Half of you are thinking, “Yeah, yeah…” The other half are thinking, “Um, what now…?” And the other half are all like, “Stop using 25-cent words man; dial it down!”

An Heuristic Evaluation is essentially another term for Expert Review. Which is another term for assessing what works, what doesn’t, and telling you how to make things better.

Here’s the pitch: I am offering my assessing what works, what doesn’t, and telling you how to make things better skills to anyone with a web site, web app, blog, product, or idea.

You give me $300 ($150 to start, $150 upon completion), I assess, and within 48 hours I’ll give you a to-do list which you can use to make your stuff better. The $300 offer is a limited time offer for first 20 customers.

Why Me?

If you know me, you know I don’t like to brag and even get shy when complimented. So when I say I am really quite good at this I mean it.

I’ve helped many companies, both those I’ve worked for as an employee and as a freelancer, figure out how to make their (usually web apps) better based on usability, platform, device, and “common sense” guidelines. What I’ve heard time and again from people is that it was an eye opening experience. Some of the things I find are known, so it’s good to have the validation, but a lot of the things I find have fallen into the blind-spots of the people working on the product.

And that’s really the selling point on this: A fresh set of well-trained, knowledgeable eyes.

Contact Me

You can email me at, matthew at xhipi dot com, and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

If you have any specific questions about this service, let me know in the comments (because someone else is likely thinking the same thing) or send me an email.

Fewer dishes to wash. Recyclable as always (though some places won’t take pizza boxes). Easy to use. And I bet as close to 100% intuitive as you can get.

This is good design. Taking an everyday product and task and making it so much better it makes you wonder why it took so long for someone to think of this.

Love it. Would love to talk with the people who designed it. The design process I suspect is simple, but what was the spark; the moment someone said, “You know…”

The premise: There’s all types of testing that can be done on a web app or site. Unit, Integration, System, etc. With that, there are many Web Developers who don’t have access to someone who focuses on Usability Testing.

We know Usability Testing uncovers many issues that are usually solvable, so instead of skipping it, why not put the power, so to speak, in the hand of someone who cares about quality and can run a few more tests?

I don’t see this as a way to avoid or ignore having a Usability Expert dive deep into the app or site, but more a way to get a good understanding of what issues the user will face with the app or site said Developer is… um.. developing, by putting some simple tools in their kits.

There are many ways to conduct a Usability Test and get good feedback. The main deciding factors being what you are testing and how solid you need your findings to be. The training I am working on would help Web Developers figure that out then walk them through how to do it. Ideally without much overhead or impact to schedule.

As I go about developing this content, I want to make sure I get the right stuff in, beyond the basics of getting decent data out of a usability session. That’s where you come in.

If you are a Web Developer or if you have strong opinions about this (in a constructive way), let me know in the comments below about what you’d expect to see, learn, walk away with after getting training on how to run a usability session.

Below are some tested (as in, I’ve done them) and not tested (as in, I haven’t done them, but I suspect it would work) ideas on how to use Twitter for your own UX needs. But keep in mind Twitter is a community. Well, it is a collection of communities. As such it will take investment on your part to become part of one or more communities before many of these ideas will be useful to you.

Because the one thing each idea depends on is a lot of people seeing your message and some of them caring or having enough free time to respond. It takes time to build that kind of relationship. Unless you’re famous. Then you just snap your fingers. And if you are famous you’re probably not reading this anyway.

Ways to Use Twitter — Tested

Research. This is duh, but I figured I should put it anyway. There’s plenty of pieces about how to use Twitter for your research so I’ll keep this one short. Twitter Search is a great way to find what people are thinking/doing with what you care about most. And you can save searches and trend over time.

I think of this type of research more on the qualitative side. I wouldn’t go so far (unless I had to) as to start categorizing feedback you find via people’s updates, then turning them into stunning pie charts, but at the very least you can get an understanding of some of the problems people run into. That’s one thing Twitter seems to enable: complaining.

Recruiting. I’ve used Twitter a number of times to recruit participants for usability testing. I didn’t keep track, but my guess is my calls for participation were about 50% successful. Which isn’t bad considering all I am doing is typing 140 characters and essentially doing Lazyweb recruiting.

I wouldn’t rely on this 100% for my recruiting needs, but I was very pleased with the people I got. Usually it wasn’t the people who follow me that ended up participating, but people they knew. I suspect if I weren’t looking for a specific profile and was just going with “must have used the internet in the last 10 years” my success rate would have been much higher.

Surveying. Whether you are linking to a survey tool or using hashtags or @s to garner feedback, Twitter is perfect for quick response surveys.

While not necessarily in the vein we are talking about, StrawPoll is a good example of what you can do with Twitter to get feedback from thousands of people. I never went this elaborate, but it wouldn’t be too hard to do.

With Twitter, surveying for quick response is as easy as updating with “[Survey] What process do you go through when deciding if a piece of software is right for your needs? @/DM your responses. RT plz!”

That’s 130 characters and a minute of your time. If you get 5 responses, it’s worth it because you now have 5 people who more than likely (given the open communication nature of Twitter) will be willing to do a follow up interview with you on their feedback.

Design Review. Got a mockup, wireframe, prototype you want quick feedback on? Link it up. Obviously this has to be something you can share with the general public. While this idea is sound and works, it’s probably the least likely thing you’ll use Twitter for. Unless you are getting post-implementation feedback on something that’s publicly accessible.

Remember a few paragraphs ago when I said people love to use Twitter to complain? Sending out a link to a mockup is a sure-fire way to get feedback on all the things that aren’t working in your design. I only did this once pre-launch, but it was for a design that was decidedly on the realign side of things. We were just moving a few things around on a page that was publicly accessible.

Ways to Use Twitter — Not Tested

Diary Study. I had this idea while waiting for the Twitter UX session to start at the BostonUPA MiniCon. Someone sitting behind me asked me a question and we got to talking. I mentioned a couple of the ideas above and then said this one without skipping a beat.

Imagine if you will, and you will dammit, getting people to update on Twitter instead of writing an email or filling out a form online or even writing with pen and paper. Diary Studies can be useful ways to gather data on what people do in the so-called Real World.

In this case though, they update on Twitter. Time and date are built in. The character limit means they have to keep it short, but that also lowers the barrier for doing the task in the first place. “Tried to sign up for a new account. Spent 2 minutes trying to figure out where to go to do it. Grr.” 101 characters, 10 seconds of typing, and they are on their way.

For the study, you follow them. Or they @ you. Or use a hashtag. Or any combination thereof. Probably doing mutual following is the easiest and leaves more characters for feedback. I suspect your participants would need to be on Twitter already for this to be done with little overhead. For participants not on Twitter, you’d have to explain what it is, how to use it, etc. Headache, but doable if needed.

Focus Groups. This is an extension on surveying, but instead of sitting back and waiting for the thousands of responses (yeah right) you keep the conversation going. When a few people respond, you update that they did and include their @ names. Tell people they can follow and join the conversation by using search to see what people are saying; just like you are. Ask questions, see what other people are asking and saying. RT if someone asks a good question you want feedback on.

For the most part, conversations blossom and wither pretty quick on Twitter, but I suspect this would work, especially on a topic that is both broad enough to entice many people, but specific enough to corral the conversation to a particular topic.

Your Mileage Will Vary

Like I said, you need to be invested in Twitter to make these ideas work, but I think it’s worth it. This won’t replace the usual methods for gathering feedback, but I truly feel it’s a great way to get quick responses to design decisions you need guidance on.

I am very interested to hear if you’ve used Twitter for your UX work and how well it went.

Failure is a word that’s overloaded with baggage and I believe it needs to be rebranded.

True Failure can be described closest by borrowing from that wonderfully accurate definition of Insanity: doing the same activity over and over and expecting different results.

Did that design you came up with fail or is it just not optimal? I’m not wearing rose-coloured glasses, a tie-dyed shirt, and flashing a Peace sign when I say that. There’s plenty of famous examples and quotes about failure versus “just didn’t work.” But those aren’t really important if you don’t apply that view to your own work.

Stop punishing yourself for trying something that didn’t work. Stop punishing others as well. If Science never gives us anything (I mean really, what has Science done for you lately?) it gives us a guide.

Hypothesize. Experiment. Review. Adjust. Repeat as necessary.

Sure, this makes you say “Well, duh…” while you are reading this, but in practise I bet you, like me, aren’t so high and mighty. You say, “Well, dumbass… You fucked up again.”

Well stop it. Only punish yourself if your experiments lead you down the road to Insanity. There’s no need to punish if the attempt was unsuccessful. “Unsuccessful” doesn’t have the baggage that Failure carries.

Go be unsuccessful. Do it a lot. Learn from it. Create again. And pay no attention to the Fail Early Fail Often shirt to the right. :)

Think about it. Beyond simple tools (technology unto themselves) such as the Hammer or Spork™ what has technology really done for us? Fewer people die from easily treatable ailments, which leads us down the path of overpopulation. It’s easier to educate a larger number of people, which allows said educateds to rise faster than those without, broadening the gap between haves and havenots. Relatively instant communication; need I say it? I don’t care what you had for breakfast.

Some would have me blame Math or that go-to scapegoat, Science, but I prefer to individualize my fury. If Ada Lovelace were alive today… well she’d be really old, but I’d still start a Flame War with her. Why? Oh don’t get me started… solely because you don’t need to. I got myself started.

One way you could explain what I do on a daily basis is that I try my best to make human’s interaction with technology (usually software) as painless as possible. No easy task. Have you seen some of the technology floating around these days? Some would say, “Hey, job security!” I say, “Woe unto me for my work will never be done!”

And Ada Lovelace Doombringer is to blame. She set this all in to motion back in the mid-1800’s and humanity has been paying the price ever since. Ada is my Newman.

Forget Your Meds or Something?

Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. It’s no business of yours, but fine, maybe for a moment I can take off my Captain Bringdown suit.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. Aleast according to those freaks who use Twitter.

Now, if you could make an argument for Ada Lovelace you’d likely say something about the fact she is female and the first computer programmer and how she’s an inspiration. And maybe that’s true(ish). But consider this: she was just doing work that she took great delight in. That’s nothing special. Uncommon, but not special. I was the first person to put on my pants this morning. Again, uncommon but not special.

What did you do today? How did you rock the world? Male or female. Doesn’t matter. Do. Create. Give. And do it on things that would drive you literally mad if you weren’t able to do. Then 150-ish years form now someone might say, “Hey! Let’s have a [yournamehere] day!”

Fine. Humans need role models. I accept this. But I prefer the kind that are alive and can still ruin everything by becoming addicted to Crack or singing in public. People don’t need a 195-year-old crone who has yet to apologise for ruining my life as a role model. They need crones that are 18-34.

As such, I present you with a list of women who work in Tech who would likely qualify as a role model:

Meri Williams, Molly Holtzschlag, Lori Hylan-Cho, Stephanie Sullivan, Annie, Eileen Quenin, Sarah Szalavitz, Whitney Hess, Jo Wong, Amanda Nance, Katherine Maher, Kristina Halvorson, Emily Lewis, Margot Bloomstein, Rashmi Sinha, Whitney Quesenbery, Beth Dean, Aye Moah, Erin Malone, Ivy Clark, Elizabeth Bacon, Kyle Soucy, Natalie Greco, Christine Furst, Destiny, Anne Gibson, Emily Chang, Elizabeth Churchill, Cecilia Villalon, Courtney Skay, Alexa Scordato, Meredith Kench, Ashley Pearlman, Samantha LeVan, Valeska O’Leary, Paige Valentine, Leslie Jensen-Inman, Dana Chisnell, Deb Morton, Delilah Hinman, Halley Suitt, Marianne Masculino, Tiff Fehr, Jenna Marino, Andrea Arbogast, Cindy Stanford, Abi Jones, Ruth Kalinka, Jina Bolton, Lisa Herrod, Diana LeRoi-Schmidt, Sarah Harrison, Steph Troeth, Lea Alcantara, Lisa McMillan, Jessica Beck, Sally Carson, Frances Berriman, Cindy Li, Eris Stassi, Natalie Jost, and Roz Duffy.

And those are just the ones I know on Twitter. I have it on decent authority that the world is full of women who kick ass in Tech. You might know one. Go find one today and thank her.

And leave it to your decedents curse her name in 200 years.

Handouts

I need to start off with this mainly because I don’t want it to be overlooked. My main FAIL last night was forgetting to set context around the handouts I made available online. Let us remedy that now…

Both are meant as primers; documents to get you started assessing both what you need to design and did what you design work well. If you download these and decide, “Hey this will be handy,” remember these are not all-inclusive. You will likely find things that don’t apply to you, or things that seem missing. That’s okay.

Task Analysis. This document highlights a number of types of task analysis. I am using these by permission from my good friend Steve Fadden. He used it in a talk he gave at UPA a few years ago and I found it to be a good synopsis of the types of methods you can use to understand what your users need.

Each style of analysis has pros and cons, which are noted, and a decent description of what the method entails. It doesn’t give you a step by step process for carrying out each method, but like I said it’s a primer.

Heuristic Checklist. This is a list of items that should be used with a modicum of salt. They are rules of thumb that have worked for me in the realm of software development. Most of them can be applied to web applications and some can be applied to web sites. Take what applies to what you do and toss the rest. Add on to it if you need.

The Checklist can be used in two basic ways: solo and as a small group. Solo is just you going through an application and seeing to what extent each statement is true. A small group would proceed the same way, but typically would get together after each person has done it on their own to talk about the reasons behind the scores and typically to average or negotiate final scores and priorities.

If you have any questions about these documents or how to use them, please let me know.

The Talk

We estimated between 60 and 70 people came last night, which is great considering the weather wasn’t all that pleasant.

I tried to cover a lot in my hour and I think it went okay. If you attended, you can rate my talk. All constructive feedback is welcome. Seriously! I want to be more usable. :)

While the talk was titled Usability, I covered topics that typically get termed User Research, Business Analysis, Risk Analysis, Change Management, and oblique Simpsons references. While most people think of Usability Testing when they thing of Usability, I believe that most of the skills you learn to assess products or services can be applied to all of those other areas as well. It’s about figuring out What is trying to be done, then How to do it, then How Well that worked.

My motif was doing it right at the beginning will same you a lots of rework at the end. Which when written like that is a totally DUH statement. But I think it bears repeating, and repeating until eventually we all remember to do it on a regular basis.

Self-Assessment

Pro-tip #1: Always start by charming the audience…

It’s funny, but I did something I don’t normally do: as people were coming in and getting settled, I walked around and introduced myself to everyone, thanked them for coming, and gave them my card. Hopefully that made them feel welcome, but to be honest I did it for selfish reasons. I wanted to chill out and stop being so nervous!

I have Stage Fright. Always have. Even in my acting days. The good thing has always been that as soon as I begin my nervousness melts away (mostly). And last night was no exception. I used introducing myself to people as a way to begin before beginning. Plus it was a great way to make a connection with the audience even before that first slide went up.

Overall I think my talk was well structured, and I feel like my presentation style was professional but also “me.” I dropped one F-Bomb. And I’m okay with that. There were some things I flubbed. I had a couple of example stories I told that didn’t seem to come out as well during the talk as they did when I was practicing in my head earlier in the week.

I told the audience to ask questions as I talked. I like that. I get bored as a speaker just seeing eyeballs and only hearing my voice. But I need to remember that when answering a question there’s a difference between having an answer and having an opinion. I was asked a question about inserting Usability into the Agile (or the like) process. I don’t have a good answer for that, but I have an opinion. And I think that came across in my answer.

I liked that I remembered to pause as each new slide displayed. When there’s movement on a big screen the audience is not paying attention to you. I gave them a few seconds to take in the new slide and then started talking about it. Doing this also allowed me to collect my thoughts so it’s a double benefit really.

We broadcast the whole talk on Ustream. I wish I had been able to bring that aspect into the talk. If you watch online, please let me know how that worked so when we do it in the future we can make it better.

I made a mix tape for the talk which I played while people we settling. I liked the effect. It felt like a party with people mingling, eating food, and music playing in the background. I know this won’t work in every setting, but I think it worked well here.

What Did You Think

I really, really hope to get constructive feedback from everyone who attended. As an audience member you have a responsibility and opportunity to make speakers better by teling them what you liked and didn’t like. And I am totally open to that. So… comment here, send me an email, @ me on Twitter, rate me on SpeakerRate.

Above (click the image to embiggen, the image that is. I’m not selling anything here.) please find one info graphic comparison of salsa hotness. See those little chili peppers? They’re telling you something.

We are a two-salsa household. My wife prefers Hot salsa and my daughter and I prefer Medium. We shop at Trader Joe’s (TJs) a lot so it’s easy to grab a jar of Trader Joe’s® Double Roasted Salsa (Medium) and a jar of Trader José’s Hot Chipotle Salsa (Hot, as the name suggests).

Above, the Meduim is on the left and the Hot is on the right. Now, I realise that the graphics used to indicate hotness on each jar are “for illustrative purposes only.” But taking a closer look, as I was wont to do during dinner tonight, you notice that each graphic uses a different scale by which to measure calienteness.

Medium uses 0-7 while Hot uses 0-11. From a scale perspective, their spiciness becomes virtually the same. By taste however, they are not the same. At all. ¡Ai yi yi!

Label Design

While these salsas are not made by TJs, they are made for TJs. As such, and as evidenced by the labels here, TJs has control over how the labels are designed.

Here is an opportunity. You have a category of product (salsa) with different varieties. There is a single identifying characteristic about salsa in which everyone is interested. You have an easily identifiable icon with which to indicate said characteristic.

Why not use a standard graphic?

I am not an aficionado of salsa (or chili peppers), but would the Scoville Scale provide a reference in this case?

Supporting the Decision Making Process

Yes, yes. I am “going off” on salsa label design. But think about all the salsa you’ve ever bought. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Sometimes you’ll get a Medium and it will burn your tongue off. Other times you go for a Hot and get barely a tingle. It isn’t enough to say Mild, Medium, or Hot (I’m looking at you Indian restaurants!).

That might be enough to get the consumer to the right class of salsa, but if there was a 0-12 scale and the graphic neatly identified a Medium as a 6 (compared to a Medium 5 or 7 let’s say) you’d have a better understanding of just how spicy that fancy-pants Corn Pepper Black Bean Relish Salsa was going to be.

There’s a lot going on in a grocery store. Particularly TJs on a Saturday. Designing your labels to support decision making can help your customer. It would ensure your customers are getting exactly what they want. It could also get your customer to branch out a little and buy 2 different Mediums instead of one. “Matthew! Increase sales, you say? ¡Ai yi yi!”

¡Ai yi yi! indeed.

We were talking recently about the possibility when I mentioned I wasn’t sure exactly what I would talk about, beyond “something related to usability.” I suggested letting Refresh attendees should choose so Patrick set up a survey where you can help drive what the discussion will be about.

I encourage you to fill out the survey. If nothing else to keep me from rambling on like a Senator with a hankerin’ for a good filibuster.

The exact date is forthcoming, but it will be likely the first week of February on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. The exact day is something you can vote on in the survey, too.

My thanks to Patrick for inviting me to speak. I am looking forward to it and particularly looking forward to figuring out what I will be talking about. :)

And so, I walked to the restroom and did so. And that’s when I realized what I wanted to write about.

Here Begineth the Rant

… Men… honestly. How can you aim wrong while peeing into a urinal? Are you in that much of a hurry? Do you think you need to stand back 10 feet? I don’t understand …

This is what goes through my mind, more often then I’d like, when I use a public restroom. I become greatly annoyed and I can’t for the life of me figure out how anyone could do it wrong.

Which got me thinking: is this a situation of user error or a flaw in the interaction design?

A Peeing Experience By Design

Let’s think this through… If the Urinal was first patented in 1866 that means there’s been 142 years of opportunity to iterate on the design and the experience. And yet we still see yellowish stains or puddles on the floor in front of most public urinals.

I know, kinda gross but let’s leave our willies at the door on this one. I mean, the heebie-jeebie kind of willies, not… oh never mind. Just accept that all humans pee and it’s a natural thing and there’s something wrong with the way it works in public. I mean public restrooms. In public is another issue altogether.

The urinal is designed such that a man can aim in a limited arc along a horizontal plane. The sides of the urinal wrap some to allow for left or right side aiming to take place, thus limiting the amount of splash-back from the main “face” of the urinal. A protrusion at the bottom helps to catch the stream of “down aimers.”

Ideally, if the man stood within a few inches of the opening of the urinal he should have no trouble urinating without making a mess. At least, that’s the intention of the urinal’s design.

Why No Iteration

A lot can be assumed about the Peeing Experience by experiencing it oneself. One can also easily assess environmental factors. It’s even possible to understand some of the ergonomic hurdles to urinating successfully.

But one of the best ways Interaction Designers figure out what’s wrong with the current state of a design or experience is to observe the practice in its natural setting (contextual inquiry).

But therein lies the problem. Can you imagine the recruitment process?

Hi, I’m a designer currently working on a new interaction paradigm for the excretion of bodily fluid of the wastial variety. I’d like to observe you “doing your business” so to speak from 10:00 to 10:15 this Friday at your workplace.

I’ll watch you urinate and ask you some questions about your experience; about your approach to the urinal, what problems you might have urinating, and what you like most about using a urinal. I’ll also ask you to fill out a short demographic survey (after you wash your hand of course!).

We likely won’t use the entire 15 minutes, but I’ve padded our time just in case you aren’t able to relax enough to make.

Um… no.

More Research Is Needed

This is physical harm problem. I’ve taken a light hand here, but puddles of liquid on a tile floor are often a recipe for disaster and pain. Hence why companies put up “Caution: Wet Floor” signs after one-too-many courtroom appearances.

It’s a public health problem. Many diseases are transmitted via bodily fluids. A good design can help limit the likelihood of transmission, but perhaps it is also about behavior.

It’s a trust issue. You’ve been to restaurants that have messy bathrooms, right? How does that make you feel about the quality of the dining experience? Maybe you don’t think about it consciously at the time, but restroom cleanliness is one of the review factors for health inspections. Dirty restrooms are often an indication of a larger sanitation problem.

Yes, I thought about peeing from a Design perspective and tried to make you think about it too. Hopefully I did that in a non-icky way.

What gross thing/experience have you redesigned recently?