Debunking User Experience A Short, Cynical Dictionary of Misunderstood Words

Archetype Haptics MUI Task User stereotype. E.g., 20-something Field of study involving touch that “Multi-media user interface.” Hoping Any onerous, tedious assignment given male who would rather frequent [redacted by Steve Jobs]. for a comeback using “mobile.” to you by the damned project manager. poker or porn sites than your site. Heuristic Multi-Media Taxonomy Breadcrumb Any over-the-counter medicine that Term used by traditional to Managing or measuring taxes. An interface element reflexively fights nasal congestion. describe anything not made of paper. inserted into most websites. Template HTML 5 Napkin Sketch A term that means something different Card Sorting Vital standard that will achieve mass You’ll fight for this original idea no to every single member of your project Sufficiently randomizing a deck of acceptance by 2015. Maybe. matter what you learn later. team, every piece of software you own playing cards. and every client you’ve ever had. Human Computer Interaction (HCI) New Media Cognitive Factors Doomed relationship type, a la Dave What traditional designers can’t or Trigger Your profoundly infallible thoughts. and Hal of Discovery One. won’t do. The last bit of user stupidity that pushes you over the brink and prompts a rabid Copy Human Factors Persona search for your bottle of hydrocodone. Material received from the client The personal likes or dislikes of your Complex, demographic user profile hours before the site is set to go live. client’s daughter’s little cousin. that your team completely makes up. Usability A term you must use repeatedly on CSS Idiot Proof Portal your website. Its meaning, implication, Nothing interesting ever happened Something made precisely as the The entrance to a new dimension in process or actual value are irrelevant. before this came along. wanted in the first place. time. Always includes stock quotes and weather. Use Case Customers Information (IA) The script you write for users, ensuring The people who walk all over you. Can’t ? Can’t program? We’ve Prototype (Paper) perfect, flawlessusability . got a job for you. Napkin sketch of a Web application. Design Users A mundane discipline. Everyone with Purpose Idiots. Morons, all. a pulse possesses complete mastery. Design for PowerPoint. Getting users to return to your site. User Centered Design (UCD) Emotional Design (iXD) Quality Assurance Testing Designer Centered Design When clients spontaneously weep at A term derived completely from its Purely optional. the sight of your brilliant portfolio. hip acronym. User Error Qualitative Testing Every problem that occurs with your End Users Interactive A type of usability testing completely website. Programmers. The new New Media. different fromQuantitative testing. User Experience (UX or UXP) Ethnography Interactive Design Quantitative Testing If usability feels too trendy, this term Field of study that determines why The process of turning a print ad into A type of usability testing completely will do nicely. the Irish aren’t overly fond of Italians. a website. different fromQualitative testing. User Friendly Experience Design Intuitive Richard Saul Wurman Any pretty website. Snobs use this term in place of User Apparently, only CEOs can define this Know-nothing who can’t do anything. Experience. esoteric term. User Interface (UI) Rails Something created by programmers, Eye Tracking Jakob Nielson Programming language that allows now ready for your design and content. Cite this vague process whenever Usability curmudgeon who will stab you, using one line of code, to do any- justifying layout to your client. you with a rusty fork if you employ thing ever conceived by humankind. User Testing more than one link color on a site. Confirms thatusers are mortifyingly Field Research Scenario stupid. Ignore this. As a rule, no one does it. jQuery Hannibal Smith’s run-down of the Flash for dummies. A-Team’s latest predicament. UX Findability A prefix attached to nearly every Web Why staff biographies must always be Layout Shell job description. positioned dominantly on your site. Nothing is more important. Nothing. Your gloriously brilliant, completely unique site design, consisting only of Visual Design Flash Look and Feel a logo, banner, footer, navigation bar The multiple design concepts delivered HTML 5 Beta. How your client describes the sum of and stock photo. with the project proposal. everything you do. Fold Site Map Web 2.0 An imaginary line above which Metrics Flowchart. Don’t make it. Your client Created by God on the First Day. you must stay (lest you break your Fabricated goals or statistics. will be happy to do it for you. mother’s back). Mobile Skin The process of creating a kick-ass shell Greyboxing Another damn thing we have to A beautiful, sublime variant of a shell. that can house miscellaneous content. When a designer creates wireframes. design for. Storyboarding Wireframe GUI Mood Board George Lucas’ cheap substitute for What happens when information archi- The thing that makes your app pretty. Procrastination in collage form. good storytelling. tects try their hand at . Debunking User Experience

Required Reading These books are easy-to-read. Most are short. Some are downright fun. You need to read them. No Excuses.

Defensive Design for the Web 37 Signals The best book you’ll find on Web form usability and error handling. Simply outstanding.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey Just about the best business book ever written. Delve into the essentials of intentionality and understanding. Users Content Strategy for the Web Kristina Halvorson The ideal introduction to a complex, often frustrating, chronically neglected topic.

Don’t Make Me Think Rocket Surgery Made Easy Steve Krug Essential primers on usability and design testing. If you only read two books on the list, make it these. Down with Users! You can’t relate to faceless, ill-defined users. But you can understandreal people and Orbiting the Giant Hairball observe what they really do. Bonus: It’s quite easy. Gordon Mackenzie The Hippy of Hallmark will help you thrive creatively in a corporate culture.

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web Peter Moreville and Louis Rosenfeld Find at least five errors with each statement: Seminal work on the subject. 1 - “How a person reacts to a Web site determines that user’s experience with the product Designing Web Usability and can determine a return visit. The usability of a Web site, which usually refers to the Prioritizing Web Usability elegance, flow-of-content & clarity with which the site is designed, can ensure a positive Eye-Tracking Web Usability user experience.” Jacob Nielsen Source: Bloomberg.com (Business Exchange)

Disagree if you must. Ignore at your peril.

Usability cannot ensure a “positive” experience. It just helps a lot. a helps just It experience. “positive” a ensure cannot Usability •

• The Design of Everyday Things “clarity” “flow-of-content,” “elegance, words/phrases: subjective Uselessly

• Don Norman website. a having for d’être raison the as hailed is Visit” “Return

A classic. Buy it right now. Seriously. Reactions are only one tiny aspect of experience. of aspect tiny one only are Reactions •

• Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and worst. at demeaning best, at term lazy a users, called are People Conduct Effective Tests Jeffrey Rubin, Dana Chisnell Obligingly easy to read and digest. All you need to know. 2 - “[User Experience is] the judicious application of certain user-centered design practices, Envisioning Information a highly mentality, and use of certain methods and techniques that are The Visual Display of Quantitative Information applied through process management to produce cohesive, predictable, and desirable Visual Explanations effects in a specific person, or persona (archetype comprised of target audience habits and Beautiful Evidence characteristics).” Edward Tufte http://uxdesign.com/ux-defined

Learn to display information wonderfully. These books are a

bit academic, but truly a delight and worth your effort. here.) crickets chirping (Insert use? and behavior basics: the

We’ve reduced people to habits and characteristics. Uncool. But what about about what But Uncool. characteristics. and habits to people reduced We’ve •

• Access Paris (Or Access New York) what? Say person. a in effects “certain” producing apparently We’re

Richard Saul Wurman •

The guru of Information Architecture exhibits flawless management”. “process or mentality”

•

mastery here. design contextual “highly phrases the define to you dare triple-dog We

Who decides what is and is not judicious? (Academics, we guess.) we (Academics, judicious? not is and is what decides Who •

Only an academic could love this horridly obtuse, vague sentence. vague obtuse, horridly this love could academic an Only •

Contributors: The truematter team - www.truematter.com Speaker: Dean Schuster - [email protected]