User Experience Deliverables (January 27, 2009)

http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000228.php

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It's an exhilarating time for the user experience community. Rising
awareness of our value plus emerging technologies and transmedia
trends have created conditions for a step change in our practice.

As an information architect, I'm enjoying the new challenges
immensely, even as they sweep me outside my comfort zone. I've
designed social software and rich user interfaces. I've sketched
scenarios for the future of mobile search. I've mapped the user
experience across channels and applications. And, I've increasingly
found myself striving to clarify ideas for folks in the executive suite.

Consequently, I'm rethinking my role, redefining my deliverables, and
embracing new forms of interdisciplinary collaboration. For instance,
I've ensnared Jeffery Callender as co-author of Search Patterns, a new
book (in process) about design for discovery and the future of search.

[Image: Tear Down The Wall]

Together, we're hoping to bring search to life with colorful,
compelling stories, maps, and illustrations, which brings us back to
deliverables.

Tools for Thinking

Two books have inspired me to think differently about discovery,
communication, and design. First, Made to Stick challenged me to think
simple. This book reveals the power of short phrases and surprising,
personal stories to change minds and shape memories:

* Proverbs are the Holy Grail of simplicity. Coming up with a short,
compact phrase is easy. Anybody can do it. On the other hand, coming
up with a profound compact phrase is incredibly difficult [yet]
enduringly powerful.

* We need to open gaps before we close them. Our tendency is to tell
people the facts. First, though, they must realize that they need
these facts.

* This realization - that empathy emerges from the particular rather
than the pattern - brings us back full circle to the Mother Teresa
quote: "If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one,
I will."

* The story's power, then, is twofold: It provides simulation
(knowledge about how to act) and inspiration (motivation to act).

Second, The Back of the Napkin encouraged me to think visual. This
book shows how sketching can help us discover and sell ideas:

* Visual thinking means taking advantage of our innate ability to see
- both with our eyes and with our mind's eye - in order to discover
ideas that are otherwise invisible, develop those ideas quickly and
intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way
that they simply "get."

These two books are gems, and yet their simple ideas are surprisingly
difficult to apply. Making things easy is hard. But, for our projects
and our book, we're convinced it's worth the effort. So, building on
Dan's garage-sale principle: "everything looks different when we can
see it all at once," Jeff and I have begun collecting user experience
deliverables, and laying them all out, so we can look, see, imagine,
and show.

The Deliverables

This list describes twenty user experience deliverables with links to
relevant resources and examples. Clearly, these artifacts of the
process are not the whole story. We must also think about the
relationship between goals, methods, and documents. And yet, for many
of us, deliverables are the coin of the realm and merit special attention.

1. Stories. A good story about a user's experience can help people to
see the problem (or opportunity), motivate people to take action, and
stick in people's memories long after we're gone.

Stories Storytelling in Business
The Secret Language of Leadership by Stephen Denning
Articles by Dave Snowden

2. Proverbs. High-concept pitches, generative analogies, and
experience strategies invoke existing schemas to put the world in a
wardrobe.

Proverbs Experience Strategies by Jesse James Garrett
High Concept Pitches for Startups
English Proverbs (Wikiquote)

3. Personas. Portraits and profiles of user types (and their goals and
behaviors) remind us all that "you are not the user" and serve as an
invaluable compass for design and development.

Personas Personas (Dey Alexander)
Personas are NOT a Document by Jared Spool
Personas (Wikipedia)

4. Scenarios. Positioning personas in natural contexts gets us
thinking about how a system fits the lives of real people.

Scenarios What is a Scenario?
Scenarios by Shawn Henry
Use Cases and User Scenarios (IxDA)

5. Content Inventories. Reviewing and describing documents and objects
is a prerequisite to effective structure and organization. The
artifact (often a spreadsheet) is a sign of due diligence.

Content Inventories Doing a Content Inventory by Jeff Veen
Why You Shouldn't by Leisa Reichelt
The Rolling Content Inventory by Lou Rosenfeld

6. Analytics. We learn by wallowing in interaction, search, and
navigation data. And, we teach by uncovering and charting the most
pivotal landmarks, portals, paths, and patterns.

Web Analytics Web Analytics (Wikipedia)
Web Analytics and IA by Hallie Wilfert
Search Log Analysis (Dey Alexander)

7. User Surveys. Asking the same questions of many users across
multiple audiences can reveal existing gaps and common needs, and show
how they map to customer satisfaction.

User Surveys When to Use Which by Christian Rohrer
American Customer Satisfaction Index
Pew Internet & American Life

8. Concept Maps. In the territory of concepts, a good map can help us
see where we are and decide what to do by establishing landmarks,
clarifying relationships, and identifying true north.

Concept Maps Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
What is Your Mental Model? (Indi Young)
Flickr User Model by Bryce Glass

9. System Maps. A visual representation of objects and relationships
within a system can aid understanding and finding for both
stakeholders and users. Shift gears from "as-is" to "to-be" and you
have a blueprint for structural redesign.

System Maps Map - Territory Relationship (Wikipedia)
London Underground Maps (Ask Edward Tufte)
Developing Taxonomy by Christian Ricci

10. Process Flows. How do users move through a system? How can we
improve these flows? A symbolic depiction can enlighten desire lines
and show the benefits of (less) chosen paths.

Process Flows User Flows (Google Images)
Improving User Task Flows by Austin Govella
Desire Path (Wikipedia)

11. Wireframes. Sketches of pages and screens can focus us on
structure, organization, navigation, and interaction before investing
time and attention in color, typography, and image.

Wireframes Where the Wireframes Are by Dan Brown
Real Wireframes by Stephen Turbek
Wireflow Trading Card (nForm)

12. Storyboards. A series of sketches with narrative displayed in
sequence can tell a story and paint a picture by showing interaction
between users and systems in context over time.

Storyboards Comics by Rebekah Sedaca
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (Video)
Swimlane Diagram (nForm)

13. Concept Designs. Interface designs and composite art invoke an
emotional response and capture people's attention by presenting a
high-fidelity image of how the product could look.

Concept Designs Concept Designs (Flickr)
Concept Design Tools by Victor Lombardi
Found Futures (Stuart Candy)

14. Prototypes. From paper prototypes to pre-alpha software and
hardware, working models drive rapid iteration and emotional
engagement by showing how a product will look and feel.

Prototypes Paper Prototyping by Shawn Medero
Prototyping with XHTML by Anders Ramsay and Leah Buley
WineM (Technology Sketch)

15. Narrative Reports. Writing is a great tool for thinking and
organizing. And, it's hard to beat a written report for presenting
detailed results and analysis or formal recommendations. Reports can
serve as a container for most other deliverables.

Narrative Reports The Elements of Style by Strunk & White
Strategy Report by Morville & Rosenfeld
Business Brief (Adaptive Path)

16. Presentations. As the lingua franca of business, slideshows (and
videos) can be great for telling a story or painting a picture. They
can also be dead boring, unless you present in person, hit the
highlights, and beware the bullets. Presentations can serve as a
container for most other deliverables.

Presentations The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint by Edward Tufte
In Defense of PowerPoint by Don Norman
IA Summit Presentations (SlideShare)

17. Plans. Project plans, roadmaps, and schedules guide design and
development activity by clarifying roles and responsibilities.

Plans Gantt Charts
Project Management (Wikipedia)
The Deadline by Tom DeMarco

18. Specifications. An explicit set of requirements describing the
behavior or function of a system is often a necessary element in the
transition from design to development.

Specifications Usable Software Specifications by Brian Krause
Painless Functional Specifications by Joel Spolsky
Just a Fairy Tale? by Dan Willis

19. Style Guides. A manual that defines a set of standards for
identity, design, and writing can promote clarity and consistency.

Style Guides Guidance on Style Guides by Chauncey Wilson
Web Style Guide (University of Pennsylvania)
Web Style Guide by Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton

20. Design Patterns. A pattern library that shows repeatable solutions
to common problems can describe best practices, encourage sharing and
reuse, and promote consistency.

Design Patterns About Patterns by Jenifer Tidwell
Yahoo! Design Pattern Library
Implementing a Pattern Library

Organizing the Deliverables

Of course, compiling a list is only the first step. For each project,
we must strive for the optimal mix. Since our deliverables resist a
taxonomy, asking questions may help derive their folksonomy.

* Audience. Who must you reach?
* Content. What is the message?
* Context. Where is the conversation?
* Process. When is the message?
* Problem. Why are you communicating?

And, the questions never end. Should your argument be simple or
elaborate? Quantitative or qualitative? We can organize and describe
these deliverables until the end of time. We've made a start. Perhaps
you can help. Will you tag a few in our collection on Flickr?

Treasure Map

If you've made it this far, you deserve a reward. That's a lot of
words about a lot of deliverables. And, that's the problem. It's hard
to find the best trees when we can't see the forest. So, we often fall
back on old habits. We churn out wireframes when a story may be worth
its weight in gold. Some great deliverables stay hidden in plain
sight. That's why we created this treasure map for our wall (and yours).

[Image: User Experience Treasure Map]

Good luck exploring! And, please let us know what you discover!