I’ve received some great comments, questions, and kudos from my IA Summit and Big Design talks on Mobile Strategy, and I’ve heard from a good number of people that they’re using the presentation to make decisions about mobile strategy on their own (which is great!). I did put together a couple of quick worksheets that could help turn the presentation into a mini-workshop for anyone trying to make decisions about what to do in mobile.

The first is really just a follow-along worksheet, where you can take notes, and fill in the blanks:

Download PDF

The second is a sketch sheet, where you can start to vision out and do a little designing of your own. Sketch out a couple pages, and see if your interactions and flows make sense.

Download PDF

I added some things to remember while sketching:

• Simplify the design
• Design for touch – not mouse
• Note common mobile UI patterns
• Think about context – traveling vs. at home
• Design for speed – let them get to what they need quickly
• Rank functionality – you don’t need everything!
• Follow usage patterns – what are your users doing on mobile
• Remember location
• Don’t cram too much
• Note phone features – GPS, Camera, etc…

Hopefully this will help you or your company come to a decision on your mobile strategy.

Awhile back I posted my “Universe of User Experience“, where I wanted to show all the pieces that needed to come together to create a great experience. This was very helpful in educating people on what User Experience was and why all the pieces were necessary. But this did not address the issue of explaining the roles of the people doing this work… So, who feeds these experiences?

Many people still don’t understand the different roles we play as Designers. Some people think “Visual Design”, while others think “HTML Coders”. “Web Designer” is a term that should only be used to describe what you do to your grandparents.

While in the past we’ve had distinct roles, the trend is to move towards “User Experience”, someone who understands many different aspects of the design and development process.

Using the ever so trendy SlideShare, you can view my quick presentation here:

You can download the PDF here.

In web design there are a couple things that are for the most part consistent across sites to provide a more uniform experience. Things like most logos tend to be on the top left of a page (as well as link to the homepage) and the search goes somewhere near the top right. Besides browsing the web, something most internet surfers do is shop. It could be clothing, electronics, jewelry, whatever – but this common experience has becomes very inconsistent when it comes time to buy.

I’ve sampled around 30 different product pages to see where the “action” is.
First, It’s not always called the “buy” button, I’ve seen:

• Add to Cart
• Buy this item now
• Add to Shopping Cart
• Buy Now
• Add to Bag
• Buy it
• Order
• Add to Shopping Bag

Some buttons have been crowded around product information, while others enjoy a nice amount of whitespace. The locations very, but as you’ll see here, groups do begin to form and a clear majority is formed:

(download as a PDF 1mb)

You can also click on any of these images to view via flickr

(download as a PDF 1mb)

Looking over these 25+ product pages, the thing that stands out the most are the visual design treatments. The amount of whitespace, color, size, etc… This is what draws the eye on a page, and keeps the visitors on your site from getting confused or lost.

User Experience has been defined and visually demonstrated many times before, but I’ve never really seen the “nuts-and-bolts” of a User Experience project listed in a way that’s easy to understand. I’ve come across many people who just don’t know what goes into a UX project, and also don’t know what resources should be on a UX project. By breaking out all the pieces I’m able to solve multiple problems with one graphic…

First, download this PDF and take a look.

I started by listing out all the pieces necessary for a standard User Experience project – all the pieces that could eventually effect the experience. From Project Management (were we allocated enough time to realize the product?) to Accessibility (can people with disabilities use the product?), each one of these pieces can effect the experience.

After I listed out a good range of tasks and technologies, I started dividing them up into groups:

• Managing the Project
• Defining the Problem
• Designing the Experience
• Architecting the Technology
• Delivering the Experience

Some areas were a little muddled and I reflected that in the graphic, but for the most part they generally fit in the above buckets.

So, what are my goals for this breakdown?

• Show the User Experience process and all the pieces involved to clients and non-ux coworkers
• Use this as a base to gather “stats” on UX employees (more on this later)
• Use this as a beginning for a UX growth chart
• Reference this with new hires to find out where their passions lie
• Use this to map UX projects, and then UX consultants to the project

I’ve used the graphic a couple times already – one on a potential hire that had a wide range of experience and skills, but when shown this graphic quickly said “I’d definitely like to be in the Delivering the Experience area”. Most resumes nowadays for UX resources span all five areas, so this graphic is a good way to gauge where someone’s passion lie.

Another idea I’ve already started on is the UX employees “Insta-stats” (pdf). This would be a high level Baseball Card style stats:

Below is a simplified sampling of different tasks and technologies that go into most User Experience projects. So, what makes a User Experience project you ask? In 2004 Peter Morville described the facets of UX as: Useful, Usable, Desirable, Findable, Accessible, Credible, and Valuable. These facets take a wide breath of knowledge from a consultant to make sure everything works well together and works well for people. Here at Geniant we value breath and depth in our consultants, this “Insta-stats” is just a quick way to get a general sense of your skills and strengths.

This would be a self-assessment, where you could map out your current strengths and weaknesses and at the end even add up your UX score.

This could also be easily reversed and used to define the tasks and technologies for a project. Then you could go a step further and “overlay” your resources and find the people that fit best.

I believe this is a great starting point to help define UX projects, people and help staff UX resources.

I’ve posted my UX “Insta-stats” – anyone else?

[EDIT]

Thanks to Xiaoxiao we now have the above “The Universe of User Experience” in Chinese!

Here at geniant we’ve been discussing a re-branding of our corporate identity. We’ve already gone through a series of branding exercises: colors, fonts, photos, and words to describe the “ideal geniant”.

Recently we’ve been moving into the visual aspects of branding and while putting together a presentation to present some of our visual ideas, I came across quite a few “modern re-brandings”. The number of large companies re-branding in the past year is surprising. So why now?

Take a minute and look over this PDF:

What did you notice?

• Gradients?
• Rounded Corners
• Bolder Colors?
• Friendlier Type?
• More Colors?
• Simplified?
• Added Realism?
• Modernism?

Yes, most of these could be included in the “Web 2.0 Guidelines” joke, but these are BIG companies. Companies that don’t bend to every trend that blows by.

Redesigns and re-brandings are always controversial: “it look like an egg”, “those colors reminded me of puke” and other fun comments. Speak-Up recently posted three re-brandings, and it’s now at 63 comments (mostly bashing the new MasterCard re-branding).

So why now? Is it because it’s cheaper now then ever before to print full color (gradients, colors)? Customers are looking for friendlier, more disarming companies to work with (bolder colors, friendlier type)? A trend to make things simple (simplified logos)?

I’m sure it’s a combination of these and other trends in business and design. Whatever the reasons, you can be sure these re-brandings will keep the discussions going for years to come.