Creativity is a strange beast. Often creativity is blocking us, running away.  We often talk about it, discuss it at length and even say it can be learned.  Sometimes it’s even hard to find that creative spark.  However what is creativity.   In reality creativity is a hard thing to define as a  specific reproducible item.

Doesn’t help that creativity is different things to different people.

You see creativity can be related to the newer western principle of making products, building things for a purpose, the expression of scientific or technological innovation.  Where as in older cultures, there has always been an undertone for creativity being more for personal fulfilment, private goal setting, the taking of an inner journey.

Sure there are definitions of creativity all over the place. This still doesn’t help, as the biochemical, physiological and psychological process of creativity is still something of a mystery to which we only have fragments.

What is Creativity

What we do know is that the moment of creativity is often  accompanied with a heightened state of consciousness.

Things appear to be more vibrant, more alive, colours are vivid, sounds more pure,  it’s like a sensory overload.  Others have described this inspirational moment as a peroid of loss of control, a trance like, muse controlled, dreamlike state.

Interestingly Carl Jung (that psychologist guy) segmented these two states into:

• “a state of emotional high tension” and;
• “a state of dream-like contemplation”.

His idea is that creativity is the release of emotional tension. Especially the tension, built up over time,  coming from the hard work of the creative process.  Well I know we can all relate to that idea.

Later on Damasio (a neurologist) leveraged off Jung’s work in looking at emotions, creativity and consciousness.  Damasio theorised self-awareness  was a very important component of the creative process.  The ability for your mind to make it’s own patterns, designs without reference to previous experience or knowledge. This will be of a particular interest later.

Creative excitement of the artist at her easel or the scientist in the lab comes as close to the ideal of fulfilment that we all hope to, and so rarely do, achieve – Mihaly Csikszentmihalhyi

More recently research has indicated that the two different states of consciousness, correspond to two different brain states:

• Enhanced consciousness is associated with increased beta waves.
• Dreamlike state is associated with  alpha waves.

This supports the relevant  experiences of clarity and dream-states that have been reported. Nothing new really, just a documented physiological response.

It’s also been suggested that creativity is similar  to a spiritual experience, a type of receptive non-egoist cognition.  The type of experience where you just trust in a state higher than you to provide the final solution.  Something like a complete trust in a greater god-like power.

Personal and Group Creative Processes

Still creativity is not just about the creative individual either.

Yes, true, you do get the creative star. The person that is going to produce that single creative masterpiece.  However creativity can also be a group process, requiring the dynamic of the group to foster the creative process.

The inclination to work in one process or the other really just comes down to a personal choice, the processes, the environment, social dynamics and the expected outcomes.

You tend to find that  teams that don’t allow for any creativity, that focus on the total needs of the team at the costs above everything else with not have strong creative outcomes.  This can mainly be seen as a stifling of the creative spark.   The removal of the lack of self may be a very large contributing factor here.

Still you can have creative people in the team, and yes they will create, if you let them. Even though they have become faceless in the team itself. It’s matter of fostering the belief in self.

It’s their individual presence and creative ability in the team that produces the creative outcome.  It’s their being able to express their sense of self that seems to promote the creative process.

Something to think about in UX teams.  Even in a team it’s still about the person, and promoting personal creativity.

Original  Creative Process

Something we tend to forget is that the creativity is about being original, creating the new. The magic of producing something from nothing.  Or maybe even reshaping an old idea into something new from a different angle.

Newness and Uniqueness

The aspect of what is original is really relative to the individual.   You may consider an idea new to yourself, but your peers may consider it to be old and an estabilished concept.   Interestingly this relative creativity even has a series of terms associated with it.

Margaret Boden, categorised relative original creative ideas as:

• P-creativity (psychological creativity)  - new or novel ideas only from the mind of the individual concerned.
• H-creativity (historical creativity) – known to be new or novel to the whole of human history.

So if you produce an idea that is new to you, you are being p-creative.  However if the idea is new to society then it is h-creative or historically creative.

This does bring us to a question of what is unique and what is new.   Something can be new to generation, new to an individual, but its not an absolute. Historically it is not new.   Where as something being unique is the first of it’s kind, without parallel or comparison to anything else ever.

So maybe true creativity maybe expressed in uniqueness.

The issue is that in today’s world it is hard to be truly unique in ones creativity. We are often unconsciously referencing to our memories, experiences and influences all the time.  With the information age – the amount of information that we are exposed to is without doubt a magnitude larger than our predecessors even 20 years ago.

We no long have the benefit of living in the world of our predecessors; left to just receive a trickle  from the rest of the world of the changes, new information and influences around them.  In the past they had the luxury that they could create with a distinct reduction from  the taint of the world around them.

Produce or Create

Following on from this is the question can something artificial, like a computer, be creative.   What is it that makes anything creative.  Does some that is going to be creative need a state of consciousness to capture the unique ideas.

This could be debated here till the cows come home. So let’s not, eh.

Maybe its just the  lack of consciousness that is stopping the creative process with machines, provide consciousness and you have creativity.

Then again if we are borrowing from our previous experience and knowledge are we being really creative.  Maybe we are just being machine-like and producing a design, instead of creating a design.  Something to think on when you do your next UX project.

It could just be the use of the logical process verse the gut instinct to produce the  creative process.  Semantics, yes, but still very important.

Meaningful  Creative Process

Now creativity without a cause, without meaning, is often seen as pointless, soulless.

The meaning can be a personal thing, for the creator, or even a commercial motivation.  Still at the end of the process there has to be a reason, a goal, a meaning behind it all.

It is this meaning  that allows us to have a sense of achievement when we complete a creative process.

In a way, one only becomes creative if there is understanding and meaning of the creative product.   If the product has no understanding or meaning, then the creativity can’t be seen and understood by others.  It follows then to others it’s not creative, it’s just product of a process.

UX and Creativity

With all this talk on creativity and what it is  - are we really being all that creative in the User Experience process? Or are we just applying the outcome of the design (user) research, web strategy and general design principles to the user interface design.   Or are we stepping beyond this and making something new, unique and innovative?

Sometimes I question if we are being as creative as we could be, has business and commercial constraints weakened our grasp on creativity?

Remember:

To be creative an idea must be usable and actionable – Teresa Amabile

Still what is creativity to you?  Do you think it can be learned, studied and mastered; or is it something more innate?

Where does the the web industry fit in the world. You would think that after 15 plus years that we would have worked that out by now and found our place. But alas this isn’t the case. I still ponder what category should we sit under in a corporate or business structure, let alone what role we should all be.

Something that really frustrates me, is when you go to fill in a survey and they list off the industry types. I’m always very confused where do I put myself, my business. Which one of the categories do I choose.

You know the ones. You end up looking at the choices like, Information Technology, Communications, Marketing, Business Services or something completely different. Still you look and think. Often I have just given up and skipped the survey entirely due to this question alone.

Anyone that has discussed the web industry with me knows I’m passionate about it. They also know that I’m extremely vocal on discussing where it sits in the business world.

We are Not Information Technology

It’s an issue, some of us have come out of the design industry, some from and IT background. I know in the early days the web was often controlled by a single enthusiastic individual who came from one of these areas, if they were lucky they came from both or maybe none.

I know that there is a very strong argument to say that it’s all IT based due to the programming skills required for the developmental side of the work. I disagree – strongly .

It’s not a cut and dry issue, but I’m of the belief that we have moved on from the text editor, programming centric days of web site development.

Yes granted that web development is still a large segment of the process. Still we have progressed away from the IT Department.  Just because we use computers to construct and document the planning for a web site, doesn’t mean it has anything to do with IT.

For example, I would end up categorising a industrial designer or an architect into IT. if that was the case as they both use computers and even do  a little scripting too

Besides in some organisations there are more programmers in the engineering section than the IT section. Maybe it should be in Engineering then?

If Not IT, then Where?

Let’s have a look at the processes used to develop a web site and the type of branches in a typical organisation that could supply skills to complete the process:

• User Research: Marketing and Public Relations
• Business Analysis: Engineering or IT
• Information Architecture: Information or Records Management
• Site Interface Design: Interface Design from Engineering
• Graphical Design: Design team from Marketing or Public Relations
• Branding Experience: Marketing
• Usability Testing: Marketing and Public Relations
• Development: Engineering or IT
• User Acceptance Testing : Engineering or IT
• Copy writing: Marketing and Public Relations

With all that IT and Marketing input this reminded me of the old Designers verses Developers debate.

Now I know that this does run into the age old adage – “It depends”. Yes, true it does depend on the project. The smaller projects will use more of the Marketing branch resources and the larger ones will use more developmental (Engineering or IT) focused resources.

Still if you look at all the processes and techniques that we use and where we have borrowed them from, you can see than the web industry is maturing, moving away from  IT and seeking  input outside it’s usual sphere of influences.

Here is a list of the areas that have influence web site production from tools, techniques to processes and procedures:

• Records Management
• Library Science
• Animation
• Industrial design
• Cinematography
• Engineering
• Information Technology
• Graphic Design
• Public Relations
• Brand Marketing
• Marketing Research
• Environmental Planning
• Interior Design
• Software Engineering
• Psychology
• Film Direction
• Cartooning
• Architecture

Sure, the list is a little biased toward influences of User Experience design techniques. Hey it’s what I do.   Still if we consider these fields that have a shared skill, maybe the Web Industry just needs to go in a new category called the Interactive Industry, and walk proud as a new communications industry.

What do you think, time to walk away from the old IT industry label.

I was talking to the local UPA Perth chapter (in formation) about aspects of UX visualisation.  It was an interesting topic that brought up a good number of discussion points.

One point was on the design process. The way we design.  The way that we just don’t allow ourselves time to fail at the design.  Or if we do, it is hidden in the back room so we can appear to be “magical design wizards” that produce the perfect product, interface design, IA or the like.

Great!  Nice idea if you want to really keep this air of the designer being someone “mysterious and magical”.   Someone that can just disappear for a few hours and suddenly they have the final product.

Stop the Myth

We really have to stop this process.

You know how no-one understands design.  They don’t value design. They just don’t get how long it takes to design something.  They just don’t get the process. They just don’t understand the principles of the design.

Well we are to blame!  We are the problem.   We have build the wall between ourselves and our clients.   We have build the prissy pedestal that we are standing on.

For to long we have been taking the design process and putting it behind closed doors where only a few audience members, team members and select client liaisons get to see behind the “Wizard of Oz” curtain from time to time.

We should go beyond just explaining the design process to the client, and flashing around a few final concepts when we need signoff.  We should  involve them. Even if it’s just in a small way. If we did this some of the issues we have would start to disappear.

Education is Important

It’s all about education. Educating the client’s decision makers, and even your team.

It’s about taking down the wall and showing your process.  Discussing and explaining with your client the design process as you step through it.  Not just showing the final stages of each process either, the steps along the way, warts and all.

Yes, that’s right,  show them the rough sketches, the wireframes that have failed, the concept storyboards and mockup concepts that you have rejected.   It’s simple, explain why these designs have failed and been rejected.   Involve the client in the process.

Become human, not a design mage or a mindless web design monkey.

You may say, “but the client doesn’t want to see all the design process” .

Are you really sure. Most people, I find, are even just a little bit  envious of us.  They would love to help out in the design process.  They want to be us.

Key is to just be patient with them, your clients are a design newbie, be understanding but firm, after all they are paying your because you are “the designer”.  It’s a balancing act, don’t pester them with details all the time. Still in your progress meetings, show the design output. Show the progression towards the final concept.

Stop Perfection, Make Mistakes

If you are looking at me strangely by now, then I can tell that you tend not to really design in the traditional way, with multiple iterations of a design leading to the final outcome.

Whether it be sketching with pencil and paper, in a wireframing application or just using Photoshop, you should be cycling through a series of design concepts before you decide on the final product.

Yes you could say that there is all this user research that we have and it’s all you need to build the design.   Well I agree, but I also disagree.

Granted you do have an outline a specification framework, restrictions on the design from the user research. Still there will often be hundreds of ways you can approach the issues and develop the design.

Even with applying the standard design principles on top of the user research findings, you should still have a good deal of approaches you can take.

If can only see one approach, maybe you need to take a fresh look at the problem, from a different view point.

Protosketch it

Like a good product design, there will be failures in a UX design.

However these failures are important. They give us ideas, they allow us to get frustrated, to look beyond the everyday and find that special design the client is really looking for.

Failure in designing allows you to iterate the design.  They allow us to discount designs and to get inspired with new alternatives  from the failures. Gradually over time, you will get less and less new concepts and start to discount more and more.  Resulting in the final concept.

It’s a simple process.  Just sketch out a concept, get others feedback, throw around some ideas.   It’s like you are prototyping the base concept sketch. Iterate it, adding and removing concepts.

Maybe  we should call it protosketching.

Involve the client, involve your peers, friends, team colleagues or maybe do a peer review.

Just work down that process of refinement to the final design.  Now I’m not talking an agile process here, I’m talking about something that happens the first moment you put pencil to paper in the sketching process be it analogue or digital.

Remember design is not a robotic process, it’s a creative process.

I often find my best designs are the ones I don’t think about, the ones I mull over for days looking for inspiration from things all around me.  Doing a little sketching, drawing, letting my mind wander.  In case you ask, I only work with clients that know they will get a good result if they don’t push the process, sure this helps as well.

Fail or Don’t Design

Now in my mind if you are not failing at your design, well you are not designing.   You are just processing an analysis, and producing one possible outcome.  Maybe you should stop and think.   Are you doing the right thing by your client.   Does your client really just want a second rate concept.

If you like producing second rate designs, do us all a favour, stop.  Just stop designing, the world has enough crap designs.

If you are failing.  Well that’s great, design and fail away.  God speed to you.

I have been involved with many user surveys over the years. Some have gone well. Some have been a complete waste of time and effort. The main distinction between them is the surveys that were professionally developed and pretested would succeed. The ones that had been knocked together by a well meaning manager were often destined to failure.

It comes down to this – unless you have experience designing surveys, then it’s best to either hire someone who has had experience and training, or find another way to collect the same information.

Proceeding with a flawed survey will just produce results that are tainted with bias and other data warping horrors. Not something you want in your user research, eh.

Survey Design Tips

Now I know some of you are going to be forced into running surveys despite my advice.   That’s okay, business is like that, sometimes you have to compromise.

Better that you at least know the pitfalls and can correct them as need be. So here is a list of tips for online survey design that you may find invaluable:

• Survey Objective

  This may sound really silly, but you have to know what the survey is for and what it needs to achieve before you start. Otherwise you will get side tracked asking meaningless questions. For example you may want to find out about the user demographics, their preferences, and the users needs and wants.

• Keep it Short

  There is nothing worse than an online survey that seems to go on forever. Asking page after page of questions. When you are putting together questions. Stop and think. Can I get that information elsewhere.  If you can scrap the question. Similarly if the question is not directly related to the goal of the survey.

  The point is to design a short sharp survey someone can complete in under 5 minutes. I don’t know how many online surveys I just abandoned after about 5 minutes, it must be in the hundreds.

• Tell Me How Many Pages

  Your respondent’s time is valuable, they are doing you a huge favour filling in your survey. Respect that. Just like you minimise the number of questions in the survey, it is also a good idea to let people know how many pages they have to complete. The best way to do this is to  display an indicator of their progress.  This will have a negative impact if your survey is too long. However  it will have positive one if the survey is short.

• Let’s go Back

  Again this is a simple issue, let respondents navigate forward and backward (not via the back button) in the survey and review their answers, if they so desire. Remember the respondent is doing you a favour, don’t make it hard for them.

• Its About the Design

  At the end of the day all the information you’re gathering about the users will be applied to the design of the web site. Be that on a visual, informational or interactive functionality level.  It follows that when you include a question you should ask yourself – “Is the data collected going to influence the design of the site.”   If the answer is – No; then remove the question. Now it’s not a hard and fast rule, but still one you should consider.

• Say No to Checkboxes

  I know you might love them, but a checkbox is just a bipolar field, yes or no, on or off.   You will get a higher response rate if you present a checkbox as a series of radio buttons with a yes or no response.   It’s instantly clear to the user what response is required. Also you have the advantage of taking up more visual space and hence avoiding the question being missed.

• Say No to Select Lists

  This is interesting, as I have discussed earlier, certain demographics have an issue with realising that they can scroll down the list and pick the unseen items on a single line select list. A good way to avoid this issue is to use radio buttons with a multiple choice layout.

• Add Some Other

  When you put an alternative list of multiple choice items in a survey, how can you really be sure you have all the possible choices. I have always found it’s a good idea to allow for an “Other” field and have space for the respondent to fill in their alternative.  You usually discover you have missed a few alternatives I find.

• No Response

  It’s a simple thing, but it’s a good idea to have the default setting for any multiple choice items to be “no response” that is when all the fields are not selected.  I would also consider adding a “not applicable” or the like,  response as well. Mainly because there can be cases when the respondent has no experience with what you are asking.

• Getting Likert Scales Right

  Likert Scales are those multiple choice responses that go “Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Agree” . Now these are very good at gathering information where there is going to be a distinct difference of option. However the result of a Likert scale question is not a series of interval measurements. But in fact it is just a scalar representation of extremes from agreement to disagreement (in this case).  When using a Likert scale it’s a good idea to have a mid point (odd number of values) to allow the measurement of the common mid point.

  ALso if you are measuring a very subjective issue.  It’s  a good idea to label all the scale with the equivalent labels to help remove any bias or misinterpretation.

• Pretest the Questions

  Writing survey question is something you have to do carefully. Respondents will attempt to interpret your questions. And subsequently provide you with the information they think you are expecting to get. Also they will try and determine how you are going to use their answer and respond appropriately. This leads to bias in the results.

  The way to avoid this is to pretest your questions. A pretest will tell you the questions that are always going to be skipped, give similar answers, and questions that are just confusing or misleading. Just like we user test, so we also need to user test the survey as well. Ironic really.

• Stop Question Skipping

  It’s simple your respondents will skip a question if they don’t understand it, are confused or just plain bored with a your too long questionnaire. The solution is keep it short and on topic and ensure the questions are not confusing.

• Multiple Choice Order

  Ordering the multiple choice responses is very important.  However if you put the responses in their natural order (high to low) or just listing them as you think of them is dangerous. This presents bias to the respondent. Who will select that response that looks like it is the one you want.

  What you need to do is scramble the responses. Still,  expect some respondents to lean towards selecting the first or last items as they see these as the important ones.

• Duplicate Answers

  The arrangement of your questions can have a great influence on the responses.  If you put too many questions that have a similar response or layout together (especially multiple choice). You will get a leaning toward the same response for all the questions. You have to vary the responses and keep the respondent on their toes. However you don’t want to confuse them. So mix it up a little.

• Leading Questions

  This is something you would think wouldn’t be happening in surveys, but it still does. The use of leading question is still an issue.  Ensure the words you use don’t imply any unwanted  response.   and that they don’t point the respondent to any sort after response. I have always found that open ended questions like those in an interview are the only way to go here.

• Ambiguous Questions

  Supplied responses to questions need to have no ambiguity in them at all. Remember what you interpret as meaning one thing, someone else will see if as completely different. It’s recommend that you ensure that all supplied responses are 100% rock solid in what you want them to mean. Use the contemporary language and terms of your audience, also avoid verbs that have a double meaning.

• Negative Questions

  The use of negative terms in a question is not a the best solution. In a lot of cases people will mis-read the question as an implied positive. Which will give you a completely skewed dataset. The simple solution is just to present all the questions as a positive outcome.

  If you really have to use a negative, a way around this is to highlight a simple negative  like for example – NOT. Just bold and capitalise it.

• Getting Ranges Right

  When you ask about a range or the like, don’t imply a level of use for a response. As the respondent will just assume you are looking for answer within this level of the range.

  For example. “How many times do you visit our site a week:” this is bad, it implies you must visit at least once a week. Where as “How often to you visit our site:” is a better alternative as it leaves the value ranges to the supplied responses.

  Pre-testing on the supplied responses will also give you a realistic response range as well.

Now this list is by no means complete, what additional pointers would you include as UX professionals?

The other day I was chatting away with a potential client, I asked for their phone number, as you do. They replied with 1800 GETT AWEB (no that’s not real) . I asked what that was a real number, there was silence for a moment, then “I have no idea,” was the honest reply.

It’s not that phone names are anything new, but it did get me thinking.

The use of the phrase (name) as a number was all well and good if I wanted to remember the number. It’s well know that people remember words and phrases better in general than they do strings or numbers.  Clearly why phone number names are so popular.

However in this situation I just wanted the contact details so I could transcribe them into my client contact record. So a string of numbers would have been fine.

Phrase verses Numbers

Instead, getting the phone number as a phrase meant I had to translate this back into the real number. Which involved finding a phone with an alpha-numeric keypad. Not a really hard call in our geeky household. Then you have to stare at the phone and  letter by letter translate the name. Laborious at best.

Sure I could leave the number as is and just do the translation each time I dialed it. Again it’s really just a pain when all I want to do is plug in the phone number and ring the person.

I have done a little  biased unscientific research on twitter on this topic, to reveal that most people feel the same.

A phone name is great to remember when you are at a set of traffic lights, reading the side of a bus,  billboard or if you are just trying to recall the phone number.

However it’s a real frustration if you have to dial the number off the phone name alone.

Presenting the Contact Details

It just  comes down to the presentation of contact phone number or phone name.

Sure presenting a call to action phone number as a phone name will help the users remember the number. But this will fail if they are visiting the web site in order to ring you. Remember people are often just looking up websites now for contact details as well now.

The solution is simple, present both formats, together.  Most savvy web sites do this, but a lot don’t.

Having the real number on another page or somewhere else on the page – that is not near the phone name, is also a bad idea.  It is  just as likely to result in the user going elsewhere, if they can’t find the real number quickly enough.   Yes, as a user, we are all lazy, we don’t want to have to translate your phone name.

It’s a simple thing, just remember a user experience is a contextual thing; mainly relating to the environment and context in which the experience is presented.  And that people are lazy.

You have built the perfect web site, the colours invoke the right emotional response, the visual imagery leads customers to the relevant information while allowing the audience to personally relate to the site. The content is ideal for the web, not to much but enough to convince people of the service. The major call to actions are in the right locations, and easy to find. Everything is set, the web site is ready to take on the world!

Still no matter how perfect your site is, if the  last step, when they encounter the web form, isn’t streamlined and usable, the rest is a waste of time.

The other day I ran across a web form that was failing, it was suffering from a series of issues that would basically make most users stop in their tracks.

With any identifying markers removed, I would like to share with you some of the issues of this form, and a few simple steps to fix them.

The Form in Question.

The form was being used for membership of a professional organisation, it is broken down into three sections (fieldsets in this case) The Personal Details, the Payment Options and the Acceptance of Conditions, these are presented here, for clarity I have separated them, but normally they appear on one long form.

There are a good number of issues with this form, I’m not going to cover all of them, but here are a few of the common issues:

• Number of Fields  - Only What You Require

  I have a major beef with forms that are just way too long. You know the ones with an endless list of fields.  Clearly this one falls into that category –  when you first encounter it you are filled with dread at having to fill it out.

  You should consider every field that you put in a form to be a major stumbling block for anyone completing it. Research has indicated that people naturally hate forms and the like, as they slow them down to getting to their goal on the web. When you designing a form this long (with 38 fields) you are not really respecting your users time.

  Consideration needs to be given to what is the bare minimum to identify the person joining. Everything else should be removed. If you really want the extra informaiton there are ways of encourging people to complete their online profiles later on.

  Trying to capture all the information for a person at sign up in the worst possible time. People are hesitant, and still deciding on the your website.  A long form is just going to convince them you are a little bureaucratic .

• The Need Print out of the Form

  I do know that in some cases long forms like this are developed so people can complete them, print them off and fax, not ideal, but people do it. What needs to be provided is a fax back PDF form or the like. This should be presented on the same page as the online form –  preferably at the top of the page.

• Fieldsets and Grouping

  Yes the form is broken down into three sections. Sections 2 and 3 are reasonable, it’s just the first one that is a little long. This can be improved if it had been segmented into personal details, work details and joining information.

• Help

  With this example there is very little inline contextual help. In today’s interactive web, people are starting to expect to see contextual help boxes appear when they tab or focus on a field. These can be alternatively just be accessed by clicking on an appropriate  help icon (a question mark maybe). Semantically of course you place this information between the  fields and the associated label.

• Encouragement Along the Way

  Currently there is no inline encouragement on the form at all.

  This is a simple thing to put in place; for example every time a user completes a field or an information block (like the BSB / Account Number pair) they get an acknowledgment for their actions that appears inline on the screen. This could be a small tick, thumbs up or the like – appearing near the relevant field.

  Using this type of positive feedback adds a degree of trust that the organisation cares about the information it is collecting, as well as a sense of achievement and sense of completion for the user.

  Use of this technique can also be extended to inline validation of the form, hence providing instant feedback for any error as well.

• Create Steps

  Even if we removed all the redundant fields  we still have a form that is visually way to long.  In this case we are better of presenting the fields  in distinct groups of related information, one at a time.

  You would present it as two step process –  step one personal details and step two the payments, with the terms and conditions confirmation tacked onto the final section. Of course you would have an indicator showing the users progress through the various steps.

  As the user processes the form the indicator would show where they were up to in the process.  This step wise process allows one to segment a long process into several short chunks that users are more likely to undertake as they are progressing towards their final goal in manageable steps.

• Date of Birth

  There are different ways to ask for the date of birth, different  layouts was work for differently user audiences. It has been shown that it can be easier for some users to select a date of birth from three drop down lists than type it in the format you require.

• Clear Labels

  The labels on a form have to convey  instant meaning for the user, and yet still remain personal so they can relate to them.  The order and grouping of the fields should also follow a logical sequence  (as recommend above).  Labels such as “Optional” mean nothing to a user.  With a field like this, people may not even complete it, after all it’s optional.

• Add White Space

  From a design view point all the yellow fields do wash into one large yellow mass, they would be a lot clearer and easier to read if there was a some white space between the fields. It’s a simple thing, but cramming all the fields up together doesn’t help, if anything it makes the appearance of the form even more intimidating.   Remember white space is your friend.

• Avoid Multiple Columns

  This is one that has been debated quite a bit – should you use multiple column layouts on forms.

  Research has indicated that users really like to just run down the page filling out blocks of information as fast as they can. The don’t like shooting across a page to complete a postcode, like in this case.  However having blocks of fields like the BSB and Account Number field close together is acceptable as these are taken visually as one block of input.

• Terms and Conditions

  Use of a check box to confirm agreement is really redundant if you think about it.  Often these checkboxes are put in place to keep legal teams happy,  teams that usually don’t want the form on the web in the first place.   The checkbox sometimes is also seen as a substitute for a signature.   Still there are improved ways to approach this requirement.   If the agreement is required what can the user do,  join and not agree.  No.   The user has no choice – they have to agree or leave not completing the form.

  Sure the statement can remain, however a better approach would be to have the join button saying “Agree and Join”. That way if you don’t agree it is very clear that you can’t join.

  Using a required checkbox field just forces the issue, frustrates the user, and makes them feel a little like they are being railroaded into agreement.

  Also what if my browser produces a cross not a tick  in the checkbox,  labels like “Tick to accept terms” should be more generic.

• Final Submit Button

  The final submit button, should be easy to find visually and  be in line vertically with the input fields.   This allows for an easier path to completion.

  However on this form it is like it has been tuck in the corner, with a little reminder that seems like an apology. It’s almost like the form is saying – “Sorry to pester you, but if you just click you can join”.

  This doesn’t really fill you with confidence that your membership application is going to be taken seriously.  The submit button should be a big bold statement.  After all you want people to join.

• Processing the Form

  When I tested this form it was something of a shock.

  I just wanted to see what the validation and error handing was like on the form, so I submitted a blank form, expecting to get a screen filled with error messages. That’s not what happened. I was returned with a list of processed fields, which is fine if you have completed to form, which I clearly hadn’t.

  It is really important to validate the required fields at least, check for bad email addresses and the like, and return an error message, preferably near the relevant field. Ideally you should validate inline as the form is being completed and recheck server side when the submit button is pressed.

Accessibility issues

A quick review of the accessibility on the form indicates that it’s no that bad, fieldsets and labels are correctly used, tab order seems fine. However a few sticky points are present:

• Requirement Indicator. The indicator for the field requirement is presented after the field, this will be an issue for some people as they will not be aware of the requirement of the field till after they have moved past it. This should have been placed semantically between the label and the input field. Presentation wise it could remain after the field.

• Data Formatting – The use of data types formatting and hints in the input fields themselves can be an issue, especially if the JavaScript does not clear them.

  After all the user may not have JavaScript turned on.

  It is better practice to present these hints semantically before the input field but after the relevant label.

  Also consider from a usability view, when a user has moved into a field the context of the requirement is lost and can’t be referenced.  This information should be presented anywhere on the form  as long as it’s in close association with the relevant field, and not in the field itself.

• Field Labels – All fields should have labels, even if you don’t want to display the label. There are ways to hide them, but from an accessibility view point they are very important.

Something to consider

Now I have no idea if this has been done with this form or not, still I recommend with a form like this that  you:

• Produce Prototypes

  Using Prototypes would have allowed a development team to work with an interaction designer to produce a form that was within budget and still easy to use.  Any prototypes could have been tested and fine tuned with the respective audience to determine the best completion and conversion rate for a relatively low cost.

• Some User Testing

  Finally user test on a iterative developmental proccess with the final form to produce the best outcome could have been conducted on all of the above points.

Remember

A badly designed web form is like putting a roadblock in the way of your users  - this is something you really want to avoid.

I know there can be internal issues from legal departments, IT, reduced budgets and the like. Still consider if the form isn’t that usable, less people are going to complete it.  Sometimes having a bad form design can be worse than no form at all.

The more friendly and easier to use a form  is the greater conversion and completion you going to get.  Simple really.

Just think about these points next time you’re designing a form.

I’ll tell you a story.

We have been working with a development company, who support a various range of their own products. Products that one of our clients use.   Straight forward, when we have issues with their product we email their support line. The other day we discover that the client’s site was down, we trace the issue back to badly written script injection hack. Easy to fix.

This doesn’t normally happen often, but it does occur from time to time. Usually it’s a attack on the hosts server.

So immediately I began the process of isolating the cleaning the site.  No major issue.  Having daily backups of all our clients sites does help.

When the site was operational and all passwords have been changed I began the process of determine how this all happened.   Seems a vendor support password had been activated once a few hours before and a file uploaded then deleted.  Same time the site failed.

I contact the said support vendor.   Only when presented with evidence of the compromised systems (via the FTP and PHP log)  did they admit to the issue.   No assurance of the issue not happening again, no statement that they have changed their security procedures.  At least they said sorry, cold comfort really.

Now as a support company surely they have an obligation, if only from an ethical view point to inform their clients that their passwords have been compromised as soon as they are aware of the issue.  This would at least allow their client to vigilant and reset  any system passwords or the like.

It appears in this case, that the client (my client) was on their own, we have to discover the issue and work it out for ourselves.  Despite the fact that the issue is clearly their fault.   I know there are legal issues here, but putting those aside, there is the moral issue as well.

Trust and Obligation

If you consider that we have an extreme sense of trust with our clients.  After all we have a guardianship to look after their web.   We can control their information resources, the presentation and branding for their organisation online.   There is a distinct duty of care that we have with each client.

Besides the various legislative requirements of the privacy and client information, do we have an ethical obligation to look after a clients data?  Should we tell them when things go wrong that are under our control?   Should we be 100% honest with our clients and work  with them all the time.   Or should we just deliver our service and leave it at that.   Should we just play the deny everything game, until we are presented with evidence in an effort avoid any legal implications.

It may seem like a clear issue.

However, if you don’t tell your client,  this gives your  client the impression that you are just in it for  the money and aren’t interested in them in the longer term.  On the flip side  if you do tell your client of the issue they may perceive you as incompetent, in that you let it happen in the first place.  In a way your are damned both ways.

Still personally I have found that being 100% and up front is the way to go.   Clients will respect you for this.

Other Issues of Ethics.

Our industry is just full of moral choices.  Not just this duty of care and information guardianship.

As a User Experience Designer I know that I can use my skills to leverage the psychology of  design and in fact I can influence customers, leading or tempting them to buy goods that they  don’t really need.   Now just because I can do this, does that mean I should.  I can make a lot more money doing this, should I?

This also extends to what industries you will work with.   From my view I don’t work with the gambling industry, religious groups and businesses that use high pressure sales tactics at any cost.

It could be said that we just have to provide our services and that’s it.  All this duty of care  and information guardianship is just a load of rubbish.  It’s not like it’s in the contract or written anywhere.

This is true, to a degree.  Maybe an industry code of conduct wouldn’t go a miss for our industry.  Mind you I have yet to see any of the fledgling web industry associations move in that direction.

Still till that happens, we all have to make our own personal choices on these issues.

The burning question is what would have you done in the case above, not told your clients?   Also where do you draw the line, what type of work would you not take on?

Rating:

4.5

As I’m designing forms I don’t usually have an issue making then usable or accessible within the limits of the clients budget.

However taking the form to the next level technically can sometimes be an issue. This is exactly what Fancy Form Design by Jina Bolton, Tim Connell and Derek Featherstone is all about, designing and building those great forms on the web.

When I first purchased this book (yes I do purchase my books, they aren’t usually review freebies) I was a little skeptical as to whether this book would have any content in it that would be relevant to me. This is an issue that I’m running into more and more these days.

I was surprised. I was expecting a dry developer focused book on form design. It is not. This is a good book, well worth the 4-5 hour read. I found that it wasn’t just one of those books you read once either, it’s also a great reference book.

This book is focused on the front end developer or back end developer that wants to enhance their forms. Even a UX designer like me with hands on skills will get something from this book.

While I was reading this book I was constantly thinking, well that’s great, but what about this accessibility or usability issue – yeah I can’t help it. But you know not a one or two paragraphs later I was presented with the solution or consideration for those issues. It’s great to see a practical book that is on same page as I am.

The Content

Interestingly the book layout parallels the way in which you design and develop an online form. The book itself walks you through a centralised case study for the development of a series of forms. Fancy Form Design is a book very heavy in code and visual examples as well, which makes it a very useful future reference tool.

The first section of the book deals with the planning phase of development, looking at the types of form elements, and the ways they are presently being  enhanced on the web. It also looks at the usual competitive analysis process. Moving on to my favourite part the interaction design of the form, now it doesn’t spend a lot of time in this area as there are some good books on the market already that handle this area in detail.  There is a bit of a discussion on task flows, paper prototyping and wireframing (which I personally think we can do without).

The form design section of the book walks through the usual suspects, of the grid, typography, the use of colour and micro imagery to enhance a form’s presentation. This section is about the graphical design only. It’s the next section that walks you through the building of the form.

You then get to the bones of the matter, the development of the form structure. There are a good series of examples here on how to build a form correctly to overcome most of the common accessibility and usability issues. Basic issues such as the correct practice for use of labels, error messages, required fields and help text are reviewed and discussed with clarity here.   This is an area you might think you know backwards, however it’s always worth a review on these matters.

Now we have the structure of the forms it’s time to use some CSS to style the final forms. Fancy Form Design walks you through the issues of using various resets and the various ways form elements render in different browsers (I’m looking at you IE) and ways to overcome them. I didn’t expect to find anything new in this section, and I didn’t, still your mileage may vary on this one.

The final chapter is on enhancing your forms beyond the stylised CSS/HTML layout with the help of jQuery.

This is the section I enjoyed the most in this book. It looked in detail at select menu, radio and checkbox styling as well as conditional question displays, date selectors, password strength indicators and a basic auto-complete. All this is presented in an easy to follow manner, which makes implementing these enhancements progressively on your forms, with jQuery, really easy. There is even a reminder about input validation, doing it on the client and server sides.

Only the downside, I personally think the last section of the form enhancement was a bit to short. I could have done with another 10-20 pages of additional enhancements to the case study in question. A little more detail on the  jQuery level would have been good too  (small birdie tells me watch for a Sitepoint jQuery Book very soon).

Finally – the last word

Overall it’s good book, entertaining, well written, not overly long, full of immediately practical examples that anyone familiar with form design and development can use.  It’s good to see more of these micro topic books being written than the large 500 page tomes of yesterday.

Side note: why have I been reviewing lots of Sitepoint books of late, well maybe it’s something to do with their range of books.

Listening is one of those skills that no one really talks about, and yet listening is critical to User Research and general business as well.

You have to understand, and in some cases even become emotive, with the users you are listening to.  Yes we can all listen to some degree, but the reality is this will not be that thorough, there will be gaps, major things that you will miss or just did not understand completely.

It follows in the field of user experience listening is critical. Without it you just aren’t going to a able to understand the issues your users are telling you, or worse you will miss important information.

Hearing on the other hand is something we do all the time, it’s something that we frankly can’t turn off.  However listening is very different.  Listening is hearing with the processing of the information added in, this  takes a reasonably conscious intent.

This is demonstrated by the moment, we have all had, when we are not really paying attention and  stop listening to a conversation and are subsequently are lost as we try and tune back in again.

It’s Hard to Listen

Years ago I learnt the basic rules of listening, techniques  that can help you improve and assist you  with becoming aware of your environment when listening to people.  It’s amazing skills learn 25 years ago are still relevant today.

One thing stands out however -  listening is really hard work.  It doesn’t come naturally.   You have to train yourself to really listen and observe. Like any skill it also needs to be practiced or you will loose it.

Unfortunately we are not programmed  to be good listeners.

This is because our mind will wander off onto another topic, after it has processed about a 7 to 17 second sound bite of information.  During this processing period, your mind is already lining up all the mental, and sensory stimulus or distractions around you, just so it can tempt  you with something more interesting.  On a side note you also process and will form an option on what you are listening to in this 7-17 second time period as well.

Improving Your Listening Skill

What you need to do is train yourself to listen. To overcome this 17 second sound bite limitation.  That’s where these tips can help:

1. Focus.

   Give the user 100% attention – remind yourself what you are there to do, to focused on the user.

2. Remove Distraction.

   Remove all distractions, this includes phones, emails,  background noise, make the user the focus of your attention. Put a do not disturb sign on the door, and ensure your mobile is on silent mode.

3. Take notes.

   You will be doing this anyway, or should be.   Taking notes is a great reminder,  it gets you to automatically focus on the person, and distill what they are saying into key thematic elements.  Note taking is also great for sequential information collection and reinforcement as it forces you into a routine, that breaks the 17 second processing loop as  you are  filling it with the over lapping note taking processing.

4. Shut Up.

   You are listening, so you shouldn’t be  talking that much.  No interruptions, the user is telling the story not you.  Your only conversation should be with questions to clarify or investigate.   No options, no stories and definitely no soapbox rants.

5. Questioning is Good.

   We all know that it’s important to ask the right type of questions during an interview.   In fact you could have an entire post just on interview questions and strategy.  When questioning you don’t want to lead the person at all.  You need to ask investigative (open ended questions)  or confirmation questions that paraphrase what the user has just said.  It’s a good idea not to use your own words (and avoid the buzz words) – use theirs.  Don’t  evaluate by giving any option with a question.  Also watch your body language giving off the wrong non verbal cues.  Thinking up questions on the fly is initially not easy, but after a while you will discover that you have lots of time, and the right question instantly, more on this later.

6. Body Language.

   Yes there are going to be non verbal cues, and you have to be observant and pick them up. They could be a change in facial expression, voice tone, a postural shift or just hand actions.  These are all important and can indicate an emotion shift.  Watch for this, don’t be afraid to ask about it gently.

7. Silence is Good.

   It’s okay for the user to be silent and think about the subject at hand.  This gives you time to watch for those non verbal cues and the like.  Be passive, don’t interrupt the silent time, especially if they look like they are thinking. Patience is the key.

8. Give No Advice.

   Again it’s not about you, it’s about the user, let them find the solution, let them see the alternatives. Yes you may need to repeat their own alternatives back to them and ask  how the feel about them and such.   But this is not the same as giving your person option. The reason giving an option is bad is by doing so it will re focus the listening process on you and will give the impression that you are not listening at all as you have not helped them find the solution at all.

9. Remove Bias.

   Reset you mind for each interview or conversation, don’t go into one with any preconceived ideas, bias, prejudices or the like.  Remember that each person is different and you can learn lots if you just listen to them. Ensure you start without a preconceived option from maybe age, gender,  race, ethnic group, culture or previous contact.   You can’t assume you  know what they are going to say, want or even tell you, they are not you.

10. Learn to Say No.

    If you are really tired, can’t focus,  don’t even try and continue with an interview.  You are just going to ruin the results you get as they will be half hearted at best.  Better to reschedule for when you can give your full attention.  I find the best solution is not to overload the day with interviews,  testing subjects or the like.

11. Practice.

    I find it best to really practice listening very intently about 2-3 times a week at first, then after a while you will get better.  Ensure that after a listening session you take the time to review what you have done and note down the mistakes you made and what caused them.  Also it’s a good idea to  seek out colleagues to give you honest reviews on your listening skills.

More Bonuses

I have found after a while you become very aware when you are listening.  You notice lots of small details, and you will also end up with a large amount of dead time to think.  It’s almost as if by removing your conversation you have slowed down time, giving you these large slabs of free time in which to process the conversation and respond.  Use them wisely.

Another aspect of being a good listener is that you will show people that you care about them and will connect with them.  Remember once you find the topic people love to talk about, you often can’t stop them, especially when its a topics they are passionate about.   Yes this does apply to even ultra shy introverts as well.

Taking the time to listen to someone, will also make them feel good, wanted, understood, this will gain you a lot of allies in the long term.

Interestingly these tips can also be applied to general day to day life as well, so what you have learnt for user research has a number of carry overs.

Can you think of any more techniques you have used to improve your listening skills? If you can please add them below.

I don’t know about you, but I have been to face to face networking events where it’s basically been like pulling teeth to get the people in the room to talk and discuss what they do and the benifits it has for me.   There is nothing wrong with the event itself, it’s just some of the attendees don’t know how to network.

Networking doesn’t come easy, you can’t just expect to turn up to an event and it happens, you have to work at it. You have to build the trust and connections with people.  You have to get people interested in you and vice-versa.

We are all Lazy

When you are talking to someone you have not met before you have about 10-20 seconds to make a good first impression, that will hopefully spark their interest. It’s the first visual and verbal impression that counts. This is why the elevator pitch is so important.

To often people in the web industry do this so wrong, I too have been guilty of this as well. To be really honest you need to kill any techo-babble.

Often people not in your industry just aren’t going to understand the jargon or the like.  No it doesn’t make you look smart. No one wants to have to translate what you have said into something they can understand.  We are all basically lazy and would rather just turn off and stop listening to you.

Specialist job titles are as a no no too. They are just going to be meaningless to the average joe. Basically they are  show stoppers that can and often do stop the conversation dead in the water.

The only exception is when you are networking within your own industry. You can then use your special industry job title, like say “user experience designer”,  but then you have to add on what makes you different from everyone else. What is your speciality, the unique selling point, more on this later.

Giving People What They Want

What you have to so is ensuring the people you are talking to are interested in you, and want to continue the conversation about you and how you can help them.    Sadly you maybe the most knowledgable talented person in the room, but unless you can maintain that interest you aren’t going to get anywhere networking.

The key to doing this is to give people what they want.

We are self centered. Sorry but it’s true. All I really want to hear is what you can do for me.  I just don’t care what you have done or can do unless it pertains to me.  Don’t assme that what you want to say to people is what they want to hear, because in reality  it isn’t!

Therefore it follows you need to make the opening statement count. It needs to focus on the benefits for the person you are talking with, and  in a language they going to understand and relate to.

Saying, “Hi I’m Joe, I design web sites”, isn’t going to get you anywhere, compared to the approach of “Hi I’m Joe, I design web sites that double the sales and productivity of the business, by providing their customers what really want”.

Now it may sound a little bit wanky, but you have instantly told them what you do and how you do it.   It’s now that the magical response occurs, “So how do you do that?”  Getting to this point is what you want.

As opposed to , “Oh, my 11 year old nephew makes websites.” Instantly, you have been placed in the bottom draw, forgotten.

Building Your Profile Pitch

Now we all know how we should be doing it. That’s the easy bit.  The hard bit is working out what people want.

There are a number of techniques you can use here to help you determine  what people want to hear.  My favourite is a little visualisation exercise – first imagine you are in a crowded room, and you can over hearing all the various conversations around you.  Now imagine that you cane here the perfect comments that would make you think, “humm that’s a perfect client, I could help them out”.

Once you have this, you have the basis of an your pitch.   You just have to turn around the context and apply your own information.

Now you just need a good opening statement  for the profile pitch, a statement to sell you. You need to build something succinct that is all about you and what you do. Ideally this should be only a small paragraph, a few sentences.  I find this is best said in your own words as it will flow into the conversation better that way.

Ideally a pitch should be made up of the following elements :

1. Introduce yourself.
2. Overview of your services – a really simple top level overview.
3. Who uses your services – your target market, this would be your ideal client.
4. Demonstrate the way you overcome critical issues – from their business view point.
5. Key business benefits of  your services – what are the benefits to their business.
6. Unique selling point – why pick you over your competitors.

I always find writing a pitch hard.   Generally I  just starting and brain dumping ideas into a word processor, this I find  helps. Then I rework it over and over , refining as I go. Don’t expect the pitch to come easily first time around.  The first few drafts will just be way to long, and possibility way to technical.   Just simplify, condense, calarify and above all present it from the potential clients view, you will get there. This is a bit like writing for a web site.

The final pitch should be such that anyone, yes anyone, even the general public can understand it.  Also when you have one, practice it, practice over and over, but ensure you deliver it in a casual tone.

The Gotacha

Now the issue is you are going to have to develop several layers of pitch.

One for general business, one for semi-business social events, and one for your own industry.   The pitch will vary in techinical detail and presentation dependant on the audience, but the core will still remain the same –  it’s not about you but it’s about them.

That’s my take, what’s your tips for developing a networking pitch?