Deconstructing Design: How did we get from there to here

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Deconstructing DesignHow did we get from there
to here

• Donna Maurer
• Step Two Designs(donna_at_steptwo.com.au)

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About Donna Maurer

• Usability Specialist for Step Two Designs
• Information architecture
• Information architecture work for 5 years
• Author for Boxes and Arrows
• Active member of AIA (leader for mentoring
  project)
• Organising committee for IA Summit
• Academic
• Tutor human computer interaction
• Studying Master of Human Factors - UQ

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About Step Two Designs

• We provide vendor-neutral consulting,coaching and
  mentoring, in the areas of
• Identifying intranet needs developing intranet
  strategies
• Improving the structure and design of intranets
• Selecting content management systems
• Information architecture and usability
• Our focus is on providing organisations with the
  knowledge and skills they need

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OT - A magic powerpoint trick
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OT A magic powerpoint trick

• The problem with powerpoint we try to do 2
  things
• use it to illustrate our points when speaking
• provide something for you to take away and follow
  up
• These things are not compatible
• My trick
• Use images as the prop
• Follow with a slide with notes
• Hide the slide with notes - you dont see it,
  but it prints out
• Image on previous screen from
• Edward Tufte The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint
• www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp

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What is this about
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Whats this all about

• We know a lot about research usability testing
• IA Design is not card sort IA
• The design step is
• much more mysterious
• harder to describe
• not likely to have the same result from different
  designers
• hardest for newer designers
• there is no right and wrong
• Today we look at this step
• by looking at completed projects and their inputs
  and seeing what happened in the design step

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Project 1
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Previous intranet home page
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The project

• Intranet redesign for the Department of Family
  and Community Services
• Existing intranet
• low use
• poor usability
• little value to many people
• low visual appeal
• poorly structured
• 15,000 pages of informational content

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Project activities

• Staff research
• Contextual interviews and focus groups
• Accessibility research
• Card sorting
• Business
• Identification of business goals
• Content
• Analysis of intranet logs and search logs
• Content inventory analysis

• Design process
• Creation of draft IA
• Usability test of draft IA (x2)
• Page layout design
• Visual design
• Develop prototype
• Usability test of prototype (x2)

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Intranet information architecture
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IA design

• Major groups
• All activities provided input (research, business
  goals, content analysis, current structure
  usage, card sort)
• About FaCS people and business content
• FaCS programs the Departments core business
• Whats on need to centralise news
• Administration Admin said often during card
  sort
• Some names changed during the process
• Personal/employee administration Staff
  administration
• News events Whats happening Whats on
• Help Emergency
• Policies Programs FaCS Programs
• Administration Admin

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IA Design

• Structure is around sections or collections
• Intranet made up of relatively independent
  sections
• All have similar granularity (but not similar
  size)
• Most have attributes of basic-level categories
• Previous experience with intranets indicates that
  the section model works well
• Each section has its own IA (mostly done by the
  intranet team)

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Intranet home page
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Intranet home page

• Navigation
• Data analysis showed that some sections of the
  intranet were more popular
• User research staff wanted fast access to
  content
• Competitive analysis idea for boxes
• Accessibility research staff with motor
  impairments need larger targets
• Usability test the major groups were still not
  perfectly intuitive, so wanted a way to highlight
  what was included in them

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Intranet home page

• News
• User research staff want to know what is
  happening
• Current content use of all-staff email
  splash screens
• Business goal to use the intranet as a better
  communication tool
• Previous experience knew that this was good for
  the homepage and likely to work well
• Quick links
• Data analysis some content more popular
• User research fast access to content
• Good practice alternate ways to key information

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Intranet home page

• Search
• User research staff want improved search
• Good practice search on all pages
• Previous experience knew that the location
  would work (if well-represented on screen)
• Local links
• User research reduce the perception that it is
  only for the central office
• User research regional offices wanted something
  that belonged to them
• Business goals something more fun or useful to
  act as a drawcard

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Intranet home page

• Jobs
• User research staff read the emailed newsletter
  to look for jobs every week
• Updates
• Good practice key updates and additions
• Phone book search
• A phone book search was included (previous
  experience) but was removed after usability
  testing everyone said they wouldnt use it

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Section page
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Section page

• Global navigation
• Good practice include global navigation on all
  pages of large sites
• Previous experience horizontal navigation bar
  would be OK for this many categories
• Usability test forgot to include a home link
• Breadcrumb
• Good practice include a breadcrumb trail on
  large hierarchical sites
• Usability test used when there no home link
  in the navigation

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Section page

• Section navigation
• Previous experience / content analysis needed
  to be flexible as amount of information would
  vary
• Related links
• Previous experience content analysis
• Visual design ZOO Communications
• www.zooz.com.au

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Project 2
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Existing home page
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The project

• Website redesign for an Australian Government
  Department
• Not implemented due to Department reshuffle
• Existing site
• poor usability anecdotal evidence only
• had been recently redesigned as part of a CMS
  implementation
• team wanted us to help with a content refresh
  identifying out of date content

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Project activities

• Business
• Identification of business goals
• Research
• Persona development based on staff knowledge
• Content
• Analysis of intranet logs and search logs
• Analysis of contact us questions

• Design process
• Create 3 alternate home pages

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Home page option 1
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Home page option 1

• Minor changes
• Only recently redesigned, so needed to keep much
  of the design
• I preferred option 3, but knew that it might not
  be accepted as it was a bigger change. Showing it
  as a transition lessens the impact.
• Time in process no structural changes yet

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Home page option 1

• Top sections/publications
• Search log analysis there were a small number
  of high profile, known items that people wanted
• Personas some personas need fast access to key
  info
• Other Department (not the real label)
• Contact us analysis clients dont know
  Departmental boundaries and came to this site for
  info that isnt there
• Search log analysis high profile, known items
• Other sites (not shown)
• Business goals highlight other sites Department
  owns
• Client feedback dont know which site to start
  on

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Home page option 2
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Home page option 2

• Major changes
• Navigation moved to left
• Good practice get content onto the page
• No changes to structure knew that clients
  wouldnt understand headings any better, so
  showed key links
• News in centre
• Business goals staff wanted to show events and
  projects
• Personas some clients needed to know just about
  recent updates
• Accessibility
• Design for W3C AAA rating

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Home page option 3
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Home page option 3

• Minor visual design changes
• Cleaner
• Less boxy

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Insights
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Key Insights

• Inputs outputs
• There is no one-to-one relationship between any
  activity and output
• All design decisions are informed by a range of
  inputs/activities
• User needs are not the only input!
• Internal politics is a hidden, but important,
  input
• Better inputs help create better outputs
• Usability testing confirms design, doesnt create
  design

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Insights (cont...)

• Previous experience
• I use a lot of previous experience, but I have
  to remember to listen to the research
• I can create good designs based on my experience
  alone (within my experience domain)
• My designs are much better when based on real
  inputs
• I rarely use anyone elses research
• Deconstructing
• I still cant break down some design decisions
  (mostly IA)
• I can tell you why I did something, but not why I
  didnt do something

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Insights (cont...)

• Designing and creativity
• I dont design in this deconstructive manner, it
  all just happens in my head
• Exposure to ordinary and different approaches
  helps the creative step
• Dont design on screen, design in your head
• Leave plenty of thinking time
• I often create an initial design, leave it, then
  later attempt to create an entirely different
  design
• There is no right answer

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Questions?

• Donna Maurerdonna_at_steptwo.com.au
• Visit www.steptwo.com.au for content management,
  intranet, usability and information architecture
  whitepapers