Below you will find a talk I gave at a recent conference/bar camp at http://govcampnsw.info
It explains what co-design and human centred design is and shows some examples of how it has been used to shape public services in the UK.
Using Scenarios
Some thinking about scenarios….
It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story
- Native American saying, tribe unknown
A scenario is a description of a persona using a product to achieve a goal, they describe an instance of use…in context.
Scenarios are usually narratives that tell a story describing one or more tasks in a specific environmental situation.
For the design of services and systems we can use scenarios to understand and communicate what activities our system needs to support.
Scenarios are flexible and can become more detailed throughout the project life-cycle. They should focus on the activities people do and the context in which they do them. They differ from use cases in that they focus on specific situations and capture the diversity between these. Your scenarios should illustrate all of the situations in which people visiting your site/ application will experience.
They help focus design efforts on the user’s requirements, which are distinct from technical or business requirements. They are also particularly good for discussing requirements with stakeholders who do not have any technical background.
Scenarios are the plot and personas the characters, and they can stage user actions with a future artifact.
The schema below illustrates the things that should be considered when writing scenarios.
Why Use Them
There are a number of reasons that scenarios are useful for experience design.
- They can provide a vehicle for communication as well as a mechanism to explore design solutions.
- They help mediate the thinking and communication required in design.
- They are concrete yet flexible enough to change and morph in detail as the project progresses.
- They help us understand the flow of experience and are tools for thinking about design (they help us reflect and reason)
- They help us present and situate solutions
- They help identify potential problems
- They are easily understandable by all stakeholders as they are story-like
- They can provide rich descriptions of use in context which can spark ideas and help inform design
- They help determine if the design solution is appropriate
- They can help us see social factors and help understand a users multi-channel experiences (i.e.z on and off-line_
When to use them
Scenarios can have a number of iterations and be utilised in a number of ways throughout the project life-cycle.
- They can be used in the beginning of a project to help flesh out requirements.
- They can be used as tools to explore design solutions.
- They can be used to validate designs and reveal design assumptions.
- They can be used to hang specifications and wire-frames off within documentation.
- They can be used by testers to test the final designs.
- They can be used for competitor analysis whereby a scenario can be used to compare a variety of sites to each other.
Before you begin
To write a scenario, you need a basic understanding of the tasks to be supported by the system. You also need to have an understanding of the users and the context of use. Scenarios can be derived from data gathered during contextual enquiry activities. If you do not have access to such data, you can write scenarios based on prior knowledge or even ‘best guess’, provided the scenarios will be subject to review by users prior to being used as a basis for making design decisions.
To write a scenario, describe in simple language the interaction that needs to take place. It is important to avoid references to technology, except where the technology represents a design constraint that must be acknowledged. Include references to all relevant aspects (including cultural and attitudinal factors) of the interaction, even where they are outside the current scope of the technology.
For example, the fact that Sally is continually interrupted by telephone calls may be just as relevant as the software platform she uses. These types of details should be considered during the design.
After you have written a scenario, review it and remove any unwarranted references to systems or technologies. For example, the statement ‘the customer identifies herself’ is appropriate, whereas ‘the customer types her 4-digit PIN’ is not (unless the PIN is a non-negotiable system constraint). You should also have the scenario reviewed by users to ensure that it is representative of the real world. (NB this comes from a really good book on UCD by Kim Goodwin: Designing for the Digital Age)
Evolving Scenarios
Scenarios are a great artifact which can evolve over time.
Below is a schema adapted from Pruitt and Adlin (in the Persona Life-cyle) showing how they can evolve over time.
This schema shows how scenarios can evolve and be both prescriptive and evocative and can be used at different stages of the design life-cycle.
Understanding context
Understanding a users context is central to scenario definition. The following should be considered for each persona
- Goals: What is the user trying to accomplish? How do the user’s actions fit into the objectives of the organization?
- Process: What are the steps the user will follow? How does information flow from one step to the next? What are the various roles (such as creator, contributor, editor, or approver) that are involved?
- Inputs & Outputs: What materials and information will the user need to successfully use the interface? What will they need from the interface to continue with their overarching goals?
- Experience: What similar things has the user done in their past? How has the organization survived without this design in the past?
- Constraints: What physical, temporal, or financial constraints are likely to impose themselves on the user’s work?
- Physical Environment: How much room does the user have to work? What materials on their desk? What access do they have to necessary information (such as user manuals)? What is taped to their monitor?
- Tools In use: What hardware and software does the user currently use?
- Relationships: What are the interconnections between the primary user and other people who are affected by the tool?
SRC: [Jared Spool|http://www.uie.com/articles/putting_context_into_context/]
Related Reading
Presentation: Building and using personas and scenarios
The role of personas in user centered design presentation
http://www.uie.com/articles/putting_context_into_context/
Value of User Experience Design
Excellent presentation about the value of user experience design and at what points it should be brought into the process. I have just sent it to some internal stakeholders from work who have project management responsibilities.
If we are to provide better experience for our customers….education is key.
What is User Experience Design?
I am undertaking a masters by research in user experience design (IT/HCI) looking at the role design artifacts can play within UXD.
(Hence my infrequent blogging these days.)
Here is a little presentation I prepared for one of my research preparation classes.
Please leave me a comment if you like it.
User Stories – strategic value?
I recently read a fantastic post by Penny Hagen and Michelle Gilmore about utilising user stories as a strategic design tool.
I currently work for a small digital consultancy within a not-for-profit organisation called the Inspire Foundation. As mentioned within the post, we have had the opportunity to work with Penny on some of our projects as well as assisting us with defining our evolving methodology.
We use agile and Scrum for our development work and also have a very dedicated UX research stream. Our philiosophy is grounded in evidence based research and consequently UX research and the users perspective is highly valued.
I wanted to post a link to a post by Michelle Gilmore and Penny Hagen called User Stories: a stretegic design tool which discusses the strategic value of user stories. This article discusses how user stories can also be used during the initial design and research phases of the project.
User stories are a single sentence that name the user and the goal they are trying to achieve. For example as a visitor, I can find information about the organisation. They concisely express objectives from a users perspective.
User stories are used within the agile development methodology. Within agile development, these user stories tend to be very granular and functional in emphasis.
This article explores the value of using high level user stories for project definition and describes how to achieve this.
The strategic value: from a user-centerd design perspective, high level user stories can be used to help see themes and to help define the service. Their format enables a users perspective to be clearly expressed and results in the capturing of users needs and objectives. In a collaborative environment with a cross-functional team, and the involvement of real users, authoring these user stories could yield very effective high level requirements.
SRC: User Stories: a stretegic design tool
During the initial phases of a project these stories should be high level and more strategic in focus. As the project progresses however, particularly during the development phase, these user stories can evolve to become more granular and functional in focus. For example, as a site administrator I can edit and delete a comment a member leaves on a blog post.
My experience with this: Within my organisation, during development, user stories are the common currency between the client, development and project management team, and are used as a way of prioritisation, and scheduling development and tracking progress of the project. (Read more about agile and user stories). Hence as a consequence of using agile, our client and project team is very familiar with the use of user stories.
What really stands out for me: (and what I think is very clearly expressed in this post) is the value of using user stories in the strategic phases AS WELL AS the development phases of the project. Doing this creates a real sense of continuity, whereby the strategic, high level user stories, can easily evolve into more granular functional user stories during development. They can also function as tools to communicate the projects objectives throughout the development life-cycle whereby high level user experience objectives, can fragment and evolve to turn into specific user stories describing features further down the track. They really help focus the project team, through utilising a shared communication device, putting everybody on the same page.
If you think this approach sounds interesting, read the post to find out how and give it a go! Also get in touch if you want more information about our experience with this process.
Marketing and User Centered Thinking
Excellent presentation by TBWA which discusses their approach to marketing and advertising, “an approach that shifts communication from brand-centric to audience-centric thinking“.
I have become very interested in user-centered design practices and strongly believe that humans need to be at the center of all marketing and all new product and service design and delivery. It’s seriously the way forward and I firmly believe that organisations that incorporate user-centered design methodologies, and invest time and budget in user experience design, research and well considered planning will be in a better position to create products and services that provide better value for consumers and subsequently better ROI value for businesses.
I have thought a lot about what lies at the core of what I want to do with my life and work and I would really like to make people’s lives better through my work and ultimately help influence off-line behaviour in ways that bring good to the world through the internet. Wow…how’s that for an elevator pitch….
I have been writing another blog for a couple of years where I have explore online marketing, and also how people use the internet to express their innate humanness and be more human. Activism has been something that I tend to discuss quite a lot, however I really feel that my focus is shifting more towards reflecting upon how I can better consider humans when creating online services and products that affect behaviour.Affecting behaviour is what I do as a digital marketer and what I would like to do as a citizen of the earth…..Hence the birth of this new blog.
As Aristotle states:
“If communication is to change behaviour it must be grounded in the desires and interests of the receivers”
(I wonder is Aristotle would have even considered what “communication” would become to encompass!)
Anyway, enough about me……and a few more nods of agreement with this preso by Michael Zorn of TBWA Berlin.
The presentation amongst other things touches upon the importance of the need for marketers and advertisers yo provide value for consumers and the need to put the needs of people at the fore-front of activity in order to build trust and a platform for engagement for a brand. It discusses the need to consider context, contact and content, the need to consider and create multiple tribes, and the need for media arts and the theory of disruption.
Read it…it’s good.