User Experience and Design

UX Final Project

For my final project we created a user experience in a complete package to be presented on the last week of class. The user experience I created is a new way for users to find video games to play and give them an easier more affordable way. It is also meant to create a better way for users to find games more suited for their situations. Such as games that you can play with your child or games that can be used as icebreakers. These are preliminary designs and my prototype and powerpoint are the links below.

Powerpoint Presentation

Gamestream Prototype

Design Challenge Reflection

This design challenge allowed us to create a user experience that solved a design problem. The design problem that my group chose was to create a better experience for coffee drinkers. In order to solve this problem we did research on the different types of coffee, which kinds where the most popular and what other beverage designs in the past have been successful in changing the coffee experience. The process of creating a user design is a process in which the designer really needs to put themselves into the shoes of the user. If the designer can accomplish this than they are on the right track to creating a good design. For the overall style and layout of the interaction we created, we looked at other app designs that exist already.

We wanted to make this design simple but also allow the user to create the coffee that they want. The basis for this app was a delivery service for coffee. We also created a machine, a lot like the new touch screen soda fountains but for coffee. One of the critiques that we got for our presentation was combining these two designs into one interaction. If we would combine these two ideas we would have the user create a coffee on their app and when they get to the machine their coffee would already be ready for them. This would be based off of location of the user. For instance the coffee will start to make if the user was half a mile away from the machine. This allows the user to get their coffee faster and for new coffee drinkers to order whatever they want without being judged by common coffee drinkers.

In terms of what I got out of this project was was a taste of what it means to create a user experience. Before this project I sketched up some user experiences but never created the design aspects that made the user experience unique. By creating a user experience more in depth I learned more about the demographic of coffee drinkers and how much you actually know about the demographic. Going into this experience I considered myself a coffee drinker so I thought I knew a lot more about coffee than I did. By creating a persona of two different people I had to put myself into the shoes of a new coffee drinker and build from there.

Reaction to Simon Norris’s Presentation

Simon Norris’s presentation was informative on how a designer can blend two very different types of experiences, the physical experience and the digital experience. This overlap is something that we have talked a lot about in this class. Something interesting that I haven’t heard much about is that these two types pf experiences have never been one in the same before. They can’t be based on each of these qualities. He also brings up a good point when he is talking about the translation between a physical store and a website. Both experiences are vastly different but should coexist in the sense of design. He said that he would never buy a product from a business that had a great store but a terrible website. Based off this idea he said that good designs also follow a great business model. A great product or service is not going to be successful if it has a terrible business model. The understanding of two different types of experiences and how a design can be matched to these experiences is critical for a successful design.

Shopping Assistant for Blind Person

The reason why I created this design was to assists blind people while they are shopping. This is an app that is used with a smart phone. First once you pen the app it will ask you to tell it what store you are in and in what town. It will go into a database and find the layout of the store. As the user starts walking the app will tell the user what isles are near them. There can also be a mode that allows the user to tell the app there grocery list and the app will direct them to each item based off of the proximity of each item. If there is an item that the user wants to scan than the user can say scan item and a laser will shoot from the phone and recognize then the phone is pointed at the center of the item then take a picture. The picture will then be sent to the internet and either a person or a computer will tell the user what the item is. After all the items are off the list the app will direct the user to the checkout.

Reflection to Empathy-driven designs

In this article the author focuses on empathy and how a designer really needs to find out what the problem is and empathize with the user. I thought that the author brought up many good points about simplicity vs minimalist. A design can be simple and have a minimalist aesthetic but does the design fix the problem as well as empathize with the user. In my opinion designs can be either more complex or more simple its all about who you are targeting. In the classic example of Mac vs PC Mac is a simpler design but there are a lot of constraints that can make looking into the bare bones of the computer difficult making it less appealing to people who like customizing their computer. But people who are not interesting all that customization and just want a simple computer that works well than they are going to go with a Mac. Another interesting topic that the author brought up was timelessness. He made a very good observation saying that the society that we live in is a “throwaway” society. I think that this is one of the main concepts that I have really yet to even consider that was most important to me after reading the article. In my opinion custom computers have timeless designs. One of the main problems that people have with playing video games is that they are so expensive. Every three or four years a new gaming console comes out and that runs about 400-500 dollars. A computer that now can run just about every game a console can with a few exceptions is cheaper in the long run. That being said gaming consoles are not timeless because to be able to play the newest games you need the newest console. With a computer you only need to upgrade certain parts that are cheaper in the long run. Timelessness was the most interesting and new concept that I got out of this article.

UX Myths Reflection

This article was unique in itself and defiantly helped me understand what the author was trying to get across. There were a couple of myths that caught my attention because they where concepts that I have never thought of before. One of the myths was that people are rational. The article goes on to say that people are not rational even if they seem they are rational. An example that was used was that a shopping website used to charge 20 cents for shipping which is basically nothing but people where more resistant to buy from them because it was not completely free. In the long run 20 cents is basically nothing but the user would have rather seen the shipping be free. This could be due to the fact that even though the shipping cost was extremely low the user might have felt that the extra 20 cents was just a way for the company to make some extra side cash when in actuality the sales of the company went up after making shipping free. The article also talks about how people would rather instantly get a gift card for 10 dollars than wait 2-3 weeks and get a gist card for 15 dollars. This probably stems to the concept that people want instant gratification. To play off of this concept another myth that was interesting to me was that people don’t read on the web unless the content they are reading is meaningful to them. For example if a company advertised their product with a paragraph explaining what the product is and its purpose no one would ever take the time to read it because they don’t have an initial interest. The reason why people don’t read everything on a website is because that is extremely time consuming and usually a person is already on a website for a reason. Lastly another myth that I have read about before is that your design has to be original. There have been many designs that have the same concept but one has made it better than the other. If you see a design and think that its a really good concept but you can make the user experience better than play off of that initial concept but make it into your own.

Braille Board

This is the Braille Board. It is a device that can be connected to a persons phone by blue tooth and is used for blind people to interact with each other. The way that it works is that the top piece makes a letter in braille for three seconds and then switches to another letter eventually making a word by default. There is a pause of five seconds between words by default. To use this device on a phone you must download the messaging app. It connects directly to the persons contacts spelling out the persons name each time a message is received. These settings can be changed to fit the users ability with the device so that they are not waiting to long for letters to pop up and they are not too fast. This device would probably be used with a computer or a phone. Once the app is downloaded and the device connected to blue tooth the Braille Board will automatically take you to the app when the button is pressed letting the device know the user is ready to read a message and respond to that message. Just like a phone the Braille Board will vibrate and ding when a message is received. If there is a problem with the device than it will buzz two times simultaneously letting the user know there is a problem. The app interface is pretty minimal because it is mostly used for another person to help the blind person get started with the app and than most of the work is put on the Braille Board itself.

Two Different Designs That Serve The Same Purpose

These two different drink vending machines have different designs that serve the same purpose. Some of the similarities that they have are their overall shape and size, money exchange device, and money return button. Although they are very similar they have much more differences than we might expect. The machine on the left is unexposed where we cannot see the product like we can in the blue machine to the right. Another difference is that the blue machine seems to have more of a variety in product. The red machine has 7 options and the blue machine has 9. Another big difference that they have is the way the user chooses their product. The blue machine has a number and letter dial pad and the user is asked to put in a letter followed by a number that corresponds with the product of their choosing. The red machine has buttons with pictures of the product on them. Lastly another difference that even I didn’t notice at first was their color. Some physiologists say that certain colors trigger certain sensations in the brain influencing it to make certain decisions. This could persuade the user to make a certain choice. After going over the similarities and differences its time to decide which of these aspects are better in terms of design. The blue machines exposure is a better design because the user can see the actual product and not just a picture of the product. This is also better because the user can see if the machine runs into a problem so the user knows exactly what went wrong. This allows the user to understand how the machine works to gain a better understanding where the other machine is more of a mystery. The dial pad and the picture button aspects seem to have negatives and positives because the picture buttons lessen the user to make a mistake but the dial pad allows the machine to be bigger and store more product. Some design flaws that both machines seemed to have when I used them was that the money exchange machine would only take certain types of dollar bills and would only accept ones. If the dollar wasn’t perfect which about half are not than the machine would not accept the money and from past experience these bill takers are also not reliable because they break all the time. Also there have been multiple occasions in my past where I have not had any ones so I could not purchase a drink. A better design might be one that accepts different types of bills and gives you change back in either smaller bills or change. Another design flaw is the change back button. If you give the machine a dollar but decide you do not want anything or that the machine is sold out(red machine) than you can press this button to get your money back in the form of change. About half the time I have tried to use this function the button didn’t work and I had no way of knowing that it didn’t work or why it didn’t work. A better design might be a small LED light that indicates whether or not the change dispenser is working. Overall these two designs have similar characteristics but also approach the situation in different ways.

Design of Everyday Things Reactions

Chapter 1 Reaction

In chapter I felt like I gained a better understanding of the different aspects that are taken into consideration when creating a design. Things like affordance and feedback are not things that we think of when we interact with a design, they are more hidden but if they are not present than we will have trouble using the design. The conceptual model was also something that interested me because I never thought about it until I looked at a variety of different designs. The example in text that they used was scissors and how they are designed to show that our fingers belong in the holes. Visibility was another concept that I related to because every time I buy a digital watch they have buttons but there is no way to know or understand/remember what those buttons do. Lastly mapping was a concept that taught me the importance of making sure each step in the users experience is mapped out in a way so that they user can understand the best process to use when interacting with the design.

Affordance

Perceived actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine how the thing can be used.
A chair affords support so it can afford sitting.
When affordances are taken advantage of the user knows exactly what to do by looking.

Conceptual Model

The mental model that is created mentally based on affordances, constraints, and mappings.
Scissors work because the holes are designed for only our fingers to fit which is the most logical solution.

Visibility

A design needs to have useful visible designs that lead the user to proper use.
Telephone hold button example.

Mapping

The relationship between two things, controls, movements, and their results.
Mapping of steering wheel is good because it has to do with the action the user is trying to accomplish. It also gives immediate feedback and is easily remembered.
Spacial analogy
Mapping should create feedback.

Feedback

Sending back to the user information about what action has actually been done
What result has been accomplished?
The dial tone for a telephone is a form of feedback letting the user know that it is OK to start dialing a number.

Chapter 2 Reaction

In chapter two it talked a lot about the psychology of design and how certain designs can trigger certain mental reactions. Taught helplessness made me think of many times where I would try a design of some sort and would fail a few times and than stop using it because I felt like the design was too complicated for me to use. For example I bought a new microwave for my apartment and couldn’t figure out how to change the power level so I just never used that feature because I thought I was to unfamiliar with the design to figure it out. Another similar concept is learned helplessness. This is very common I think in older adults who are not so familiar with new technology. Many times my grandparents have called me asking for me to take a look at their computer because they cannot check their email. Most of the time its because they logout of their account that is set to auto login and cant remember how to log back in. I try to teach them how to do this themselves but they always say that they are two old to have to learn new technology. The seven stages also seem to be a solid model for assuming what the user will think when interaction with the design. I also liked how this model is created in a way where some steps are needed for some designs and others are left out. The gulf of execution goes into detail about how much the user has to think when he is using the design. The difference between the intentions and the executable actions is a way to define this. This means that the user could use a device with certain intentions but does the design execute those intentions and in a way where the user does not have to think to much. For example I use a travel coffee mug that I bring to class sometimes. When I fill it up and twist the cap on I expect that if the mug tips over that coffee will not spill out but when this mug is tipped over some coffee does come out and make a mess. This is a flawed design because it does not execute its users intentions well. The gulf of evaluation is a similar concept because this is when the user reflects on their experience with the design and whether or not they had to think hard or not. I think that the higher the gulf of evaluation is the more the person is less likely to use that design again. This happens to me a lot when I play video games. The worse the design is of the game the less likely I am going to go back and play it again.

Learned Helplessness

A person fails at a task multiple times so they deem that it cannot be done and has to be done by another person.
This can lead a person to not being able to cope with everyday life and than possibly depression.

Taught Helplessness

Similar to learned helplessness, taught helplessness is when a user, uses a design and fails at using a design many times because the design is flawed. They now feel like they can never complete the task because they are dumb.

Seven Stages of Action

Stages form an approximate model and the user does not have to go through every stage.
forming the goal
forming the intention
specify an action
executing the action
perceiving the state of the world
interpreting the state of the world
evaluating the outcome

Gulf of Execution

The difference between the intentions and the allowable actions.
Does the system provide actions that correspond to the intentions of the person?
How well the system allows the person to do the intended actions directly without extra effort.

Gulf of Evaluation

Reflects the amount amount of effort that the person must exert to interpret the physical state of the system. and to determine how well the expectations and intentions have been met.
The gulf is small when the system is easy to understand.

Chapter 3 Reaction

Chapter three related to how people use their memory to learn how to use different designs. Some of the best designs I have used are the ones that can relate to other objects that already exist in the real world. Such as the kindle. When the kindle first came out many people did not know how to use it but the designers made it relate to features that an actual book has such as putting page turning buttons on the sides of the device to simulate a person physically turning the page. Constraints also allow the user to understand the path they should head on. If a user is restricted to do something than they will be able to narrow down what they can actually do with the design. For example your cursor on a computer screen cannot go off the screen because there is nothing to interact with there. This restriction allows the user to understand that there is nothing off the screen that is important. Memory knowledge is a concept that is used very frequently to remember passwords. Many designs play off of this psychology to help the user better remember the password they created for an account. This is smart but could also make some passwords predictable.

Information in the World

When a designer can relate their design to other things that already exists in the real world than the need for explanation is lessened or not needed.
For example the kindle is related to a book which most people are already familiar with so its easier for the user to understand its use.
knowledge “of” – declarative knowledge, facts, rules.
knowledge “how” – procedural knowledge, doings, actions, reactions, throwing an accurate pitch in baseball.

Constraints

Allow the user to narrow down the amount of possibilities based on certain circumstances.
Large screws cant fit in small holes because thats where the small screws are suppose to go which eliminates that possibility in assembly.

Memory Knowledge

We tend to create passwords that have to do with certain things in our lives because they are easier to remember than just a line of numbers.
The more information a person can retain than the more knowledgeable that person becomes.

The Structure of Memory

short term memory is memory that is only active in our minds for a short while and is easily forgotten whereas long term memory is stored in our minds and is remembered but needs to be found and located in order to access.
memory of arbitrary things.
memory for meaningful relationships
memory through explanation

Chapter 4 Reaction

Donald Norman goes on in chapter four to explain a better understanding of what constraints really do. There are physical constraints that restrict the user to do something tactically. There are mental constraints that force the user to think a certain way rather than an other and there are cultural restraints that make the user act a certain way because that is the cultural norm.

These constraints are used in our lives more than we might realize. For example a door has certain constraints in all three of these categories. I will use my apartment door as an example. Physically the door will not unless you have the proper key and apply a reasonable force to twist the knob and push they door open. Mentally the door is constraint because we know that we need to push the door open based on the fact that it is inside the door frame. We don’t really think about it but we just do it subconsciously. Lastly the door has cultural constraints because we have seen this kind of door many times before in America. If a person from another country came over and tried to use this door they might have more trouble because it is a design and concept they are not used to.

Chapter 5 Reaction

Chapter 5 talks about certain slips and errors that can occur when a user is interacting with a design. I think that this issue is one of the more important issues to understand because a lot of designs that I use today don’t have many fail safes that can help prevent the user from making drastic mistakes. For example when I was younger I would play games on my Game Boy Color and the save files where stored on the cartridges themselves. This was a problem because there where many times where I forgot to save my game after playing for a long time and turn off my game. When I came back to it all of my progress would be gone and could never remember if I forgot to save or not. This was a very frustrating issue that was fixed with a feature called auto save. The game would temporary make a save file after a significant event in the game or after a period of time. The temp file was erased if another auto save file overrides it so the games storage wasn’t overloaded.

This example is something that directly related to what Donald Norman talks about in the text. The addition of the auto save feature was a direct reaction to a design flaw that many games struggled with. This feature also allowed the computer to do the remembering so that the user didn’t have too. More features like this that let the computer do the remembering and reminding for the user the less slips are going to be made. On the other end there are a lot of features that have been added to designs as a result of slips being made but they only made the design more frustrating. For example the other day I was trying to delete files off of my computer to free up space and instead of deleting the files they were put into a “deleted folder” that I had to find on my computer and than delete them from that folder. Obviously the purpose of this feature was too prevent the mistake of deleting a file that you didn’t want to be deleted but the designers could have made it a bit easier to navigate the users path to the “deleted folder”.

Chapter 6 Reaction

In chapter six there was a lot of points that I wanted to comment on. One being the relationship of aesthetic and functionality. Personally I would rather have functionality over aesthetic because I would rather have a product work to the best of its ability than for it to look really cool but not work as well. An example of this could be liquid gel pen that I have. It looks really cool and has a nice grip and mechanical parts but it bleeds ink all over the place and takes a bit to dry so if you run your hand over it by accident it smudges and gets ink all over your hand. I would rather prefer a Bic ball point pen because it doesn’t bleed and it writes smooth as well as the ink drys almost instantaneously.

Another important point that Norman makes is that not all designers are designing for the consumer. Especially in large companies most of the designers are designing for their corporate higher ups. This creates the mind set of the designer to make a design that the higher ups would like rather than what the user would like. This can take away from the overall design because a lot of companies make aesthetic a vital part of the design because all the company wants is to make money. Although it might be difficult a design that is good would have the user in mind and makes the higher ups happy. Most companies that have the user in mind probably don’t have the money to get their product out their so they might get bought out by these big companies.

The concept of the faucet is an interesting one because there are so many different designs out there and that there hasn’t been one that has been deemed the best. This might be because a lot of these designs require the designer to compromise something. The classic two handle faucet compromises human error if someone forgets to turn off the water. The push down faucet compromises by getting ride of the ability to change the temperature. The sensor faucet compromises the ability to change temperature and is more costly. One thing that is holding all of these designs back is that there is not standard for all the variables that go into making a faucet. For the timed faucet there should be a standard created that has been deemed the best amount of time for the user to have. Also the timed faucets should have a standard for temperature.

Chapter 7 Reaction

To me chapter seven was used to summarize the book in its entirety. So as a reaction to the book I think that Donald Norman brings up some really essential ideas that should be taken seriously when creating a user experience. Some of the main points that I took out of this book was to take the users perspective over anyone else. The user is the reason why you are creating the design so it only makes sense to gain the perspective of the user. Also to create ways the user can easily know how to use the design. Many great designs have related themselves to other things that people are already familiar with. Designs that are memorable are the most effective. If you make the experience the user has present and easy than they will be able to easily have the experience again and remember how to use the design.

A difficult task to accomplish when creating a design is too make the design easy to use but not take the control away from the user. Often times designs are created to make a process easier but by making them similar they take control away from the user. An example of this is two different email services. My father and I had a discussion about the difference between Microsoft Outlook and Gmail. We came to a conclusion that Outlook was more powerful and gave the user more control but was more complicated. Gmail on the other hand was very simple and easy to grasp but it was limited compared to Outlook. My father uses Outlook for his job because he has a lot of different clients and groups of people that he cannot mix up. This would be made more difficult if he used Gmail because it is very loosely structured and made too limited and simple. My grandparents on the other hand who are not technologically savvy use Gmail because it is very simple and easy to understand. Both designs are really popular and work well in certain situations but its almost as if it is one or the other. Overall I think this book is an essential read for people who are interested in user experience and design.

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know Reactions

How People Think

In this part of the essay there is a lot of information that pertains to how and why people see what they do when they are interacting with a design. Some major points that are made are that people see things in different ways based on word order and color, we see a lot of information with our peripheral vision, and that we pay attention to patterns. I think that patterns are really important to design because a lot of designs can be based off of each other and sometimes if a user is assumed to have a common knowledge before interaction with the design than they can have a better understanding of it. Going off of that a great design will play off of other designs that work but for the people who don’t have that common knowledge there are cues that allow the user to understand how the design is suppose to be used. For example my web browser has a home page function that is indicated by a house. The old user has past experience and knows what this does but the new user can imply that this button takes them somewhere they are familiar with like a home. After pressing the button and it takes them to their home screen they now understand the relation. This section also talks about ways that designers design their creations in a way that someone with a disability can use it. The text uses an example of a website that uses colors to distinguish certain paths on a map but a person who is colored blind could use this also because the designer choose colors that everyone could see.

How People Think

This section was very interesting to me because it on to explain why we think in certain ways and how we can play with these patterns that people use to understand information. Also the certain variation of loads that we give the user when creating our designs is important to think about. When we begin to design a product for a disabled person we really need to think about their disability and what kind of load we are putting on them. If they are physically disabled like they are missing an arm than the motor load should be lower than the visual load. On the other end for say a blind person the visual load should be almost nothing while the motor load is the highest.

On the idea that people stick to their idea more if they are uncertain made me think of how we could use this when making a design. In the example use when people where asked whether they prefer a PC of a MAC most of them stuck to their opinion but the ones that were a bit uncertain sided with one side more passionately than the other When creating a design you can give the user reassurance that one or the other is better which could make the user enjoy that product even more.

People process information best in story form is another section that I found pretty interesting. This is something to think about when you are trying to convey a process for a design. For example if a two person created a power points to try to convince people to ride their bikes to class instead of drive and one conveyed this in a story and the other didn’t than the people would remember the story one better and are more likely to side with it. Overall this section was interesting and a lot can be taken from it.

How People Remember

In this section there are a lot of points that tell us certain ways we can convey information that will make it so people will remember it. People can only hold four items in their minds at once so when thinking about a design we should be able to make it so they don’t have to think about multiple things at once. This also is related to how people remember information best by actually using the information. For example a car with a manual transmission requires the user to do multiple things at once and the only way the user can get used to these actions is to actually use the information they know about how to operate the design over and over again until it becomes natural. It also takes a lot more energy to create a way to convey and action rather than just doing the action. This concept can be used to make it so we show the user how the design is suppose to be used rather than tell them. Another interesting point is that most people cant remember even the most vivid memories without error. This means that even information that is vital to a person is even forgotten so having reminders in a design is extremely important.

How People Focus Their Attention

In this part there are a lot of facts that can be considered when making a design. I got the feeling that this section was showing us how we can use different ways to be the most effective when creating a user experience. If a persons attention only lasts for ten minutes than we need to be able to convey enough information in that time frame so that the user does not get impatient. In my opinion ten minutes is a really long time. If I cant figure something out in thirty seconds I begin to get impatient. I also think that it is depends on what the user interaction is. Is this experience essential to the persons life? How long have other designs in the past taken to figure out? For example if you buy a new lawn mower a person is more likely to take the time to figure it out because that’s a large investment that will go to waste if the user doesn’t know how to operate it properly. Other things like a light switch can be easily replaced and is not very costly. These designs should be automatic after looking at it for ten seconds. There is a variety of different designs that people are more apt to take the time to learn and there are other designs that are expected to be automatic.

In the section where it talks about how people are more dawn to images or other forms of media that have to do with danger, sex, movement, faces and stories. If you want to grab a users attention on a website than these images might be a good way to grab the users attention. These might not be good ways to show a user how to use a design but they are good things to think about when advertising. The concept of signal detection is a very important concept when creating a design because the designer needs to think about what the designs purpose is and if large flashing lights are necessary or just a distraction. In the text there is an example of an air traffic system and how big flashing lights are needed because the operators cannot make mistakes. An example where a flashing light is not needed is on my computer when it is asleep. The flashing light is very bright and obstructive when it really only needs to be faint and constant, it could even change colors to show that it is asleep but instead the designer decided to make an unnecessary bright flashing light.

What Motivates People

The main idea that I took away from this section was the fact that there are a variety of different ways to motivate people and everyone is motivated by something different. One part of this section talked about interviewing potential users and how we can ask the right questions to get situational answers rather than specific answers for that person. I think that I can directly use the advice given here when interviewing my subject when it comes to making our designs. Another important process to think about is different ways we can eliminate our own bias. In my opinion this is extremely important when creating a deign for a person who is disabled because you cannot experience what they do first hand and the abilities that the subject have could be different from the abilities that we poses which can create bias.

The section that talks about how people are motivated to progress, mastery, and control goes into detail on how these three things can be incorporated into designs to keep them interesting for the user. For our designs they are pretty unique and are dabbling in territory that is not very common but this is still an important idea because an important question to ask is “What makes my design better than others?” This question can lead the designer to think about ways the can make painful boring processes into interesting ones that people are more tolerable with. One of the most basic examples of this is online shopping. When a user is too lazy to go to the store they will order something online and have someone else bring it to them. This plays on the concept that most people are generally lazy and that even though they might have to wait longer for their product to get to them they would rather wait than have to actually go to the store and physically buy the product hence making the process of buying something easier for the user.

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