Notes from UX Studio (August 2011)

[kelleyP]

8.24.2011 // UX STUDIO

Great studio chat last night. The two presentations by Matthew E &
Ryan W went great together. Matthew had a lot of good tips on working
with clients & documentation for developers. Ryan showed a lot of
documentation that crosses over into Product development & selling
ideas to internal stakeholders. We also had a number of special guests
from UCD's Interaction 2 class - nice meeting you guys. Next month,
we're back to the books.

Next Book:  100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About
People, Susan Weinschenk (Sept 28, 2011)

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Visio/Protoshare process used by M|B, presented by Matthew

PROS
- web-based, easy to work with
- allows commenting
- dynamically generates sitemaps
- allows multiple versions of the prototype (i.e. links mobile design
& .com)
- allows you to associate with design files
- allows you to create templates/masters
- allows annotations
- allows threaded discussions
- exports a word doc with all wireframes/annotations/comment threads

CONS
- displays differently in different browsers
(note: team chooses one browser to design & present in to avoid
surprises i.e. Chrome (or whoever has the best Javascript rendering
engine))
- has an interactive mode (to see interactions w/o going into preview
mode)
- can't pass state between pages (which requires making a few versions
of pages with multiple states)


ABOUT VISIO
- use Visio to design the sitemap for static sites
- for applications, they're more likely to show a user flow (what
steps are the users going to take)
- to get approval from client & help wireframing team know what's
needed


ABOUT PROTOSHARE
- Everything it's building is based on javascript & CSS
- has been using Protoshare for about a year

HOW WE USE IT
- Everyone on the MB team is allowed to edit
- Builds site structure using elements from Visio exercise
- MB uses mostly black-and-white, low-fi, but it does allow for higher
fidelity
- IA phase is usually 15% of overall budget (sitemap, navigation
scheme, wireflows, wireframes, prototype)

CLIENT REACTIONS
- Overall good. Still export printed docs for them. Helpful to let
clients walk-through.
- Not many clients participate in discussions on Protoshare (most
interaction has been from client IT teams)
- Prototyping has sped up the design process
- Has used iFrames to capture pages from the client's current site for
discussion



InDesign + 8Shapes by Ryan
____________________________________________________________
- see unify.eightshapes.com for their sweet, sweet templates

ABOUT
- 3 folders (deliverables, documentation, wireframes)
- great resource for quicker documentation
- covers quite a few UX & business needs

HOW WE USE IT
- exports clickable SWF or interactive PDFs
- allows modular design
- helps reduce time to document by providing tons of helpful templates
(i.e. wireflows, concept models, personas, usability reports…)

STAKEHOLDER REACTIONS
- Usability reports are helpful for giving feedback to product team
(includes markers to show frequency & severity of issues)
- Personas & Concept models are used for more product design tasks,
and are great for getting everyone on the same page

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

JOB OPENING
- Photobucket is hiring Sr. Visual Designer (ideal candidate will have
product & mobile experience)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________


ATTENDEES //
Noah, Mike C, Kelley P, Ryan W, Mike, Matthew E

...Special Guests from UCD Interaction Design 2….
Denee - likes working out, snowboarding. interacting w/ people
Mai - puppies, photos, food
Erica - snowboarding, painting (album cover)
Jenna - works for Ralph Schomp doing large scale graphics, marathons,
swimming, biking
David - digital illustration
Vy - likes meeting new people & learning
Sapah - read, look at art, Hello Kitty
Jared - web & motion design, getting into 3D, reading, photography
Victor - interactive design, japanese wall art
Derek - motion design, ski
Lauren - motocross, working at a graphics company in Boulder
Talena - animation, basketball, video games
Chad - freelances in summer, works with horses, beekeeping
Alex - biking, motion design - likes all