User Experience Professionals Research Articles

A license to kill – Improving UCSD in Agile development

Abstract Agile development processes, such as Scrum, focus on communication, developer collaboration and delivery of working software early and continuously. User-centered systems design (UCSD) is a process emphasizing usability and the user experience throughout the system life cycle. It highlights the UCSD activities: understanding the context of use, iterative prototyping to explore the design space and active collaboration with users throughout the software development. Agile processes are by many assumed to address similar issues as UCSD, hence, by applying Agile processes the systems would become usable for the end-users and their user experience should improve. This paper discusses and interprets findings on UCSD activities in Agile projects in practice, that are analyzed according to the fundamental principles from the Agile manifesto. We show that Agile development has much to gain from integrating UCSD, and give guidance on how to integrate UCSD in Agile processes. User experience (UX) professionals need a more explicit role in the Agile projects and more authority. We recommend that they receive a “license to kill” design suggestions that are not perceived as useful by the users.

GenderMag: A Method for Evaluating Software's Gender Inclusiveness

In recent years, research into gender differences has established that individual differences in how people problem-solve often cluster by gender. Research also shows that these differences have direct implications for software that aims to support users' problem-solving activities, and that much of this software is more supportive of problem-solving processes favored (statistically) more by males than by females. However, there is almost no work considering how software practitioners—such as User Experience (UX) professionals or software developers—can find gender-inclusiveness issues like these in their software. To address this gap, we devised the GenderMag method for evaluating problem-solving software from a gender-inclusiveness perspective. The method includes a set of faceted personas that bring five facets of gender difference research to life, and embeds use of the personas into a concrete process through a gender-specialized Cognitive Walkthrough. Our empirical results show that a variety of practitioners who design software—without needing any background in gender research—were able to use the GenderMag method to find gender-inclusiveness issues in problem-solving software. Our results also show that the issues the practitioners found were real and fixable. This work is the first systematic method to find gender-inclusiveness issues in software, so that practitioners can design and produce problem-solving software that is more usable by everyone.

Knowledge work, knowledge play

Everyday spaces and places are increasingly experienced as hybrid---as a confluence of material and informatic possibility---thanks to the ubiquity of always connected mobile devices and robust sociotechnical networks. For example, the interiors of many contemporary vehicles are personal area networks that move with drivers through daily commutes, connecting them to their phone's text messages and social networks in and through the material space of their car. In such cases, communication flows strongly mediate people's experiences in, movements through, and perceptions toward spaces of work, learning, and leisure. This article explores such hybrid spaces from the perspective of communication design, offering a heuristic approach to user experience in a world where spaces are often crosshatched and multiple. This exploration focuses on the kinds of tools and practices common to knowledge work and its recent extensions into forms of knowledge play, where the means of knowledge work are coordinated and transformed for non-work pursuits. This article, then, presents a practical, persona driven perspective on the relationships between communication flows and hybrid spaces, challenging design of communication researchers and user experience professionals to rethink the everyday combinations of symbolic action, knowledge work tools and networks, and mundane locations and movements.

Exploring perceptions of web accessibility: a survey approach

The equality of access – accessibility – is difficult to quantify, define, or agree upon. Our previous work analysed the responses of web accessibility specialists in regard to a number of pre-defined definitions of accessibility. While uncovering much, this analysis did not allow us to quantify the communities’ understanding of the relationship accessibility has with other domains and assess how the community scopes accessibility. In this case, we asked over 300 people, with an interest in accessibility, to answer 33 questions surrounding the relationship between accessibility, user experience (UX), and usability; inclusion and exclusion; and evaluation, in an attempt to harmonise our understanding of web accessibility. We found that respondents think that accessibility and usability are highly related and also think that accessibility is applicable to everyone and not just people with disabilities. Respondents strongly agree that accessibility must be grounded on user-centred practices and that accessibility evaluation is more than just inspecting source code; however, they are divided as to whether training in ‘Web Content Accessibility Guidelines’ is necessary or not to assess accessibility. These perceptions are important for usability and UX professionals, developers of automated evaluation tools, and those practitioners running website evaluations.

Attitudes towards user experience (UX) measurement

User experience (UX), as a recently established research area, is still haunted by the challenges of defining the scope of UX in general and operationalising experiential qualities in particular. To explore the basic question whether UX constructs are measurable, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 UX researchers from academia and one UX practitioner from the industry where a set of questions in relation to UX measurement were explored (Study 1). The interviewees expressed scepticism as well as ambivalence towards UX measures and shared anecdotes related to such measures in different contexts. Interestingly, the results suggested that design-oriented UX professionals tended to be sceptical about UX measurement. To examine whether such an attitude prevailed in the HCI community, we conducted a survey – UX Measurement Attitudes Survey (UXMAS) – with essentially the same set of 13 questions used in the interviews (Study 2). Specifically, participants were asked to rate a set of five statements to assess their attitude towards UX measurement, to identify (non)measurable experiential qualities with justifications, and to discuss the topic from the theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives. The survey was implemented in a paper-based and an online format. Altogether, 367 responses were received; 170 of them were valid and analysed. The survey provided empirical evidence on this issue as a baseline for progress in UX measurement. Overall, the survey results indicated that the attitude towards UX measurement was more positive than that identified in the interviews, and there were nuanced views on details of UX measurement. Implications for enhancing the acceptance of UX measures and the interplay between UX evaluation and system development are drawn: UX modelling grounded in theories to link experiential qualities with outcomes; the development of UX measurement tools with good measurement properties, and education within the HCI community to disseminate validated models, and measurement tools as well as their successful applications. Mutual recognition of the value of objective measures and subjective accounts of user experience can enhance the maturity of this area.

A Study on the Service Design for Online Service Company to Enhance User Experience

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate service design cases by online service companies and suggests framework to understand service design of them. Background: Recently, exploratory service design cases by online service companies such as Google, Apple, and NHN has been developed. Service design and online service experience design has been booming among user experience professionals but these two areas are not clearly defined. It is interesting to study the definition and key factors of service design and online service experience design. Moreover, investigating service design cases by online service companies is needed. Method: Due to diversification of service design cases by online service companies, this study has reviewed online resources and literatures about top 5 online service companies in USA and Korea. Furthermore, this study used expert interview who worked for service design at NHN. To understand the attributes of service design cases, this study developed 3 types of service design classifications scheme such as service design as extension of online service, space design and event service design. Finally, this study suggested a new framework for service design cases. Results: This study investigated service design cases by online service companies and suggests key issues and frameworks to uncover service design for online service. Conclusion: Service design cases for online service was analyzed by 2*2 matrix(extension, enrichment*product, service) to explain characteristics and attributes. NHN’s Knowledge-iN bookshelf at NHN libraryl is a unique form of service design as a tool of enrichment of online experience. Application: The results of this study might help to understand service design cases and plan new service design for online service companies with structured framework.

A posting for a job that does not exist: How we might define information architects in today's “integrated” advertising agency

A posting for a job that does not exist: How we might define information architects in today's “integrated” advertising agency

The debut of usable, influential content

The debut of usable, influential content

Local Cultures and Global Corporations

AbstractMore than ever before, booming economies and growing levels of disposable income have placed many countries on the global consumer market landscape. Users, embedded in their own cultures and societies, are also consumers of global products and information in their own localized contexts. A range of companies, from the tech arena to the food business, are striving to carve a niche in these countries, trying to redesign themselves to cater to local cultural needs. Most of these companies try to manufacture products for a global market and achieve large‐scale volumes in production. However, this often requires the coordination of multiple companies to manufacture a single product, companies that may be situated in different cultures and countries. Designers, design managers, and user experience professionals across these organizations face a tremendous challenge against the backdrop of this changing landscape. With local practices and cultures on one hand, and large global corporations and global lifestyles situated all over the globe on the other, designers and social scientists are challenged with striking the right balance between these two ends. This paper uses examples from Intel's Digital Home User Experience Group to highlight how user experience professionals can manage and design culturally rich experiences while sustaining large‐scale production, as well as managing smooth working processes among organizations situated across the globe.

Information Architecture: Getting richer

The ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit is a pivotal event in the yearly cycle for many IA-related professionals. Sessions and hallway conversations help the community learn from recent work and also generate points of focus for future exploration. The mixture of case study, research, practical tools and ethical discussion in this issue of the Bulletin reflects the range of session and hallway topics at the April Summit. The success of the research track this year is particularly encouraging. IA practice needs stress-testing and rigor, and these attributes are brought to bear when research is carried out and widely shared. As D. Grant Campbell discusses in “Information Architecture Research: The Future State of the Art,” academics have the job of creating and testing IA tools, teaching a curriculum truly relevant to the next generations and helping define how information architecture relates to and interacts with other areas of expertise. Campbell also encourages academics and practitioners to take advantage of next year's Summit research track or apply for a grant to support their work through the IA Institute. In “FaceTag: Integrating Bottom-up and Top-down Classification in a Social Tagging System,” Emanuele Quintarelli, Andrea Resmini and Luca Rosati begin with a succinct overview of semantic structures in tagging systems. This introduction alone is a must-read for anyone interested in collaborative tagging issues and tools. The authors go on to describe FaceTag, a prototype that demonstrates how user-generated tags can be integrated with a faceted classification scheme to deliver an excellent browseable, interactive social bookmarking experience. This work should be of great interest to anyone wrestling with structured and user-generated categorizations. In “Evolutionary Psychology as a Basis for Ethical Design: Virtual Status and Ubiquitous Altruism,” Olly Wright discusses evolutionary psychology in the realm of social networking. He proposes that IAs apply an understanding of evolutionary psychology to the achievement of more ethical information structures and user experience. In particular, the author looks at virtual status and enabling and rewarding altruism through online media. I particularly appreciate the closing summation: “[A]s information architects, designers of these new social tools and mediated interactions, we are in a position to influence [design for an ethical and healthy culture], should we choose to.” This work offers particularly useful insights within the context of the developing world, and I hope to see these concepts elaborated further in a future issue of the Bulletin. In “Data Driven Design: Using Web Analytics to Validate Heuristics,” Andrea Wiggins offers practical, research-based, straightforward ways for the information architect to work with web analytics to improve the user experience. Further, this article enriches the practice of IA by describing a teamwork approach for web analytics staff and IAs and by suggesting that measures of user experience be identified as key performance indicators early in the process. The author also discusses heading off the managerial temptation to replace user testing with web analytics alone. Rich Internet applications (RIA) are what people are talking about when they say “Web 2.0.” User experience professionals naturally want to work on RIA projects, and those who haven't had the chance yet may feel daunted or concerned about being left behind. Adam Polansky's lively case study, “IA and RIAs — You Know More Than You Think You Do,” describes his first RIA engagement. He offers practical insights and helpful advice and, in the process, assures us that a well-rounded IA already has the foundations for success on an RIA project team. Josh Knauer's “Information Commons: Service to the Community Starts with Solid IA” packs three high value messages into one tight narrative. In this case study Knauer describes the development of a distributed database system that enables social services professionals to access and update information across a decentralized collection of data repositories. The article also showcases how an open system architecture and the use of universally unique identifiers (UUIDs) can help users build new tools in a collaborative manner. Finally, Knauer demonstrates that a solid IA methodology underpins a responsive and innovative solution to a widespread problem.