User Experience: Just Because it’s Pretty Doesn’t Mean it Works

We talk a lot about creating digital customer experiences here at Delvinia. It’s what we do. Understanding the customer is the first step in any project. And, once we’ve collected those insights, we have to apply that knowledge through the design process.

That’s Andrea Reck’s job. She’s our Senior User Experience Lead. I recently sat down with her to chat about what that means and what she views as essential elements in user experience design. Here’s what she had to say.

“It’s like a puzzle,”  Andrea says. “I take all of the pieces and organize them on the page where it makes sense. I always try to take a step back as if I was going to the site for the first time. I ask myself; why am I here, what do I want to do and how do I want to get there?”

Is your website working for you?

Although Andrea says there is no cookie cutter approach to user experience design, she follows certain principles in her work. Here are a few:

The process needs to be intuitive. You have to design a site so it takes the thinking out of it and empowers the user to let them know they’re on the right path.

When it comes to the home page, I’m a minimalist. Don’t put everything and the kitchen sink on there. The home page is a gateway that should lead users to relevant areas of the site.

The site navigation is very important. Depending how deep the site is, I look for breadcrumbs; it’s just one more way to make the user’s life easier. You don’t want a user to rely on the back button. If that’s the only way for a user to recover, that’s wrong. Give them multiple options. Know where you are, where you came from and how to get back there.

Don’t put your user in a dead end. Always give them a place to go. If they scroll down, give them a way to get back to the top of the page. Give them a call to action. Keep them moving.

Keep it simple

Don’t overwhelm your users. Too much animation and interaction can be overwhelming.

Make sure each page has its purpose and its place.

Users scan. They don’t read. Avoid large blocks of text. Use bullet points. Make the information easy to digest.

Anything important shouldn’t be more than a few clicks away. For example, a user shouldn’t have to go five pages deep to make a transaction. If it’s important, either keep it global (on every page) or have a minimum amount of clicks.

As much as each page is its own beast, consistency matters. Within a few clicks users should get a sense and feel of how the site works.

Where’s the ON switch?

There are important moments in your life that you look back on and you can instantly realize the impact that that moment had.

In 1988 I was working at my first job as a designer, my desk was covered with dozens of tools that I needed in order to do my job. Items that could make up a great museum display in 2011; Letraset sheets, Pantone books, Rapidograph pens, blue pencils, straight edges, triangles and french curves as well as a darkroom filled with toxic chemicals and a process camera the size of a small car.

In order to set a page of text we had to measure the space and then do math (yes math) to calculate how much copy could fit depending on the font style, font size and leading. I’m shaking my head just thinking about it.

But then one day everything changed.

I took a new job at a small Halifax ad agency where a friend John had been working for a few months. I arrived for my first day of work with my portfolio case filled with the tools of my trade and headed to my desk. On that desk was a boxy beige Mac Plus. My only previous experience on a computer was an awkward half hour on an Apple II at college (no one knew how to use it) and a few hours playing games on my younger brother’s Commodore64.

I remember sitting and staring at the tiny 9″ screen, the big clunky keyboard and brick-sized mouse and wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into. “So, where’s the ‘on’ switch,” I asked John. He reached around the back and switched it on. ‘Welcome to MacIntosh’ appeared on the screen after a few seconds and from that point on everything changed.

The ‘tools’ of my trade were gradually replaced by the Mac and its software. We had two packages to work with Aldus Pagemaker and Freehand, 2MB of RAM (whatever that was) and three fonts; Times New Roman, Helvetica and Brush Script.

I was aware at that time that the two founders of Apple were no longer there, Steve Jobs had left in 1986 and Steve Wozniak had left in 1987. But I was keenly aware of the contributions both had made to the device that I was now using to pay the bills. As the years went on, Macs became more and more powerful and could do even more of the heavy design work with tools like Photoshop, Quark and Illustrator.

Thank You, Steve Jobs

In 1996, the World Wide Web was going mainstream and Jobs returned to Apple. Two years later he introduced the iMac. While it wasn’t robust enough for my needs, I recognized the attention to design. It was beautiful, compact and came in five translucent color cases. Suddenly Apple wasn’t just the design geek’s tool, everybody wanted an iMac.

But we all know the Steve Jobs-led Apple didn’t stop there. In November the iPod was unveiled, in 2007 the iPhone and in 2010 the iPad.

I didn’t know Steve Jobs, but I knew that whenever I saw the guy in the back turtleneck and jeans take the stage that it was likely that some aspect of my life was in for a fundamental change. There is barely a moment during the day when one of the devices created under Jobs’ leadership is not within arm’s reach.

Thanks Steve.

5 Most Viewed Articles on the Delvinia Link Pool: Sept 27 – Oct 03

• Mayo Clinic launches global social media initiative
  Med City News
• In Scholastic Study, Children Cite Appeal of Digital Reading
  NY Times
• Cracking Viral Code: Look at Your Ads. Now Look at Old Spice
  Advertising Age
• Dieter Rams: 10 Principles of Good Design
  Vitsoe.com
• How Online Video Killed Blockbuster
  GigaOm

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