and Reddish compliment each other well because they focus on two different but necessary ways to create an effective website that people can successfully navigate in order to have a confident experience making them willing to comeback.

The five main rules that Krug pushes are:

1. Create clear visual hierarchy
2. Take advantage of conventions
3. Break pages into clearly defined sections
4. Make clickable buttons and links obvious
5. Minimize noise

Information Design Mazur, 2003

Information Design

Mazur, Beth. “Information Design in Motion.” Content and Complexity: Information Design in Technical Communication. Ed. Michael Albers and Beth Mazur. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003. 15-38.

Information Design Shedroff Experience Design, 2001

Information Design

Shedroff, Nathan. Experience Design 1. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2001. 1-5, 34-49, 134-217.

Shedroff seems to be dedicated to the design of experience more than the design of design. What I mean by that is he feels that transfer of knowledge (internalized and ultimately leading to wisdom) is made possible only through experience. The more natural that experience is or the less one has to focus on the means of transmission the more conscious one will be of the content. (180)

He, like Tufte, feels that the proliferation of data manipulation software (Word, Excel, etc.) has allowed users to mask the meaning of information hindering its ability to become known.

Storytelling and conversation are necessary because they allow us to interact with the information in a way that helps us to build personal context and integrate the information into our previous understandings.

"One of the first things we can learn about understanding is that it is a continuum from data, a somewhat raw ingredient, to Wisdom, an ultimate achievement. Along this spectrum is an ever increasing level of context and meaning that becomes more personal and more sophisticate -not to mention more valuable- as it approaches Wisdom." (34)

Ultimately each experience we encounter becomes a building block to create greater understanding and deeper context for future experiences.