Harvard Extension School
CSCI E-12 Fundamentals of Web Site Development | Spring 2019

# Session 07 - User Experience and Design

Harvard Extension School
Spring 2019

Course Web Site: http://cscie12.dce.harvard.edu/

Instructor email: david_heitmeyer@harvard.edu
Course staff email: cscie12@dce.harvard.edu

### Topics

1. Overview: User Experience
2. Strategy
3. Scope
4. Structure
5. Skeleton
6. Surface
7. Creating Links

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## Overview: User Experience

## Elements of User Experience

- The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
- Planes Poster - Detailed
- The Elements of User Experience -- Harvard Library Online Resource

## Elements of User Experience

- The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
- Simple Planes Poster

## Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams

Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams by Jesse James Garrett

## Planning and Designing a Site: Resources

- Garrett, Jesse James. The Elements of User Experience : User-centered Design for the Web and beyond. 2nd ed. Voices That Matter. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2011.
  - Harvard Library - Online Resource
- Krug, Steve. Don't Make Me Think, Revisited : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. Third ed. 2014.
  - Harvard Library - Online Resource
- Lynch, Patrick J, and Horton, Sarah. Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites. 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
- Williams, Robin. The Non-designer's Design Book : Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice. Fourth ed. 2015.
  - Harvard Library - Online Resource
- Rosenfeld, Louis, Morville, Peter, and Arango, Jorge. Information Architecture: For the Web and beyond. Fourth ed. 2015.
  - Harvard Library - Online Resource

## Strategy

Clear and explicit understanding of

- What does the company/organization want from the site? What is "success"?
- What do the users want from the site?

## Who are our Users?

- Most sites get a variety of users
- Some audiences will be "primary", others "secondary"
- What are the target audience(s) and what are their information needs?

Most sites will have multiple audiences.

## What Audiences can be identified?

### University of Colorado

### Dell

### FDIC

## Audience(s)

- Who are they?
- What are their goals?
  - their information needs
  - tasks/actions they are performing

### Know Your Audience

- Be clear on who you are building for. Understand their needs.
- User testing, market research, focus groups.
- Feedback from users. Pay attention to what your users do, not just what they say.
- Keep in mind that as number of target audiences increase, difficulty of web design increases.

## Audiences for an Academic Department

- Undergraduate Students
  - Concentrators (Majors)
  - Potential concentrators
  - Non-concentrators
- Graduate Students
- Potential Graduate Students
- Faculty
  - Current
  - Potential
- Researchers
- Public

## Audiences for a Campaign Site

- Media
- Donors, Supporters
- Voters
- Party members

## Audiences for a Fitness Club

- Members
  - Variety of members - personal training, injury recovery, recreational, etc.
  - Swim Lessons and Swim Team
- Potential Members
  - For a variety of reasons

Additional Goal:

- Promote Training Program and Philosophy

## Scope

Define content or functionality requirements.

What's "in" and what's "out" -- or at least what's "later".

Start broad, then narrow and refine.

## Content

Questions to ask about content:

- Does it fit purpose of site?
- Does it suit the audience?
- Would your users find this useful?

### Approaching a Project

- What content already exists in web or other media types (brochures, pamphlets, statements, etc.).
  - Adapt (or re-adapt) it for the web
- What content would be good to develop for the site?
  - Create it for the web
- Define incremental goals to avoid "scope creep"
  - Initial Phase
  - Additional Phases

## Think About the User

## Structure

## Structuring Content

From Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (available through Harvard Libraries):

information architecture defined:

1. The structural design of shared information environments.
2. The combination of organization, labeling, search, and navigation systems within web sites and intranets.
3. The art and science of shaping information products and experiences to support usability and findability.
4. An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

### Organize, Label, (Navigate)

- Organize and Categorize
- Label
- Navigate

## Organize

- Strategy-driven: Top-down
- Content-driven: Bottom-up

### Plan for Growth

### How to?

- Sticky-notes or index cards
- whiteboard or wall

## Structural Models

- Hierarchical
- Sequential
- Organic

## Hierarchical

### Library of Congress Classification

"Q" - Science
"QC" - Physics

## Biological

- Kingdom
  - Phylum
    - Class
      - Order
        - Family
          - Genus
            - Species

Catalog of Life

## Open Directory Project, Yahoo! Categories

## Too deep or too shallow?

Deep | Shallow

## Sequential

- Useful when "workflow" is important in web applications.

- When order is important or part of presentation.

## Organic

Wikipedia.com

## Site Architecture

- Topics
- Audience
- Task-Oriented
- Search
- Internal Organization

## Label

- Know your audience
- Test your labels (ask your audience)
  - Card Sort - physical or online, e.g. Optimal Sort
  - Ask questions
    - Where can I get a driver for my HP8500N?
    - What would expect to find in the category of Synergetic Integrated Scalable Enterprise Solutions?
    - What IT degree programs are available?

## Labels - Are there conventions?

### Categories and Labels from News Sites

CNN

Fox News

ABC News

CBS

New York Times

NPR

BBC

NBC

## Skeleton

## Page Components

- Header
- Navigation
- Content
- Footer

## Wireframes and Sketches - "Low" to "High" Fidelity

### Sketches

### Wireframes

### Prototypes

## Navigation Systems

- Where am I?
- Where can I go?
  - What is close by?
  - What is further away?
- Where have I been?

### Don't Make Me Think: Navigation

- it tells us what's here
- it tells us how to use the site
- it gives us confidence in the people who built it

## Harvard College

## Breadcrumb Navigation

> "Just wait, Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread which I have strewn about, they will show us our way home again.", Hansel in Hansel and Gretel

- Breadcrumb Navigation Increasingly Useful, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 10, 2007.

DMOZ

Harvard Summer School

Construction Projects at FAS, Harvard University

## Clamshell navigation

Harvard Extension School | Safari

## Dropdown/Popout Menus

Harvard University

O'Reilly Books

Amazon.com

### "Mega" Dropdown Menus

The White House

Food Network

## Multiple Navigation Modes

## Surface

## F-Pattern

F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content

## Non-Designer's Design Book

The non-designer's design book by Robin Williams

## Non-Designer's Design Book

Non-Deisgner's Design Book by Robin Williams

## Colors

- Non-Designer's Design Book: Chapter 7, Design with Color

Creating Color Palettes:

- paletton.com
- Adobe Color CC

## Home Page -- Don't Make Me Think (Steven Krug)

- What is this?
- What do they have here?
- What can I do here?
- Why should I be here and not somewhere else?

## Don't make me think

Don't make me think, revisited : a common sense approach to Web usability by Steve Krug

### Three Princples of Usability

- Don't make me think.
- It doesn't matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice.
- Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what is left.

## Creating Links

- Predictable
- Differentiable

Build confidence by making your links predictable and differentiable.

## The Scent of Links

Links within navigation and content must be:

- Predictable
  Am I getting 'closer' to my goal?
- Differentiable
  What is the difference between clicking here or clicking there?

When creating links:

- Be descriptive
  - Link several words or a phrase, not just one or two words
  - Use "title" attribute to elaborate
- Don't lie

## Use "title" attribute

Title attribute can add information so that the link is more predictable and able to be differentiated from others.

## Deep Linking

- Link directly to content within a site.
- Support deep linking to your site.
  - URLs that do not change

Deep linking:

Register for Harvard Summer School so you can take CSCI S-1, "Great Ideas in Computer Science with Java" .

    <p>
    <a href="http://www.summer.harvard.edu/course-registration">
       Register for Harvard Summer School</a> so you can take
      <a href="http://www.summer.harvard.edu/courses/great-ideas-computer-science-java/33196">
       CSCI S-1, "Great Ideas in Computer Science with Java"
    </a>.
    </p>

Not deep linking:

    <p>
      <a href="http://www.summer.harvard.edu/">
        Register for Harvard Summer School
      </a> so you can take
      <a href="http://www.summer.harvard.edu/courses">
        CSCI S-1, "Great Ideas in Computer Science with Java"
      </a>.
    </p>

## Old Example from Logan Airport (BOS) - Old Site

Example from Boston's Logan Airport site:

### New Site

## Old Example from Mass RMV

To renew your registration, visit `http://www.mass.gov/rmv`

### New Mass RMV

## "Click Here"

Don't Use "click here"

Example from Boston's Logan Airport site:

## "Click Here"

New Site

## "Click Here" to prompt an action

Sometimes you can "Click Here" to Elicit an Action

## "Learn More" Links: You Can Do Better

"Learn More" Links: You Can Do Better by Katie Sherwin, Nielsen Norman Group.

Copyright © David Heitmeyer