“The Breakup Letter is a design research tool that Smart Design uses to understand the emotional connection between people and their products, services, and experiences.

At IIT’s 2010 Design Research Conference, Smart Design asked participants of their Sex Ed workshop to test out this tool by writing and reciting a Breakup Letter. Each participant took 15 minutes to write a letter and then shared their stories of finally moving on.”

Reference: “Smart Design: The Breakup Letter on Vimeo.” Vimeo, Video Sharing For You. Web. 11 July 2010. <http://vimeo.com/11854531>.

Many believe that it requires a large research investment to properly inform a persona. That is not always true if your organization thoroughly knows their customer and there is no doubt by any team who they are based on experience. This is often not the case. The time and effort required to research, analyze and document personas, should not be underestimated

To further complicate things, there previously hasn’t been empirical evidence for this type of investment.

This research paper was first published in the Irish Ergonomics Review, Proceedings of the IES Conference 2009, Dublin [click me to see].

The scope of the experiment was focused on the effectiveness of using personas in the design process.

Methodology:
The study was aimed to assess and measure the effectiveness of using personas as a design tool. It further tried to answer – does using personas give designers any advantage in designing more effective and user-centered solutions? Would there be a quantifiable usability difference between the designs from the persona-based teams over ones that did not use persona?

Results:
“The study indicates that using personas offers several benefits for user-centred design in product development. The results support claims that using personas focuses more attention on the end-user, particularly in the early stages of the project. Not only does this increase the likelihood of a more usable end product but it also provides a clear user focus at the initial design research and idea generation stages, which enhances the possibility of incorporating user-centred features at the product specification stage. Personas have a role in helping designers to innovate new ideas but can also assist in validating new designs as they emerge. They can provide a valuable user-centred input early in the development cycle – helping to bridge the gap between research and design.”

For a number of years now, many marketers have realized the benefits of using personas beyond the digital space. And today, it is more important then ever to understand the needs, desires and motivations of customers.

Reference:
Long, Frank. “Research Paper – Real or Imaginary: The Effectiveness of Using Personas in Product Design – Frontend – User Experience Design Consultancy.” Frontend.com – Frontend – User Experience Design Consultancy. Web. 01 July 2010. <http://www.frontend.com/products-digital-devices/real-or-imaginary-the-effectiveness-of-using-personas-in-product-design.html>.

In rebuilding or exploring any new desktop online experience I heavily rely on analytics to provide us with that important, real-time data on how users are consuming content. It allows us to find importance in everything from top pages they hit (as well as did not hit), time they spend with content, how they come in, where they go out, where we lose them, how we found them, those silly words they used to find us, pages that for some reason just didn’t work, goals, funnels, abandonment….the list goes on and on. All great stuff for data junkies to act on (if used correctly).

My tool of choice is Google Analytics on most client projects. Especially when it comes to rebuilds, I’ve made this an ingrained part of my team’s discovery process. It informs our content planning, information architecture and user experience planning. And it gives both my team and the clients’ a benchmark of data. It’s free, it is simple to integrate  yet powerful to use and a snap to share reporting. Used right, it can also be effectively used it to track print advertising through the use of goals and events so one can really apply a success matrix through use of it.

google reporting

November 2009, Google announced Google Analytics for Mobile Apps. As with websites, there are two basic categories of user interaction you can track – pageviews and events. Teams can then use this data to understand which features are most popular and inform decisions about which features should be promoted or prioritized for further development.

For more powerful, enterprise level analytics, there is also WebTrends. And for those of us who have been around a little while and remember Log Analyzer – their product matured from that lengthy install and cumbersome software setup to a little more elegant web based system equipped with all the fancy little dashboards you team needs to produce all kinds of reporting. Of particular interest to this post is their Wireless Dashboard providing explicit detail on a particular website’s device trends, WAP carriers, mobile devices, WAP image support, mobile browsers, WAP markup languages, WAP screen sizes, WAP script support, PALM devices, PALM trends and more.

webtrends dashboard

This is the kind of data that better informs decisions on what to build for. And as we move aggressively toward more users accessing the web over hand-held devices, we want to ensure that our products are prepared and the information is correctly delivered to the masses. This is not to be confused with a more lengthy discussion on correctly developing mobile content, apps, device research, etc. The point is to use these tools to help you better understand how your users are consuming your content. Simply put, if you notice that there is an upward trend in mobile users to your website, and your site is not optimized to deliver content well over mobile devices, then you should consider change.

The above mentioned above only scratches the surface of analytics for mobile web. But what about at the application level? There are options.

localytics dashboard

Localytics – This is a free app that provides real-time analytics and it currently works with Blackberry, Android and iPhone. Their website says that Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm are coming soon. The service also provides an easy to use dashboard that allows users to create custom segments on-the-fly.

medialytics dashboard

Medialytics from Medialets – is an analytics platform for iPhone and Android app developers that provides key insights on their apps and users. Combined with the parent Medialets, they are a rich media advertising and analytics platform. Back in April, Medialets together with creative agency Razorfish launched Pants Dance, the world’s first Shakable Ad™.

flurry analytics

Another recent merger brought 2 more mobile application analytics and monetization platforms together – Flurry and Pinch Media. Both companies have launched widely used analytics services for the iPhone and Android phones. In the end, the single company named Flurry.

To monetize the data, Flurry recently launched AppCircle, a recommendation platform. Developers install it in their games and it analyzes a user’s taste in apps. Then it recommends apps for the user. These recommendations are likely to be highly useful because they’re based on the user’s past purchases. Flurry gets paid through a revenue sharing agreement with the developer. – Dean Takahashi

mobclix app ranking

Mobclix -provides iPhone analytics and the “largest mobile ad exchange” for your apps. They analytics driven mobile ad exchange allows them to optimize ad inventory to maximize eCPMs through a bidding platform for advertisers, ad networks, and agencies.

So not only are these platforms providing us more data. The platforms are acting smarter by providing real-time data for actionable business decisions. Definitely high value for both the developers and marketers.

There is no perfect tool. Today’s economy demands that we are resourceful and smart. Use the free tools to create the business case and benchmark data. All of these resources are giving analytics away. It is up to you (and me) to use them and make our products and experiences better.

So what’s next?

Behold Google Favorite Places.

“Businesses unlock their free business listing with Google’s Local Business Center, allowing them to enhance the content of their listings with photos, correct hours, coupons and more. This also tells Google that the business’ location is correct, so we can send a window decal if the business is popular enough.” – Google

So how it works is Google has identified more then 100,000 local business in more then 9,000 towns and cities nationwide that are searched on the most. And they sent these businesses , which include everything from restaurants, stores and more, a window decal from Google featuring a scannable QR code.

That code could be scanned into mobile phones —including iPhone, Android phones, BlackBerry and more—and be taken directly to that business’s Place Page on their mobile phone where they can find reviews and coupons or “star” the business as one they want to remember for later.

Sound cool? Yeah, because it is. And here’s more from Google on the QR code.

Claim token for technorati: STKBZ4XWH6EX

Here’s a look at the available sources:

After you search, you can personalize your results dashboard by moving around the source boxes. When you’re done, bookmark the page and keep coming back to your personalized results dashboard for that search.

Visit Addictomatic

This is certainly not a new idea by any stretch. Dell found popular success with their own “Idea Storm” website which basically allowed customers to vote for features and products that they wanted. One of the results was the development and release of the linux community driven UBUNTO box.

Starbucks is another with their My Starbucks Idea website. They ask customers to help shape the future of their company through ideas. Both Starbucks and Dell used the Salesforce.com platform “Ideas”.

What is exciting about this new era of brand building is the possibilities. And how much faster product and service innovation can occur as well as allowing companies to react quicker to issues. But I think it is important to point out that it is one thing for a company to be open to these possibilities, including the spearheading the communities of thought and voices. It is another to be able to support it from an infrastructure standpoint.

It is obvious in the case of both of these companies, they were ready to deliver from a service and product engineering standpoint. They put their ideas into action and they show it. Starbucks shares through their Ideas In Action blog. Dell has an Ideas In Action community portal as well.

So let’s take it a step further. In a 2000 article titled “IDEAS INTO ACTION; Dell, It Turns Out, Has a Better Idea Than Ford” published by the NY Times, Fred Andrews noted “Dell made its name by selling directly to customers and allowing them to specify the features they wanted their personal computer to include.” This was an article about supply chain management and not about “IdeaStorming”. But it is interesting to say the least, that this was a flag raised.

It is almost a decade since this article was published. Dell continues to live their mission by embracing their customers, listening and acting – they continue to move forward. Is it possible that if others had looked, listened and acted differently almost 10 years ago, the outcome would have been different today?

Here are some links to idea storming / crowd sourcing / idea management players in this space.

• http://getsatisfaction.com/ – “People Powered Customer Service”
• http://ideascale.com/ – “Innovation, Crowdsourcing, Idea Management”
• http://uservoice.com/ – “Harness the Ideas of Your Customers…”
• http://www.fevote.com/ – “Suggestion Boards for Social Suggestions”
• http://www.brightidea.com/webstorm.bix – “WebStorm by Brightidea, Inc. is an Idea Collection and Ranking Portal”
• http://www.feedback20.com/ – “Engage With Your Community”
• http://www.ideatorrent.org/ – Open Source, “Open Invitation Software”

Reference:
“Build your own “IdeaStorm” with UserVoice « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing.” Web Strategy By Jeremiah Owyang: Web Marketing, Social Media. Web. 30 Aug. 2009. <http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/05/02/build-your-own-ideastorm-with-uservoice/>.

But this post isn’t about a particular misstep. It is about asking the question – should we execute user research every time we design?

Jackob Neilson writes in his Alertbox – Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design, #10 – “Not Answering Users’ Questions – Users are highly goal-driven on the Web. They visit sites because there’s something they want to accomplish — maybe even buy your product. The ultimate failure of a website is to fail to provide the information users are looking for.”

To understand what the user is asking, it makes sense that we must first understand the user. And that isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Take for instance a low-budget project or one that has rapid turn-around. There isn’t always the time or money to execute research. I’ve been in client meetings where they have clearly no idea who their user or audience is. Or believe that their audience is everybody. But I have found success in asking the right questions and being a little resourceful.

1. For the limited budget project, ask to look at their customer database. It would be outstanding to dive into an advanced CRM system and segment. Many companies completely forget about their own database. Perhaps it’s a simple Excel or one that could be exported as a tab delimited file then opened in Excel. Do a little sorting and soon you can begin gleaning common titles or companies in a B2B situation, maybe there are a lot more males or female names, take a look at their email addresses (this is helpful in email design trying to assist in finding target email clients, etc. Taking this list to a mail house or analyst could also prove invaluable (depending on the complexity) if they can assist in segmentation.
2. For a decent size project with little or no budget for 3rd party research, use the above mentioned method along with some open-source research tools like Quantcast. Let’s say your clients URL is nestle.com. Just enter it in and it pulls from a variety of resources to provide you with demographics and lifestyle information like this:
   
   
3. If you are working on high priority projects and there is a success matrix in place for performance, using a 3rd party is invaluable. If you are the IA or UX designer, you should be provided insight detailing the outcomes of the research and information you can act on to design quality into the product. This will ensure you are correctly communicating and provide benchmark data for testing. I shared more on forms of this in my post titled: Automatic Usability Evaluation Applications.

I believe that user research should be engaged in every project.  Minimal information is better then no information at all to act on. And as protectors of creating positive online experiences, it is our missive to make sure this is always a part of the process.

Do you agree or have any examples of arguments against this position?

Download “80s_playground” [1.4mb]

Instructional documentation is an extremely important part of product support. But it could also prove to be mind-numbing to create. Especially if you are part of a team that prides itself on getting your client up and running while building solutions that are self-sustaining from an administration standpoint. But not all teams are staffed with technical writers or have the budget to create robust user documentation for products that they might have built on a tightened budget.

Here is where a little resourcefulness can payoff big dividends. Screen capture has been around for quite some time but usually at the price of costly programs and programs that consume time for learning. Not anymore. A short time ago a friend of mine shared Jing with me. Jing is a free application, with a minimal feature set that allows you to record or capture your screen. And just when you thought FREE was the best part – it is not. It’s easily compatible on both the MAC and PC. Enough said?

To give you an example of just how easy it is, I’ve put together a quick tutorial on how to use my own website through Jing. It took about 5 minutes.

The end value of something as simple as virtual documentation to the client outweighs the time it takes to produce. For larger teams that do provide technical documentation, consider this as a way to augment traditional written documentation. And it looks prettier.

Have any screen capturing / documentation options that you want to share?

Giles Colborne, Director at cxpartners, usability expert and previous President of the UK Usability Professionals’ Association created this presentation titled:  ”Secrets of Simplicity: rules for being simple and usable” that certainly puts the relationship of simplicity and usability into perspective.

Giles says: “For practical, emotional and cultural reasons we crave simplicity. For people working in usability it can seem like usability and simplicity are identical.” This is a great misconception. I often wonder if it is because we approach simpler as easier or if it is because we simply don’t have enough information to make the complex usable. That’s often a blurred line. Add the demand of putting products out faster and more cost effective and it becomes obvious that compromises begin.

This demands that we need to identify a means to better identify what makes something truly usable and simple. Giles mentions that “if you are designing something simple for consumers, you have to hit high scores in efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction.” and further notes “so simplicity is not the same as usability. It’s just one case and it may not always be the right strategy.”

And then breaks it down to these simple laws.

1. Complexity is never eliminated, merely reduced and displaced.
2. Simplicity is an experience, it happens in the users head

Source:
“Secrets of Simplicity: rules for being simple and usable.” Upload & Share PowerPoint presentations and documents. 19 June 2009 <http://www.slideshare.net/cxpartners/secrets-of-simplicity>.