Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts – User Experience and Complexity

PRESENTED AT CODEMOTION AMSTERDAM ON MAY 17TH, 2017

All non-trivial software inevitably grows in complexity over time. Regardless of best intentions, with continuous releases of new functionality, design debt threatens to cripple our applications: they become confusing and increasingly hard to understand and use.

Alexandra will share lessons learnt and make suggestions on how to avoid overcomplicating our UIs as our applications grow.

Transcript

1. D E A T H B Y 
 A T H O U S A N D PA P E R C U T S User Experience and Complexity Alexandra Leisse
 Ardoq – governance and compliance for the data-driven enterprise
 twitter.com/troubalex
3. T H E C H A L L E N G E W I T H C O M P L E X I T Y – complex products overwhelm us – we feel helpless and stupid when we don’t know how to use something – we feel out of control and exposed – we become increasingly frustrated
4. Paradoxically, 
 all of us do complex things 
 all the time.
5. — Don Norman “Complex things will require complexity.
 It is the job of the designer to manage that complexity with skill and grace.”
6. T H E O T H E R C H A L L E N G E – there are many moving pieces in any product organisation – there is tension between different priorities, perspectives, and needs – we meet a wide range of interests, skills and skill-levels – we have to do lots of mediocre things – this is all ridiculously difficult
7. H O W D O E S C O M P L E X I T Y I N C R E A S E ? – quick fixes – changes in design thinking or principles – partly-done functionality – features that outgrow their initial design – functionality that is added a$er a customer request – features that are developed bottom-up and/or in isolation
8. – Jon Bolt “If we begin to discuss scope as complexity, instead of flexibility, it changes the conversation as it reinforces there’s a correlation between the two. Indeed, they’re really the same thing. Complexity is scope.”
9. Lessons learned
10. P R O D U C T V I S I O N – do you know which problem you are solving for whom? – does everyone agree and confidently understand the problem? – are you trying to solve everything for everybody? – have you checked your assumptions?
11. P R O D U C T D E V E L O P M E N T – map your hypotheses and known unknowns – always start from the user need and the business need – carefully define the problem before you think about solutions
12. –Paul Adams “We do it because a solution can only be as good as your understanding of the problem you’re addressing. This is non- controversial.”
13. P R I O R I T I S A T I O N – make tough decisions: not everything is equally important – remove, remove, remove – move everything else out of the way – don't get hung up on all the rare cases
14. P R O G R E S S I V E D I S C L O S U R E Progressive disclosure is an interaction design technique o$en used in human computer interaction 
 to help maintain the focus of a user's attention 
 by reducing clutter, confusion, and cognitive workload. This improves usability by presenting only the minimum data required for the task at hand.
15. C O N S I S T E N C Y & C O N T E X T – make sure everything that looks the same behaves in the same way, and vice versa – consider the whole flow or user journey
16. – Jason Fried “What’s the most ignored paradox in so$ware development? Every time you add something you take something away.”
17. It all boils down 
 to discipline
18. Tools that work
19. U S E R J O U R N E Y M A P S https://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkpublic/4149894841
20. U S E R S T O R Y M A P S https://www.flickr.com/photos/49942291@N06/6271934371
21. O P P O R T U N I T Y S T A T E M E N T S https://www.slideshare.net/LaneHalley/opportunity-statement-and-persona-4x4-worksheets
22. P A T T E R N L I B R A R I E S http://www.bbc.co.uk/gel
23. D E S I G N S T U D I O https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Cute_grey_kitten.jpg
24. J O B S T O B E D O N E F R A M E W O R K https://www.flickr.com/photos/kurmanphotos/11741214266
25. Thank you ✨ Tweet at me! twitter.com/troubalex
26. S O U R C E S – http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/why_is_37signals_so_1.html – https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2917-flashback-every-time-you-add-something-you- take-something-away – http://boxesandarrows.com/complexity-and-user-experience/ – https://blog.intercom.com/great-product-managers-dont-spend-time-on-solutions/