Walking a Mile in Your Users' Shoes

A talk about User Empathy, as given at Railsconf '19

Transcript

1. Walking a Mile in Your Users’ Shoes Jameson Hampton
2. @jameybash
3. 2 Traits of Programmers @jameybash
4. A 3rd Trait for Programmers @jameybash
5. What does it mean to work in tech?
6. Everyone needs applications! • Advertising • Finance / Banking • Health care • Education • Non-profits • Agriculture This is a PERK of our industry @jameybash
7. But why does industry matter?
8. @jameybash Gender User Demographics: Stack Overflow
9. @jameybash Race & Ethnicity User Demographics: Stack Overflow
10. User Demographics: Stack Overflow @jameybash Age
11. @jameybash Parents’ Education Level User Demographics: Stack Overflow
12. Observations on those demographics… • They might kind of look… like us. • When we build applications, we think about what would feel intuitive. • If a developer works for Stack Overflow, and their application feels intuitive to them, maybe it’s pretty safe to guess that it will be intuitive to most their users too. @jameybash
13. @jameybash User Demographics: Census of Agriculture
14. User Demographics: Census of Agriculture @jameybash
15. User Demographics: Census of Agriculture @jameybash
16. User Demographics: Census of Agriculture @jameybash
17. @jameybash
18. Case Study #1: MediCapt
19. MediCapt: “Transforming the documentation and prosecution of sexual violence” @jameybash
20. Challenges I Expected To Face • Privacy concerns: ◦ Implemented custom PIN system; no storing images on camera roll • Chain of custody ◦ Digital “paper trail” of everyone who accessed files • Lack of wifi ◦ Planned a NoSQL solution to rely on eventual consistency @jameybash
21. Then I actually went to DRC… …and it completely changed how I was thinking about the project @jameybash
22. Challenges I *Actually* Faced • Lack of resources, more than just wifi • Inexperienced user base • Language barriers • Lack of tech support • Trust issues @jameybash
23. Non-standard solutions to non-standard problems • A lot of market research & highly specialized equipment • Being willing to build stuff from scratch • A completely different kind of UI than what we’re used to @jameybash
24. Case Study #2: Agrilyst
25. Agrilyst: Your Virtual Agronomist @jameybash
26. Site Visits! @jameybash
27. Language: i18n ¿”Agrilyst” en español? • English • Spanish • French • Arabic @jameybash
28. Layout/UI: Calendar View • What is user friendliness? • Something simple & intuitive to use • Relies on existing familiarity! @jameybash
29. Mobile App • You could make the most perfect application in all the world, but if it’s not available for the device that your users actually use, it is worthless to them. @jameybash
30. Features: ”Plant Sites” @jameybash
31. Case Study #3(ish): Accessibility
32. @jameybash
33. Screen Readers • Alt text for photos • Photos/screencaps of text • Unicode “fonts”/excessive emoji @jameybash
34. Use of color in design @jameybash
35. Takeaway: Lessons in Empathy
36. Cultivating empathy for your users is essential for creating an app that actually works for them @jameybash
37. Predicting what people’s pain points will be is hard – and developers are bad at it @jameybash
38. Make sure you’re solving the right problems by meeting your users and getting a feel for what it’s like to be them @jameybash
39. Simple, clever solutions can often be just as valuable as highly technical solutions @jameybash
40. Fostering empathy will improve your applications — and it will improve the world! @jameybash
42. Thanks for listening! jameybash.com @jameybash