Posts Tagged ‘Introduction’
Effective UI by the EffectiveUI team – Book Review
Effective UI is a new book by … EffectiveUI, which aims to give an introduction to the art of building a superior user experience. EffectiveUI (the company) are a user experience agency from the US, recently known for building the iPad app Ideate, a tool for wire framing and sketching which uses pre-set templates for designers and developers. This book is the result of their years of experience, and aims to share some of the lessons they’ve learnt about delivering superior products through user based research.
Effective UI (the book this time) is not a self-start guide, or a definitive how-to, unlike Krug’s new book. Although it does give an introduction to UX tools, such as paper prototyping and user interviews, it doesn’t go into the depth that other books may do. Instead, the book seems to be aimed at a single person within an established company, who needs a one-stop resource to bring them up to speed on what User Experience is, and what it can do for their company.
Hence the book features a little bit of everything. Not only does it introduce the key concepts of UX, but it also has chapters on prototyping methods, how to understand and define key users (including how-to exercises), how to bring together a good UX team, and how to sell UX at your company (although it has less emphasis on subterfuge and guerrilla tactics than John Rhodes’ Selling Usability)
Pictured: John Rhodes at work
It’s in these high level overviews of crucial UX subjects that the book excels. EffectiveUI (the company) have been using these methods with clients for years, and have built up excellent ways of explaining the key concepts to clients. Through use of extended metaphors, referring to the process as a war, or akin to building a bridge, the book shares some of the best practices they’ve developed in this period. Some notable insights the book offers include de-emphasising the importance of written functional specs (which are incomplete, ill-informed, and slow to produce and react to change), and insight into appropriate methodologies, favouring an agile (with no capital letter) approach but also stressing the importance of not getting hung up on a formal adherence to a methodology.
The years of experience that the authors have had also give the book a wide range of real-world examples to draw upon, such as the production of year book software, which are used to illustrate and emphasise points. It’s definitely a credit to the book that the examples are relevant, and realistic, and help explain the key concepts being demonstrated, and how user centred testing improved the final product.
There are however a few odd choices, which may detract from the book’s ability to succeed in the marketplace. Most prominent is the name EffectiveUI (the book, not the company). I can understand why, as promotion for their company, the authors have chosen to name their book after their company. However it doesn’t seem very appropriate for the subject matter. Having not encountered the US-based company before, I had no prior knowledge of their work. Hence, the title has no associations to me. And it says “Effective UI”. Wouldn’t the reader assume the book is about producing an effective User Interface? Which isn’t the same thing as User Experience. Having looked for references to UI, it doesn’t appear in the index of this book at all (since it is a completely different subject in itself). I can see how this can lose potential customers – people looking for a book on UX are likely to miss this one, and people who buy this book looking for insights on UI will be disappointed.
UI. Not UX.
It’s also important to understand what this book is. It won’t give you step by step instructions on how to investigate UX. What it will do is introduce a non-UX specialist to the key concepts of UX, and give the reader an understanding of the benefits of UX . So don’t buy the book assuming that it’s a one-stop guide on becoming a UX practitioner (Each of the topics it covers could probably fill a book by themselves with how-to instructions!)
However, if you are new to the subject, and want a high-level introduction to key UX concepts, this is the book for you. Or if you are a manager, have heard about the emerging field of UX, and wonder what it can do for your business, this book will tell you everything you need to know. It won’t tell you any trade secrets, but it might just convince you to hire them!
Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug – Book Review
Steve Krug’s new book, Rocket Surgery Made Easy, aims to be the only book someone new to user experience will need to start performing usability testing on their company’s website. And, with a few qualifying remarks, it is.
Krug’s previous book, Don’t Make Me Think, aimed to introduce the idea of web usability to a general audience, and had a number of key characteristics. It was short, designed to be read during a plane journey, and it was accessible, so that anyone could read it and understand usability. It also had a chapter on performing usability testing, which was removed in the second edition. Rocket Surgery Made Easy is that chapter.
In the decade since the emergence of this first book, Krug has been honing his usability testing skills, and through running numerous workshops, has perfected how to teach usability testing. This book is the summary of that experience, and in a wonderfully brief and readable style, is the only book someone new to user experience will need to start performing usability testing. Looking at that statement in more detail will give a deeper insight into the book.
Pictured: Steve Krug, international man of mystery
“The only book”
Krug’s book is a complete introduction to testing your company’s website, and guides the reader through every step of the process, from recruitment, and pre-test setup (including the equipment required), through to running the session and the debrief. The book also offers all the test-scripts and task cards you’ll need. Throughout the process Krug offers his best practise techniques, useful maxims to remember, and pitfalls to avoid. Essentially, you could start performing usability tests with this book alone as a reference.
“someone new to user experience”
This book aims to be an introduction, and so requires no prior knowledge (although reading his other book wouldn’t be a bad start). It also assumes that you are not a usability professional, just an interested party at a company, and that there isn’t a large degree of company buy-in, and believes that many rounds of semi-amateur testing is superior to one round of professional testing, which is valid. Because it assumes you don’t have a large amount of support from your company, in particular monetarily, it focuses on how to perform usability testing with a large degree of constraints – how to do it cheaply, how to do it quickly (just one morning a month) & how to get people interested through pastry!
“will need to start”
Because of its small size, Krug’s book is only designed as an introduction to usability testing, and won’t contain any new information if you’ve done this before. At best you could pick up a few best practises, but you’re not the intended audience. Just for you, the book has suggestions for further reading “for overachievers only”, with some interesting books to continue studying this field, but the book is largely aimed at newcomers to the field.
“performing usability testing”
Also due to its brevity, the book only covers one on one think aloud tests with websites, and only hints that other forms of usability testing possible. The book ends with a short chapter on remote research, but only hints at the possibilities that we saw at the UX Brighton event. Other types of usability research, such as quantitative methods, expert analysis, or focus groups, are left out entirely of the books remit. Although the book offers a complete solution, it’s a complete solution for one particular type of usability testing, and only covers websites (although the skills could easily be applied elsewhere).
Its not rocket scien.... oh.
Conclusion
Krug’s new book is short, and simple. However neither of these points are negative. It’s short because it has to be, to introduce a wide audience to usability testing, and to emphasise how easy it is to begin. It’s simple, because usability testing can be simple, and done for just a morning a month. If you’re someone who has been doing usability testing for years, or a professional who does a large amount of usability testing, perhaps it’s better to look elsewhere. However if you’re looking for an introduction to usability testing, having never donae it before, or just need a short walkthrough guide to getting usability testing started at your workplace, Krug’s book should definitely be your first choice.
iPhone Game Design Heuristics
Within the field of usability, heuristics are ‘shortcuts’ to overcoming major usability issues, and are often used to supplement user testing. They can quickly identify large usability issues, early in the development process, and prevent the need for major redesigns further down the software development process. If many of these issues didn’t become addressed until play testing, typically one of the last steps of development, the amount of re-working needed would increase exponentially.
Their use is particularly important with the ‘home-grown’ scene of iPhone game design, due to the small size of most development teams. Because a development kit costs only $99, and publishing a game requires no budget (except marketing), the iPhone development scene is a lot more small scale than other mobile platforms, and so often teams (or individuals) cannot afford to employ the most thorough methods of evaluating usability, such as expert review.
It would be useful then to have a series of guidelines that developers can follow to identify good and bad iPhone usability game design issues, which is what I’m attempting to achieve in this series of blog posts. Within each topic, I will aim to cover why it’s important, and provide examples of a correct, and an incorrect implementation. Hopefully this will prove to be a useful resource for iPhone game developers.
For further reading about mobile phone usability issues, Nokia’s study can be accessed here: Nokia Heuristics Study . It was produced before the development of the iPhone, and hence lacks an up to date perspective, particularly with iPhone specific aspects of usability.
